Trouble Convincing Signifcant Other to Buy SCUT

[VH5150]

Hi everyone, long time lurker (6+ months) and first-time poster.

I am having a bear of a time convincing the wife as to the value and practicality of a SCUT. She's thinking cheapo riding lawn mower (>$1,200 "John Deere" from Lowe's) and I'm thinking used Massey GC or Kubota BX (around $7,000 - $9,500). At a minimum I want a MMM and FEL.

Has anyone run into trouble convincing your significant other as to the value of a SCUT? Any suggestions?

Among others, I've tried the following arguments to no avail:

1. A good SCUT could easily last 20 years whereas box store lawn tractors are cheaply made
2. Allows me to have loam and bark mulch dropped off by dump truck. I can use the FEL to spread easily
3. I can use it to plow snow (live in NH) and spread sand/salt easily with rear PTO attachment
4. A SCUT is a glorified lawn mower (I know it's not, but work with me here! ) that is better built and offers a lot more functionality.
5. I'm not getting any younger, so a FEL would be helpful.

My wife is not convinced our yard is large enough to justify the expense, whereas I think it's plenty large. We have about 3/4 to 1 acre of grass, a large driveway to plow in the winter, and plenty of mulch areas around the yard. We're also planning to cut down trees and add another 1/2 acre of lawn.

Could I get by with a riding lawn mower? Yes I could, but I don't want to. I feel a SCUT offers more practicality and functionality, and would make maintaining our yard a lot simpler, especially as I get older (I'm already pushing 45 years old).

Thank you in advance for any replies!

 

[jeff9366]

Go to your local Kubota dealer. Explain the problem; they have heard the wife thing before.
Next visit, take your wife and have the salesman ready to show her new BX's, which she will find cute.
Get the salesman to talk her into a test drive on an FEL model.
She will probably buy you a BX for Valentine's day.
Or, you buy wifey a BX for Valentine's Day.

You should own a BX in just 10 days!

Birthdays are good days to purchase a tractor too. Christmas 2014 is a long time in the future.

Your point about increasing wear and tear on the body should be an automatic ticket punch.

 

[nickc]

lets call it 12 grand for a scut with mmm, bagger. fel, & a pto spreader. I think that's still about 75 grand less than a heart attack ! my wife wasn't to receptive at first either, now she finds things for me to do.

 

[TripleR]

All the good points are taken and who knows, your wife might learn to like a SCUT, my wife has a BX2200 and BX2660. They were "mine" until she retired; now...

Ours, OK "hers" have been used for everything from mowing to hauling potted plants, potting soil, tools and pushing trees off her walking paths.

We used a John Deere 425 before buying the first BX and never looked back, the older you get, the more things you will find to do with one. We have tractors from 22 to 85HP and the BX is still used quite a bit.

 

[OldMasterTech]

Hi everyone, long time lurker (6+ months) and first-time poster.

I am having a bear of a time convincing the wife as to the value and practicality of a SCUT. She's thinking cheapo riding lawn mower (>$1,200 "John Deere" from Lowe's) and I'm thinking used Massey GC or Kubota BX (around $7,000 - $9,500). At a minimum I want a MMM and FEL.

Has anyone run into trouble convincing your significant other as to the value of a SCUT? Any suggestions?





Among others, I've tried the following arguments to no avail:

1. A good SCUT could easily last 20 years whereas box store lawn tractors are cheaply made
2. Allows me to have loam and bark mulch dropped off by dump truck. I can use the FEL to spread easily
3. I can use it to plow snow (live in NH) and spread sand/salt easily with rear PTO attachment
4. A SCUT is a glorified lawn mower (I know it's not, but work with me here! ) that is better built and offers a lot more functionality.
5. I'm not getting any younger, so a FEL would be helpful.

My wife is not convinced our yard is large enough to justify the expense, whereas I think it's plenty large. We have about 3/4 to 1 acre of grass, a large driveway to plow in the winter, and plenty of mulch areas around the yard. We're also planning to cut down trees and add another 1/2 acre of lawn.

Could I get by with a riding lawn mower? Yes I could, but I don't want to. I feel a SCUT offers more practicality and functionality, and would make maintaining our yard a lot simpler, especially as I get older (I'm already pushing 45 years old).

Thank you in advance for any replies!

All these years and you don't know the routine yet!!? You missed the two most important techniques:

First, what has she been wanting or waiting for? You need to casually coincide this with your machine purchase. It's not too late to do this one.

