Maybe tomorrow

[husseyhill]

Have been talking about buying a tractor for years now. We live on 30 rural Maine acres - 2/3 wooded 1/3 field and grass. Looking for a 4X4 tractor with FEL, Wood Chipper, Backhoe, Farm winch. I would like to clear out another 4-7 acres, dig drainage ditches, haul firewood, put in trails and generally improve the property. A friends got a 40 horse Kubota with roto-tiller and bush hog so we are hopping to trade off work.

Any and all thoughts from experienced tractor owners would be greatly appreciated. I think?? I'm looking for about a 40 horse tractor. Greatly appreciate any thoughts. Not convinced, Green, Orange, Blue or Red is the way to go. Open to all ideas.

Thanks

 

[Briana03]

Welcome to TractorByNet!

I moved your thread to the Buying/Pricing/Comparisons forum.

 

[coobie]

Have been talking about buying a tractor for years now. We live on 30 rural Maine acres - 2/3 wooded 1/3 field and grass. Looking for a 4X4 tractor with FEL, Wood Chipper, Backhoe, Farm winch. I would like to clear out another 4-7 acres, dig drainage ditches, haul firewood, put in trails and generally improve the property. A friends got a 40 horse Kubota with roto-tiller and bush hog so we are hopping to trade off work.

Any and all thoughts from experienced tractor owners would be greatly appreciated. I think?? I'm looking for about a 40 horse tractor. Greatly appreciate any thoughts. Not convinced, Green, Orange, Blue or Red is the way to go. Open to all ideas.

Thanks

Kubota,John deere,LS,New Holland & Kioti tractors to name a few.Go drive and price them.Have fun and post pics when you purchase one.

 

[Rustyiron]

All of those "colors" are fine. Think about how handy the dealer is to you also. Talk to anyone you can about the dealers & their past experience with them. Let them advise you as well. And :welcome: 40 HP sounds about right, then there is transmission, aux. hyd circuits and other things to consider as well. With your attachment list, you'll want a good relationship with your dealer and if you can swing it, decide on your list and make a "package" out of it for, what should be a good price, but still shop it around to your closest dealers.

 

[pinetree10]

For your size lot, with lots of trees and open space, Maine winters, and all that work you plan on doing, I can see a 40 HP tractor serving you very well. They're all beautiful machines regardless of color. I'd hang a Wallenstein BXM 42 chipper/shredder off the back and get grinding. Make sure you order it painted in a color to match whatever you buy.

Good luck with your purchase and I agree with the other posters - find a dealer who treats you right. I went to three stores before finally settling on the one where I was actually treated with some respect. And post photos when you finally get it delivered.

Rustyiron - I like your signature quote and I agree completely.

 

[jeff9366]

All the tractor brands you are considering are fine. 40-hp is also good.

I have a Wallenstein BX42S, which I bought when I owned and operated a Kubota B3300SU.

If I had a 40-hp tractor I would buy the larger Wallenstein BX62S, which requires less effort to feed due to its substantially larger throat and clogs even less often than a BX42S. BX62S is well worth the additional $700. Your body will thank you.

Keep in mind you need to store chippers and backhoes indoors, preferably in an area with humidity control.

Are you sure you need a winch? Cannot you just drag stuff with 5/16" or 3/8" Grade 70 chain with hooks, using the center (axle) draw bar?

 

[dave1949]

Welcome!

A backhoe attachment would be very useful for your projects, especially the land clearing and drainage ditches. I used the heck out of mine on my 40 hp New Holland for that same stuff. There is nothing like a backhoe for popping rocks out of the ground. A hydraulic thumb on the hoe would be very useful, and/or a tractor set up for 3rd function hydraulics on the front-end loader. 3rd function hyd. sets you up for things like a grapple. There is no substitute for being able to pick up rocks, logs, brush piles, etc. and move them near or far, set them down where you want.

It's a little hard on a hoe to use it to transport heavy stuff very far. It isn't recommended usually.

40 hp would be fine, ~50 hp wouldn't go to waste. A good thing to compare is the hydraulic system pump gallons per minute capacity. Generally, the bigger the tractor, the higher the pump rate. It's often given as a total, then the power steering amount is listed, so you would subtract that for what is left over for implements. Also, you may want to add one or two optional hydraulic circuits at the back of the tractor. Those are good for 3pt log splitters, power angle & height cylinders for implements, top & tilt on a back blade, etc.

 

[GManBart]

I wouldn't buy a Chinese tractor, but outside of that, you'd be hard pressed to find a bad 40hp tractor these days. One thing to do is to take a look at the sub-forums here for any brands you're interested in, and see what kind of problems people are reporting with the model you're considering. Most won't have many issues, but there are a few oddball things that bother some people, and not others. Of all the more common brands (Deere, Case, New Holland, Kubota, TYM, LS, Kioti, Massey, Yanmar, Mahindra) the only advice I would give would be to forget Case or New Holland unless they are much closer, and offer you a killer deal. Case and NH are buying those size machines from LS, and putting their own, weaker, loader on them, and charging many thousands of dollars more (up to $10K has been quoted)....might as well buy from the OEM, get a better loader, and spend a lot less.

Make sure you get seat time in as many machines as possible. Something that might not seem weird might drive you nuts, and not bother the next person (and vice-versa). A quick example is if you get a machine with a hydrostatic transmission....some people prefer two pedals, and some prefer one pedal that rocks back and forth. I can't stand the rocker pedal, but some folks love it....just little stuff like that.

Have fun, and try to avoid paralysis by analysis!

 

[Rustyiron]

Think twice about a chipper, I had a real (12" Vermeer) chipper and got rid of it. With your 30ac. matches are cheaper and much easier. Spend that money or less on a good root rake grapple to stack your brush on the burn pile.