Tractor Sizing Man buying a tractor is no joke!

[Wishbonez51]

Hi everybody, LONG READ, but I know everybody wants to know all the details when helping us choose our tractors.

Background info. Currently I have a Chinese tractor called a Bison 254 which is a 25HP 4wheel drive manual 8 speeds forward and 2 speeds reverse with high and low. My wife and I purchased it used 8 years ago. She is a 1998 model year and has spent most of her life outside. We purchased her for a whopping $3500 and put in roughly $2000 over the past 8 years keeping her mechanically in tip top shape. Our property is a tad over an acre and we wanted to see if we would really use a tractor. Well, my wife and I both agree, we use our tractor pretty much daily and cannot live without her. We have used her for serious projects to include digging our pool/Jacuzzi, you name it we have used the tractor except it has no Backhoe. Her paint has been thrashed, however, she has NEVER failed us ever. She always starts and chugs along with no issues as well as completes her tasks. I even used her to build my shop in which I have added pictures for you all to see. My wife and I agreed that after the shop with air conditioning was completed, we would purchase a new tractor that would last us 25 years plus and stay out of the weather. So it has been 2 years almost too the day that the shop has been completed. We now want to finish doing the rest of the big projects this year. I am listing what we are doing below.

Need to take out 3 1/2 foot high by 30 long and 25 feet wide worth of fill dirt away. Dig electrical trenches, water trenches, planter boxes, around 200 feet of footers for block walls, roughly 500 yards of 1/4 minus crusher fine rock for driveways. Install around 600 linear feet of concrete curbing, build my Tiki bar which includes moving dirt, digging footers, building concrete pad and building the bar. Installing and tilling roughly 1/4 of the acre for grass and digging trenches for the sprinkler system and complete the 12x10 foot koi pond. After the backyard is done, we will then be ready to start on the front of the home in the next year or two.

We love the current size of our tractor and really wanted to stay in that size, but with all the new features and dependability of an American tractor in which we can get parts for later down the road. As a retired Captain Paramedic from the Fire Department I am also a jack of all trades. You name it, mechanic as I have a mechanic shop, carpentry, welding, plumbing, electrical the list goes on. I really wanted to keep the tractor in the 25hp range so no computer system to upgrade, or have software issues down the road after the warranty is all up.

We are also paying cash and so that is a factor, and my budget I want to stay within has stretched over the past 2 months since searching. So now I have stretched to $22K.

Here is what we have done. I took a drive to my local John Deere dealership. Real bad experience, maybe they didn't like Chevy's or Corvette's as I didn't want to drive my Chevy Duramax 1 ton an hour away. So I drove my 2017 ZO with every option. So yes I drove my 100K weekend sports car to a tractor dealership. Needless to say, they didn't give me a time of day. Here is how it went down. Hi my name is Robert, do you have a salesman that can spend some time with me and go over your compact tractors with me? Salesman said, go ahead and take a look around on your own, if you have any questions come on back and we will see if we can get somebody to help you! Well I walked around for about a half an hour and took a gander than left. Didn't like any of them and the prices were insane. I am not concerned on resale value as it wont be for sale.

Next trip a couple weeks later was to the Kubota dealership. This time I took Beast Mode, AKA 1 ton Duramax and was approached by a salesman as I got out. He was nice and spent some good amount of time with me. We went through some tractors and there is a laundry list of things I really don't like on them let alone the gold prices of them. Hate the peddle design, seat function makes using the gas peddle difficult and the prices are well not cheap.

I then checked out the Yanmar tractors. Not much to say there, didn't care for them. The features were chincy and felt the tractor manufacture was building a real budget minded tractor but for a higher price. Didn't stay long at that dealership.

I really like CK tractors even though they are only on the east coast. I called and spoke to their sales people and they were nice. But I have no way of test driving them and shipping across America to Arizona was not cheap. So that one was a bummer.

I also stopped to see the New Holland, Mahindra, and TYM. Not much to say that I really liked. The New Hollands were real expensive for what I was getting and didn't care for the other two.

So I then started looking into the LS line up. My nearest dealership was over 250 miles away in Benson AZ. My wife and I drove down on a Friday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel. We than met their sales manager on Saturday morning. I have to say I was really impressed with how much customer service they provided. We spent roughly 4 hours testing the MT 125 and felt it was WAY to small, loved the price though. Within 5 minutes the wife said noway, I feel like I am putting around on a riding lawnmower machine and not a tractor. So we than spent the rest of the time using every feature on the XJ2025H. We really loved the tractor, even though it is smaller than our current tractor, we really loved everything it had to offer and felt we could feel comfortable with this size tractor. Where I went wrong was we stopped there and didn't test drive anymore tractors. I think the main reason we stopped was how hot it was and the sun was beating down on us. We were getting tired, sweaty and real hungry. So we left happy and felt we found our tractor.