Second, and you messed this up already, you're supposed to make a big deal out of looking at machines twice the cost of what you really want so that it looks like you wisely settled for a conservative purchase. I suspect my wife has used this method against me a few times but I don't care, I have my tractor, excavator and RTV so I'm good for a few years!

Hope you end up with a unit with a FEL, you'll wonder how you did property maintenance without it. Good luck!

 

[newbury]

It's just a glorified lawnmower!
It's just a glorified wheelbarrow!
It's just a glorified snow shovel!
It's just a glorified shovel!
It's just a glorified winch!
It's just a glorified ATV!
It's just a glorified toy! (whoops, better not use that one)

Show her how they maintain their resale value and that you have little to anything to lose.

 

[Deerherd]

Desperate times requires drastic measures and being tractorless constitutes desperate times. TripleR has at least THREE tractors, which doesn't really seem fair in itself and I'm thinking it was his wife who had to convince HIM to get them. How else could that happen? What does hung like a pony mean anyway?

Next time you get snow, get out your trusty snow shovel and start shoveling frantically and about 5 minutes into it, just lay down in the driveway and flail about. When she comes running out of the house, make a big effort in just sitting up and complain about tightness in your chest and shooting pains up your arms. Drooling and slurred speech has a positive effect at this time also.

Hand her the shovel and ask her if she could finish up for you until your vision comes back and the pain subsides. It is imperative that at this time if you have any other means of snow removal it is totally incapable of starting, shear pins missing etc. You need a tractor don't you?

Also make sure you keep her very involved when you bring anything heavy home. Wait until she is busy watching her favorite show or whatever women like to do and ask her to help you. This will get old real fast but you need to keep it up if you are ever going to get a real tractor.

Buy extra large bags of stone, concrete, mulch or whatever and become real indecisive on where you want them and move them repeatedly. Always remember to rub your arm and chest and anytime she asks about it just stare at the horizon and mumble unintelligibly about beavers and ducks.

For this to work your wife has to love you. I didn't realize mine was HOPING I would drop dead and I only got the tractor after she left with the guy from the gym.

Good luck!

 

[flusher]

Could be that the big bump in price between the riding mower and the SCUT is her sticking point. So, try to get her agreement on a pre-owned tractor in the $2-3K range. Something like a Ford 8N, Farmall Super A, etc. You won't have the FEL now, but maybe after she gets some seat time on this first tractor, you both will agree to the need for an upgrade to the B-series Kubota, or equivalent.

Good luck.

 

[dakotagun]

all good ideas... before we started to build our home in the country, I was adamant that we owned a truck plow and at least a SCUT or the plan was off the table. She thought it was overkill, but she wanted the house...
our slightly-used JD 2305 was a little small for our 3 acres, actually, but it has been a workhorse. came with the front blower and mmm, which were priorities, and have added BB, RB, etc since. last fall talked her into an FEL - she saw the value of that in the first few days of moving rock, trees, cabinets, dirt, patio furniture and a hundred other things. I might actually have turned into the 'wise man' regarding those kinds of things for the future - just point to the JD and say, "Remember when...?"
Between it and the Boss plow, the JD was the better of the two choices even at more than twice the cost. Don't get me wrong - I need both for different reasons, but she'd agree that the SCUT was a no-brainer. Now, I don't think she's ready for an upgrade to a larger unit, so I'm still not as wise as I need to be...
there's no way I could physically do all the stuff we've done without serious injury or high payments to a neighbor...

 

[Gary Fowler]

Just put your foot down and tell her "Either I get a tractor with xxxxxxxxx (whatever you need) or we are going to swap roles. You will do the yard work and I will keep house. This is best done just before a major task like shoveling the snow off the drive way is needed.

OR you could just go buy one and sleep on the couch a few days till she sees that having a tractor was a wise thing to do. The old saying "Better to ask forgiveness than permission" is valid sometimes.

I think if I were you, I would skip the BX and just go for a B series with belly mower. The price difference isn't that great and it is much more tractor, almost as maneuverable, still fits in the garage and has much more capacity and ground clearance.
A used one would be ok also IF you can find one. The problem with used is that financing might be a problem unless you have CASH in hand. New purchases on tractors can usually be had for 0% interest. This might be a turning point for your wife if you show her how much tractor you can get and how cheap the monthly notes are going to be.


Luckily for me, my wife has never questioned me buying a tractor. Well she did want to know why I needed my second one, the Kubota B26 TLB, but after seeing how handy the backhoe is for planting trees, digging up rocks etc., she didn't have any issue with it.