I've been looking for a new mower with a front end loader and 3 point hitch to use around my house in eastern OK. It's a 3 acre lot, dead flat except for some ditches along the road that are still easily mowed a couple months a year when they're dry enough to support a tractor. If they're wet, I let the grass grow. 250' gravel driveway, and 25'x25' gravel parking pad (will get paved eventually). Only 4 trees to mow around currently, but will be planting 2 more this fall. There's another small grove 8 trees that I mow around the whole thing as there's no grass beneath the trees. House currently has no landscaping to speak of, but will be fixing that by putting in flower beds and planting. No plans for a garden in the near future. There are 6+ old tree stumps, all about 8" in diameter littering the property. All but 1 I've knocked down enough to where I mow right over the top of them but still want to dig them up eventually.
Right now I'm mowing with a LX266 with 42" deck and it takes me right around 1.5 hours. I have the hydro pedal pinned (5.5 mph I believe) over 50% of the time. I have yet to purchase any attachements/carts for the LX266 as I determined the first time I mowed with it that it was too small/slow for the job. I also own a TC55DA that is stored in another state waiting for me to purchase a plot of land (no room to store it at the house currently). Not knowing where the land is going to be at (5 minutes away or an hour away?), its hard to say how available the larger tractor will be. And with it currently weighing right at 8000 lbs with loaded R4's... I think it'll leave a mark on the yard.
I've looked at the Massey GC2400 and Kubota BX2360, but eliminated them due to dealer support (very poor local dealer, next closest is over an hour away), and not liking the hydro pedal position on Kubota and non-folding ROPs on both (the few trees I do have will require folding ROPS to mow under).
So my plan is to swap the LX266 for either a 1023e or 1026r with the following:
FEL with quick attach bucket
60D deck with mechanical lift
Turf tires
Mulch kit (always been a fan of mulching)
Biggest decision is between 1023 and 1026. The dealer quoted me "about $1200 difference" between the two. I don't see the need for the cruise control, extra lighting, tilt steering, black consoles, rubber mat, etc. The nicer seat is NICE, but with mowing being about 1 hour with the 60" deck, I don't think I'll ever spend enough time in the seat to justify it. So my question is:
I can see a use for a box blade for grading the driveway and leveling a couple areas of the lawn. How big of an advantage is position control on the 1026 going to be? I've only ever used tractors with position control so the 1023 will be uncharted territory. I imagine the box blade on a 1023e is similar to trying to grade a 250' driveway with the loader... which is difficult to get a nice level finish, or does the box blade help level things out better than a loader bucket on float?
Will the 1023e have enough HP to mulch with the 60" belly mower? I noticed that although the 1023e has good engine HP, the PTO horsepower is very low compared to the GC2400 and BX2360.
I'm going with mechanical lift because I don't envision much use for the 3 point other than using a box blade once a year and using a gooseneck and receiver hitch attachment to move empty trailers around the yard (diesel pickup leaves ruts). So the fact the 3 point will go up and down with the mower deck when I mow is a non-issue. With the hydraulic lift, swapping hoses between mower and loader would be a pain as 90% of the tractors use is mowing and 9% is loader. I don't want to be swapping hoses when I decide to jump on the tractor to move an engine, transmission, axle, level out a small patch of driveway, unload stuff from the pickup bed, whatever small things I decide to do since I have a tractor around. So to go hydraulic I would HAVE to add the 3rd SCV at $600 in addition to the lift at $179, and I dont see the value there for me.
For the loader, I'm wondering if I should save the $350 and go D120 with QA bucket rather than H120. I want the QA bucket so I can pull the bucket off when mowing, change between bucket, pallet forks, and probably a root bucket for stumps and maybe planting trees if it can get deep enough. So I plan on always leaving the loader frame attached and just hooking the bucket on when I need it. Frees up a lot of storage space in the garage as well. (only 12' deep so I can't park inside the detached H120 with bucket on it so tractor and loader would have to be side by side if detached). So even with H120 I'll be leaving the loader arms on and just removing the bucket.
Thoughts?
Right now I'm mowing with a LX266 with 42" deck and it takes me right around 1.5 hours. I have the hydro pedal pinned (5.5 mph I believe) over 50% of the time. I have yet to purchase any attachements/carts for the LX266 as I determined the first time I mowed with it that it was too small/slow for the job. I also own a TC55DA that is stored in another state waiting for me to purchase a plot of land (no room to store it at the house currently). Not knowing where the land is going to be at (5 minutes away or an hour away?), its hard to say how available the larger tractor will be. And with it currently weighing right at 8000 lbs with loaded R4's... I think it'll leave a mark on the yard.
I've looked at the Massey GC2400 and Kubota BX2360, but eliminated them due to dealer support (very poor local dealer, next closest is over an hour away), and not liking the hydro pedal position on Kubota and non-folding ROPs on both (the few trees I do have will require folding ROPS to mow under).
So my plan is to swap the LX266 for either a 1023e or 1026r with the following:
FEL with quick attach bucket
60D deck with mechanical lift
Turf tires
Mulch kit (always been a fan of mulching)
Biggest decision is between 1023 and 1026. The dealer quoted me "about $1200 difference" between the two. I don't see the need for the cruise control, extra lighting, tilt steering, black consoles, rubber mat, etc. The nicer seat is NICE, but with mowing being about 1 hour with the 60" deck, I don't think I'll ever spend enough time in the seat to justify it. So my question is:
I can see a use for a box blade for grading the driveway and leveling a couple areas of the lawn. How big of an advantage is position control on the 1026 going to be? I've only ever used tractors with position control so the 1023 will be uncharted territory. I imagine the box blade on a 1023e is similar to trying to grade a 250' driveway with the loader... which is difficult to get a nice level finish, or does the box blade help level things out better than a loader bucket on float?
Will the 1023e have enough HP to mulch with the 60" belly mower? I noticed that although the 1023e has good engine HP, the PTO horsepower is very low compared to the GC2400 and BX2360.
I'm going with mechanical lift because I don't envision much use for the 3 point other than using a box blade once a year and using a gooseneck and receiver hitch attachment to move empty trailers around the yard (diesel pickup leaves ruts). So the fact the 3 point will go up and down with the mower deck when I mow is a non-issue. With the hydraulic lift, swapping hoses between mower and loader would be a pain as 90% of the tractors use is mowing and 9% is loader. I don't want to be swapping hoses when I decide to jump on the tractor to move an engine, transmission, axle, level out a small patch of driveway, unload stuff from the pickup bed, whatever small things I decide to do since I have a tractor around. So to go hydraulic I would HAVE to add the 3rd SCV at $600 in addition to the lift at $179, and I dont see the value there for me.
For the loader, I'm wondering if I should save the $350 and go D120 with QA bucket rather than H120. I want the QA bucket so I can pull the bucket off when mowing, change between bucket, pallet forks, and probably a root bucket for stumps and maybe planting trees if it can get deep enough. So I plan on always leaving the loader frame attached and just hooking the bucket on when I need it. Frees up a lot of storage space in the garage as well. (only 12' deep so I can't park inside the detached H120 with bucket on it so tractor and loader would have to be side by side if detached). So even with H120 I'll be leaving the loader arms on and just removing the bucket.
Thoughts?