Buying Advice Tractor for raw land development

[Platz]

Hello everyone,

I'm working on purchasing raw Canadian land which I will need to develop. By develop, I mean put in a driveway, clear a construction site for a house, put in a weaping/leach bed, till the food garden and other tasks which would be much easier with heavier equipment besides me and a shovel.

So I've been introduced to the world of compact tractors because as I am also looking at upgrading my compact car for a pickup truck, I'd like to keep within the size limits of a full size box. Because the landscape will be hilly/sloped and clay/sand, I'm thinking 4WD would be best.

Here's what I'm looking at so far:
1 - Valpadana....Valpadana 4RM-260 4WD Tractor - Kitchener / Waterloo Farming Equipment For Sale - Kijiji Kitchener / Waterloo Canada.
2 - Kubota B6100....Kubota B6100 4WD Diesel Tractor - Kitchener / Waterloo Farming Equipment For Sale - Kijiji Kitchener / Waterloo Canada.

I personally think the Valpadana wins for equal sized meaty tires but I'm concerned about replacements parts.

Also, I should mention that I want to build a portable backhoe Backhoe, Build a backhoe, these plans show you how. which will be dragged around including a small trailer by the compact tractor.

I'm considering this as a long term investment since my experience with my first land will lead to rougher and more raw private land in the future.

Your opinions would be appreciated.
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[dave1949]

Welcome!

That seems like fairly light "heavy-duty" equipment for the tasks. Big improvement over a shovel, but I don't think it is really big enough and equipped for what you need to do.

How did you arrive at this size of equipment?

 

[Platz]

Initially I looked at full sized tractors with front loader and backhoe but they're expensive, heavy to haul, require a large trailer, large truck, and can be high maintenance.

I don't intend to power struggle the land into submission nor take down large trees. This land has been harvested 15-20 years ago so the trees are small with mostly brush.

Moving dirt with the small scaled equipment I'm envisioning would be bucket by bucket with my *** in the seat instead of scope by scope with my body taking the pounding.

 

[dave1949]

Initially I looked at full sized tractors with front loader and backhoe but they're expensive, heavy to haul, require a large trailer, large truck, and can be high maintenance.

I don't intend to power struggle the land into submission nor take down large trees. This land has been harvested 15-20 years ago so the trees are small with mostly brush.

Moving dirt with the small scaled equipment I'm envisioning would be bucket by bucket with my *** in the seat instead of scope by scope with my body taking the pounding.

Yes, larger tractors are more expensive all around. They do a lot of work too, and are built to do that work for years.

You may be taking a too philosophical approach. Yes, you can go out with shovel, ax and wheelbarrow and hack something out of the woods. But you won't do it more than once I bet. There is no shame is having decent tools to work with, and you can still respect the earth.

If you beat up small equipment and have to repair and replace it, you aren't saving money in the long run, plus everything will take you longer to accomplish and you start working around tasks that small equipment cannot do.

The Kubota BX TLB series, for example, is relatively small and doesn't need a heavy duty truck and large trailer to transport. They are little workhorses though that will make your life a lot easier and produce better results.

 

[Platz]

Thanks, I appreciate your view. I wasn't getting philosophical, I just don't need to do the construction in a hurry. My concern is limiting my man power and budget while accomplishing the goal even if over a longer time frame. I do take your point about over working the equipment....slow and steady wins the race.

It makes me think of a road where everyone said you MUST have a truck and I went ahead with a small compact car and made it just the same. The downside was when the front tire fell into a sink hole but I don't see anything but a 4x4 getting itself out of that one.

I find it difficult to spend 1/3rd of my budget on one equipment that would have limited use after the first year or two, I can till the garden with a walk-along.

Renting is an option but will add up after more than 2 weeks.
From the videos I've seen with the smaller retrofitted equipment, they do the job in smaller pieces. I can't think of anything I want to do that MUST be done with something twice the duty.

 

[dave1949]

I hear ya on the budget.

As long as you buy equipment at a good price, you can always make adjustments as you go along.

When you mentioned more raw land in the future, I was thinking you would be using the equipment for a good while.

A lot depends on the scale of your building project. The length of the driveway, type of house foundation, how much dirt needs to be moved, heavy rocks to deal with, etc.

I don't know anything about the Valpadana, you should be able to keep the Kubota running and not worry about parts. The Kubota may have a better resale ability also.

 

[Platz]

You're right, I did mention "future". I should probably keep that in mind along with the safe and reliable feeling of owning new/new used equipment. On the plus, if I sell it for half of what I purchase it for, I think I would have spent the same with smaller, less reliable, diy type equipment.

In the long and less frustrating run, it may be worth looking into new used equipment which can cut the cost by $5000, plenty for the trailer!

If only backhoes weren't so **** heavy to haul, then again, they'd be priced as beat up scrap heaps.

 

[Sysop]

I think that size machines are ideal to learn the reasons why buying a bigger machine than you think you need is always wise... I would classify those as garden tractors personally, something that's made to work with uncompacted soils. Thing is, you can use a machine that size and work around all the tasks too large for it and once you have a list of tasks needing something larger, spend a day with a rental doing the larger tasks.

You're better off to buy a big machine now and trade it off on something smaller once the big tasks are complete in my opinion. This way you don't have as much wear and tear on a smaller machine you'd like to have last. You won't have the same levels of wear and tear on a tool made for the tasks and won't be destroying the value of your investments.

 

[Platz]

When you say "big machine", are you refering to something like the Kubota BX TLB series?

 

[Rustyiron]

When you say "big machine", are you refering to something like the Kubota BX TLB series?

:welcome:
Get your feet wet with some rental machines to learn their capabilities. You'll understand what folks are trying to tell you in the first hour in the seat of one of these little machines. Don't get me wrong, they have their place and do their intended job well, but you really need much larger equipment than your thinking of regardless of your time table.