1026r vs. 2520

[XSKIER]

I recently sold my 425 lawn tractor that had been used around my property for mowing, snow removal, brush clearing, and fire wood gathering. My property is 4 acres of quite steep hills, mostly neglected woods, dead-fall sealed in with vines, about 1/2 acre lawn. I'm trying to clean up the wooded areas, to expand the lawn a bit. My implement needs are York rake, and flail mower for the wooded area. My implement wants are FEL, rototiller, and box blade

Two weeks ago I put a good sized down payment on a 1026r, h120 w/53", 54" auto-connect deck, 54" quick snow-plow. I've been super exited for it to arrive until yesterday. The 1026 is late, and my front yard is mountains from recent dirt work for a mandatory sewer hook up. Fearing that the mess may freeze as is or turn into a sloppy mess, I needed to do something quick. I rented a 6000 lb skid steer yesterday and smoothed everything out decently. I have a lot of experience operating construction equipment, and fear that a 1500 lb loader tractor would be quite frustrating.

I'm thinking of canceling the 1026r, and ordering a 2520, 200cx w/53", 6' rear blade. For the grass, I could buy a fairly nice used 48" hydro lawn tractor for the price of one of these new mid mower decks.

Your thoughts and experience please.

[BethesdaEC]

The 2520 is a beast, it is amazing what this tractor can do. 1026r looks nice, but I wouldn't want one, it is a little too small in my book and the price seems to very close to the 2520. What is the price difference?

[XSKIER]

I haven't priced the 2520, 200cx, 53" yet. I'm guessing it will be very close to the 1026R + 3 attachments.

[JDTank]

I would definitely get the 2520.

My honest opinion of the 1000 series is, as good as they are, they are simply to small to be useful. The tires are small, and the ground clearance...well, there really isn't any! I find tractors that small are so useless there is not even a point to market front end loaders or anything for them, considering how little they can lift. If you know for sure that all you need a tractor for is moving loads of mulch for the garden bed or grass clippings, by all means, that will serve the purpose. Anything more than that, and it is just not enough machine.

I have been researching the 2520 heavily in the last month, because this is the tractor I plan to purchase very soon as well. From everything I have read, the 2520 is a monster in terms of how capable it is for it's size. You get a lot for your money when you step into a 2520.

DO NOT purchase a 2320, the 2520 has TWICE the hydraulic flow of the 2320, bigger tires and I think a bigger frame too, for just a little more money. Not to mention more HP.

[WilliamBos]

I recently sold my 425 lawn tractor that had been used around my property for mowing, snow removal, brush clearing, and fire wood gathering. My property is 4 acres of quite steep hills, mostly neglected woods, dead-fall sealed in with vines, about 1/2 acre lawn. I'm trying to clean up the wooded areas, to expand the lawn a bit. My implement needs are York rake, and flail mower for the wooded area. My implement wants are FEL, rototiller, and box blade

Two weeks ago I put a good sized down payment on a 1026r, h120 w/53", 54" auto-connect deck, 54" quick snow-plow. I've been super exited for it to arrive until yesterday. The 1026 is late, and my front yard is mountains from recent dirt work for a mandatory sewer hook up. Fearing that the mess may freeze as is or turn into a sloppy mess, I needed to do something quick. I rented a 6000 lb skid steer yesterday and smoothed everything out decently. I have a lot of experience operating construction equipment, and fear that a 1500 loader tractor would be quite frustrating.

I'm thinking of canceling the 1026r, and ordering a 2520, 200cx w/53", 6' rear blade. For the grass, I could buy a fairly nice used 48" hydro lawn tractor for the price of one of these new mid mower decks.

Your thoughts and experience please.

Get the mid mower deck, or a rear finish mower. Better fuel economy, not to mention the deck is built better that the lawn mower, and only one tractor to maintain!!

[jenkinsph]

My experience has been that the small tractors have limited capabilities when clearing up overgrown areas to turn into lawns. I feel the 4xxx size machines are much more capable yet still small enough to get in 90% of the places I need. The other 10% or so I use the x749 or do it by hand, and it does very well on steep slopes for mwing, raking, tilling and finish grading. Once the places are converted to lawn areas you can get by with a subcompact such as the 1026R and have the benefits of a small fel if you really want it. I prefer thex749 with aws and a lower center of gravity, it complements the 110tlb and 4520 very well. I chose to skip over the 2xxx and 3xxx tractors for this reason.

So if it were me I would consider renting the larger stuff to knock out the major work and then use the subcompact or garden tractor for the balance of the work and maintaining the present lawn. You really only need a garden tractor size for the long haul mowing and snowblowing. The larger equipment would be short term maybe a month total working weekends.

If you want to take your time and do it all with your own equipment a 2720 would be a better choice than a 2520 as the higher hp will allow you to climb the steeper hills without bogging down. IMO, these are marginally better for cleanup jobs such as you will have over the GT and SCUT and wouldn't be as good for mowing long term.

[chelydra]

Sometimes small is good...

I just traded down from a Kioti CK20 HST to the 1026R. There is much about the Kioti that I prefer, including the seriously solid build, fast hydraulics, rocker foot pedal (very helpful for all kinds of fine work) and generally robust feel. But it was too big for what I now need on 2 acres of complicated landscaping, and the smallest snowblower it would take is too wide for paths that I'm getting too old to manage with the Ariens.

Only have five hours on the 1026R, and haven't yet run it about 2500 RPM. The much lighter machine feels a bit wobbly, the loader is slower than I like, and breakout force is far less than the Kioti even with greater rated horsepower.

HOWEVER... the digging (with tooth bar), root-pulling, rock-lifting and log-rolling I've done so far leave me confident that this machine will do just fine. I'll have to modify techniques for finesse instead of brute force, especially as the Kioti had a BH and I couldn't afford one for the JD. And the turning radius is just astonishing - opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Yes, it cost me a hefty new-machine premium to trade down to a SCUT. But the important term is "utility" - and this tractor will clearly do much more of what I now need done, where the larger-frame 2XXX series wouldn't fit.

More weight and power are always better - long as you can get them to where the work needs doing!

[Paystar]

Wish I had "yalls" money. I still can't understand why everyone thinks they need a 3000/4000 series size tractor to do work in a little 4 acre yard. If you got the money, than great, just ain't necessary.

[jenkinsph]

Wish I had "yalls" money. I still can't understand why everyone thinks they need a 3000/4000 series size tractor to do work in a little 4 acre yard. If you got the money, than great, just ain't necessary.

Depends on what you are doing and how much time you want to spend. I do alot of landscaping jobs to make a living. Contouring, shaping, smoothing and stump removal is more efficiently done with larger tools. These are still compacts and relatively small. Time is money notice I suggested renting the larger equipment for a short duration.


Much the same as why you use a large transfer truck when several trips with a pickup might well suffice.

[Paystar]

No offense to anyone, but that is what I mean jenkinsph.....you said you do landscaping jobs for a living. I just don't understand why every time a homeowner asks about a scut, everyone has to tell them to go bigger than what they need. And we all see how that goes....want a 2305 get a 2320, but get 2520 because it is so close, but then you might as well get a 2720, but why not a 3720...........