Phin,
I tend to over analyze everything (engineer) so I did look at Kubota, Agco, NH, MF, and Chinese. To me the 790 seemed like an great value. The dealer pretty much won me over from there. The local Deere dealer was so much more helpful and informative there was no question I was going to buy from them. Wish buying new cars was like that. This was actually fun!
Between home and our cabin we have 280 acres with many miles of trails and lots of food plots from 1/8ac to 2 acres. My family has logging equipment, so we won't be skidding any trees or anything. Primarily this tractor is for mowing the miles of trails and using the tiller for creating food plots. Our home place is on 40 acres, but we're a mile back in the woods with a gravel drive, so having somthing to grade the driveway with makes sense.
I bought a back blade and 60" KK tiller. This spring I will buy a rotary cutter. More research to do!
I will likely someday buy a loader, probably just to have it for tinkering, but its certainly not a priority.
I outfitted the 3005 with Industrial tires. For tilling, traction does not seem to be an issue, and if it's too wet, I just wont go in that area. If I cross the wife's lawn heading for the woods to mow, there's probaby less chance of getting caught!
I added 5 front weights for the tiller, but it appears there's room for another! So as you can see, most of my work does not involve much back and forth work, so I didn't need the HST. Compared to other Deere models the 790 had enough power and weight to do the work I wanted it to do while remaining reasonably portable for trailering. Its also hard to beat from a price standpoint.
The 3005 with R4's, engine block heater, 60" blade, and 5 weights, sales tax, and delivery was $12,586.15.
Any other questions, let me know.
Ed
