After owning my LS J2023 for 3 years now, I've been very happy with it and it has performed a lot of work on my 6 acres that I live on. However, last fall I purchased an additional 100 acres of woods with a small clearing and tried using the tractor to clear some trails and it was more than my little tractor could handle. I'm thinking right now might be a good time to look at upgrading my tractor. Problem is that I've been out of the tractor game for so long that I don't know what to look at. Things have changed so much since I last shopped for a tractor. And my budget may be a hindrance.
Negatives that I don't like about my LS that I would like to remedy is that the tractor is light, even with both tires filled, and will lose traction quickly. I basically need to keep it in 4wd all the time. The width is narrow and it does feel tippy when going on hillsides. The front bucket is not SSQA compatible which I would like. The seat is inclined forward so going downhill makes you feel like you're about to slide off the seat.
So essentially I would like to find a tractor that is slightly heavier, slightly larger, and has a SSQA bucket, and if the engine is more than 23HP, then that's even better. I would likely sell my LS outright and use the money toward the next tractor. With what I think I could reasonably get from my tractor and what I could add to boot, I think I would have an all-in budget of $15,000 max. I'm happy with watching the used market also, but would like to know what I can get new for that price also. When I looked at buying my LS, Kioti was the second runner up at that time. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.