DigitalCowboy
Member
Hello, forum!
I own a 40 acre property in west-central WI. It's about half wooded and we rent out about 14 acres to a corn farmer. The remainder is the house, yard, garden, and a 1.5acre horse pasture.
I've lived here 5 years, did my snow removal with a 4 wheeler and tilled the garden with a walk behind tiller... the. 2 winters ago we got hit bad and my 4 wheeler barely got a clear path from the garage to the road.
The next summer I found a ferguson TO-30 with loader on Craigslist and decided to go for it. So now, I plow and disk my garden, use a 3pt snowblower to clear the driveway and last year we used the tractor to clear brush and small trees and drive in posts to make a horse pasture for my wife.
Well, it's a great tractor for the price I paid, always finding more uses. The problem is its old. I can deal with the lack of live PTO, with chains I get by(barely) with 2wd. But, it's old, it leaves a black spot on the ground anywhere it's parked. Leaks everything, water leaks into the gearbox, hydraulics don't work for crap on really cold days, breaks down when I need it, etc.
It really needs torn down and overhauled/restored but I don't have time for that for a while and I'd like a 2nd loader to help with parts of that project. I could use more traction and sometimes a little more lift capacity anyway.
Went to a mahindra dealer and tried out a 3616, they let me attempt to push around a remaining snowpile outback. I wasn't impressed. With weighted tires &chains my to-30 can do better and it has a wider bucket than that thing. Maybe with ballast and/or chains it would have done better? Dunno it just seemed too light, wanted to ride over stuff not pick it up.
I tried a 5035 as well... Much more like it but wow, that's a lot of tractor. More than I can imagine I'd need.
I was looking on their site and saw they have a 4025 sized inbetween. Maybe that would be a good one for me?
Dunno, I almost feel silly like I'm playing farmer here but I want something reliable to do these jobs with that's close to the size/power of my to-30 with a little more traction and live hydraulics.
Any thoughts on what I ought to get?
I own a 40 acre property in west-central WI. It's about half wooded and we rent out about 14 acres to a corn farmer. The remainder is the house, yard, garden, and a 1.5acre horse pasture.
I've lived here 5 years, did my snow removal with a 4 wheeler and tilled the garden with a walk behind tiller... the. 2 winters ago we got hit bad and my 4 wheeler barely got a clear path from the garage to the road.
The next summer I found a ferguson TO-30 with loader on Craigslist and decided to go for it. So now, I plow and disk my garden, use a 3pt snowblower to clear the driveway and last year we used the tractor to clear brush and small trees and drive in posts to make a horse pasture for my wife.
Well, it's a great tractor for the price I paid, always finding more uses. The problem is its old. I can deal with the lack of live PTO, with chains I get by(barely) with 2wd. But, it's old, it leaves a black spot on the ground anywhere it's parked. Leaks everything, water leaks into the gearbox, hydraulics don't work for crap on really cold days, breaks down when I need it, etc.
It really needs torn down and overhauled/restored but I don't have time for that for a while and I'd like a 2nd loader to help with parts of that project. I could use more traction and sometimes a little more lift capacity anyway.
Went to a mahindra dealer and tried out a 3616, they let me attempt to push around a remaining snowpile outback. I wasn't impressed. With weighted tires &chains my to-30 can do better and it has a wider bucket than that thing. Maybe with ballast and/or chains it would have done better? Dunno it just seemed too light, wanted to ride over stuff not pick it up.
I tried a 5035 as well... Much more like it but wow, that's a lot of tractor. More than I can imagine I'd need.
I was looking on their site and saw they have a 4025 sized inbetween. Maybe that would be a good one for me?
Dunno, I almost feel silly like I'm playing farmer here but I want something reliable to do these jobs with that's close to the size/power of my to-30 with a little more traction and live hydraulics.
Any thoughts on what I ought to get?
