Need help with 1st tractor, mostly earth moving

[Lauri]

Hi. New to the forum but have been enjoying reading all the great advice.

My husband & I are looking to get as small a tractor as possible to work around our 13.5 ac mountain lot. All but about 3 ac are left alone as woods. We have a lot of rock (small to HUGE) and use a lawn tractor to mow our 1.5ac of grass. We're looking for something to help us with grading, lots of trenching (to a max of 36 in.) for underground utilities, moving earth from here to there, moving some rocks around, possibly excavating for a swimming pool, etc. We have an ATV w/blade that does a decent job of snow removal, so with snow & grass taken care of, we're looking for something with a loader & backhoe (12-16 in. is probably fine). Locally we have a dealers of JD, Kubota, and Farmtrac. We haven't formed an opinion yet on the dealers.

All that said, can anyone recommend the size of equipment we need and a favorite make/model? Husband is seriously considering a Kubota BX23 but I'm thinking it may not be powerful enough @ 22HP. Husband likes it because it's small, but do you think it's too small?

THANK YOU!

 

[gmsssi]

You might check out the Kioti LK3054xs. It's a small commercial machine that can be had reasonably.

Here's a picture........
LK3054xs

Here's the site..........
Kioti LK3054xs website

Good Luck

 

[Lauri]

Thanks, Greg. I recognize that pic! ;-) I just put in calls to the two closest Kiota dealers to see what I can find out before hauling the 60+ miles to get to one of them tomorrow AM. I know from reading through previous posts that a huge part of tractor hapiness involves the dealer, but getting to one before they close is a pain in the butt. They keep better hours than bankers. Thanks again.

 

[Egon]

Ahh -- go for it or get a B7800 /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I want a B7800 but poverty preculds even lookin.

Egon

 

[jim_wilson]

I would not worry about the power of the BX23 but I can testify that after owning one for over a year and close to 320 hours of clock time - if I had 3 acres that I was going to do serious excavation on I would look for something bigger with more power in the FEL, longer reach and more power in the backhoe, and if the area is woodsy you will want more ground clearance.

This is not to say that the BX23 won't get the job done for you - it probably will. But you will often wish for more capacity in the things I mentioned. I have used my BX23 for excavation work almost exclusively since I got it and I would also suggest thinking out seriously what type of work you are going to do with the tractor. For instance if you anticipate doing some serious earthmoving my personal opinion is that if given a choice between taking a somewhat smaller tractor with a dump trailer vs. a larger tractor and no dump trailer, the small tractor with trailer would be a better choice. For example if you had a BX23 with a small dump trailer that the tractor could tow - you could move 2000-3000 pound loads of earth at a time. A larger tractor would take larger bites in the FEL but consume a lot more time driving back and forth with those FEL loads of dirt.

Finances have to factor in somewhere here too - since you probably are not made of money. Posting some more details of exactly what you need to do - or think you need to do /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif - would be helpful. From your initial description it sounds like a Kubota B21, B3030 w/backhoe, L39, or the before mentioned Kioti might be a better fit for your needs than the BX23.

 

[tommu56]

I have a bx23 abd it does all the things the big boys do just a little slower I have cleared about a 2 acre feed area, dug about 21 cy of slate to get baby out of the weather, maintain about 1 mile of lane in to my cabin it just takes time and fuel it uses about 5 gasllons in 8hrs that is the plus the way fuel prices are now it it was $1.87 last summer for ag disel now its about $2.50 in NC PA.