Hi,
Been lurking for a while and doing research on a utility tractor purchase. I am complete tractor newbie but I do my homework so this will be the first of many newbie question posts.
We have ~600 steep acres in central West Virginia with maybe ~200 acres in open fields and the rest wooded with < 5 miles of dirt roads. The primary use for this tractor is bush hog mowing with secondary requirements of road maintenance and misc. earth moving tasks.
The land had largely been neglected for the past 3 years and the autumn olive and multiflora rose had pretty much completely overtaken much of the open fields. We were fortunate enough recently to have a local relative bush hog most of the open areas at a steeply discounted rate on a borrowed tractor but even this involved 200 hours of labor. It is unlikely we will be this lucky in the future so we are going to need our own equipment.
We have the benefit of some advice on tractors from another relative who runs some cattle on this land but is not inclined to let us borrow his tractor. His advice is that a 50hp tractor should be considered the minimum. He has a Ford 3930 4wd which I believe he said was 47 hp but I'm not sure if that is engine or PTO hp. He claims that this tractor is just barely adequate for bush hog mowing this property and says he often wishes he had at least another 10hp. He also said that the gas companies that work the roads in the county won't use anything less than 60hp tractors. He has also specifically warned against getting too large a tractor for this property so we are looking for something that is about the same physical size as a 3930 but that is more capable.
As I will only be a part owner of this tractor my choices have been, for political reasons, restricted to either John Deere or Ford/New Holland. From my initial market survey it seems that something like a NH TN65 or JD 5220 would be the bare minimum for this kind of job with perhaps a NH TN70/75 or JD 5320 or 5420 being more suitable. Am I on the right track here?
Also, new tractor specs are easy to find but I've found it a bit harder to find out which older models are in the same kind of range. As I am just starting research and our budget has not yet been agreed upon by all parties I want to discover a range of options that include suitable older tractors that preceded the TN and 5020 series. Can anyone recommend some older NH and JD models (no more than 10 years old) that would be worth considering?
Thanks
Been lurking for a while and doing research on a utility tractor purchase. I am complete tractor newbie but I do my homework so this will be the first of many newbie question posts.
We have ~600 steep acres in central West Virginia with maybe ~200 acres in open fields and the rest wooded with < 5 miles of dirt roads. The primary use for this tractor is bush hog mowing with secondary requirements of road maintenance and misc. earth moving tasks.
The land had largely been neglected for the past 3 years and the autumn olive and multiflora rose had pretty much completely overtaken much of the open fields. We were fortunate enough recently to have a local relative bush hog most of the open areas at a steeply discounted rate on a borrowed tractor but even this involved 200 hours of labor. It is unlikely we will be this lucky in the future so we are going to need our own equipment.
We have the benefit of some advice on tractors from another relative who runs some cattle on this land but is not inclined to let us borrow his tractor. His advice is that a 50hp tractor should be considered the minimum. He has a Ford 3930 4wd which I believe he said was 47 hp but I'm not sure if that is engine or PTO hp. He claims that this tractor is just barely adequate for bush hog mowing this property and says he often wishes he had at least another 10hp. He also said that the gas companies that work the roads in the county won't use anything less than 60hp tractors. He has also specifically warned against getting too large a tractor for this property so we are looking for something that is about the same physical size as a 3930 but that is more capable.
As I will only be a part owner of this tractor my choices have been, for political reasons, restricted to either John Deere or Ford/New Holland. From my initial market survey it seems that something like a NH TN65 or JD 5220 would be the bare minimum for this kind of job with perhaps a NH TN70/75 or JD 5320 or 5420 being more suitable. Am I on the right track here?
Also, new tractor specs are easy to find but I've found it a bit harder to find out which older models are in the same kind of range. As I am just starting research and our budget has not yet been agreed upon by all parties I want to discover a range of options that include suitable older tractors that preceded the TN and 5020 series. Can anyone recommend some older NH and JD models (no more than 10 years old) that would be worth considering?
Thanks
So they can climb up and over all those mountains.. Too many copperhead snakes there, to suit me.. On the north side of the river, it was Massey Ferguson, or nothing..