We have been working on a deal this entire past week and an Invoice has been created. All I have to do is wire transfer and within a day, we would finally get an XJ2025H with FEL, Backhoe with 9" and 12" buckets. Well, that was until today that screwed everything up. See I was finishing getting my old tractor ready for sale when my friend called me up and said, have you purchased your tractor yet? I said no, and he said, well I have to go into Wickenburg and meet up with my Kioti dealership and thought you should check them out before making your decision. So I told him I was really set on the LS XJ2025H but hey, it wont hurt to look! So we went and the owner Sam was amazingly friendly. We actually spent around 3 hours their. He went through CS series tractors with me, which were to small and than we spent the majority of the time on the CK2610. The issue is, I love the size of the tractor as it is in the same category as my current tractor. Bigger, stronger and I feel like the tractor fit me really well. I am not a huge boy, but I am not small either. I'm 6 foot tall and weigh 230lbs. However, there are many things I didn't like about the tractor and felt I was sitting in a twin to the other orange tractor. But it did have me thinking, hmmm, maybe I should call my LS dealer and see what they can do for me in the XG3025H tractor with Backhoe. So I called him and he is going to get me a final price tomorrow morning. I feel bad, but I don't want to screw up this purchase. I want to buy the tractor once, and all you guys tell everybody how you should go up 1 size in tractor.

So help me out, knowing what I need to do on my property, should I stick with the XJ2025H? Or should I get what would be the same size tractor we currently have and purchase the XG3025H. The bummer is I cannot test drive one unless I drive another 3 hours down to the dealership. IF the XJ2025H fit me well, I know the XG3025H will fit me better right?

 

[fried1765]

Hi everybody, LONG READ, but I know everybody wants to know all the details when helping us choose our tractors.

Background info. Currently I have a Chinese tractor called a Bison 254 which is a 25HP 4wheel drive manual 8 speeds forward and 2 speeds reverse with high and low. My wife and I purchased it used 8 years ago. She is a 1998 model year and has spent most of her life outside. We purchased her for a whopping $3500 and put in roughly $2000 over the past 8 years keeping her mechanically in tip top shape. Our property is a tad over an acre and we wanted to see if we would really use a tractor. Well, my wife and I both agree, we use our tractor pretty much daily and cannot live without her. We have used her for serious projects to include digging our pool/Jacuzzi, you name it we have used the tractor except it has no Backhoe. Her paint has been thrashed, however, she has NEVER failed us ever. She always starts and chugs along with no issues as well as completes her tasks. I even used her to build my shop in which I have added pictures for you all to see. My wife and I agreed that after the shop with air conditioning was completed, we would purchase a new tractor that would last us 25 years plus and stay out of the weather. So it has been 2 years almost too the day that the shop has been completed. We now want to finish doing the rest of the big projects this year. I am listing what we are doing below.

Need to take out 3 1/2 foot high by 30 long and 25 feet wide worth of fill dirt away. Dig electrical trenches, water trenches, planter boxes, around 200 feet of footers for block walls, roughly 500 yards of 1/4 minus crusher fine rock for driveways. Install around 600 linear feet of concrete curbing, build my Tiki bar which includes moving dirt, digging footers, building concrete pad and building the bar. Installing and tilling roughly 1/4 of the acre for grass and digging trenches for the sprinkler system and complete the 12x10 foot koi pond. After the backyard is done, we will then be ready to start on the front of the home in the next year or two.

We love the current size of our tractor and really wanted to stay in that size, but with all the new features and dependability of an American tractor in which we can get parts for later down the road. As a retired Captain Paramedic from the Fire Department I am also a jack of all trades. You name it, mechanic as I have a mechanic shop, carpentry, welding, plumbing, electrical the list goes on. I really wanted to keep the tractor in the 25hp range so no computer system to upgrade, or have software issues down the road after the warranty is all up.

We are also paying cash and so that is a factor, and my budget I want to stay within has stretched over the past 2 months since searching. So now I have stretched to $22K.

Here is what we have done. I took a drive to my local John Deere dealership. Real bad experience, maybe they didn't like Chevy's or Corvette's as I didn't want to drive my Chevy Duramax 1 ton an hour away. So I drove my 2017 ZO with every option. So yes I drove my 100K weekend sports car to a tractor dealership. Needless to say, they didn't give me a time of day. Here is how it went down. Hi my name is Robert, do you have a salesman that can spend some time with me and go over your compact tractors with me? Salesman said, go ahead and take a look around on your own, if you have any questions come on back and we will see if we can get somebody to help you! Well I walked around for about a half an hour and took a gander than left. Didn't like any of them and the prices were insane. I am not concerned on resale value as it wont be for sale.

Next trip a couple weeks later was to the Kubota dealership. This time I took Beast Mode, AKA 1 ton Duramax and was approached by a salesman as I got out. He was nice and spent some good amount of time with me. We went through some tractors and there is a laundry list of things I really don't like on them let alone the gold prices of them. Hate the peddle design, seat function makes using the gas peddle difficult and the prices are well not cheap.

I then checked out the Yanmar tractors. Not much to say there, didn't care for them. The features were chincy and felt the tractor manufacture was building a real budget minded tractor but for a higher price. Didn't stay long at that dealership.

I really like CK tractors even though they are only on the east coast. I called and spoke to their sales people and they were nice. But I have no way of test driving them and shipping across America to Arizona was not cheap. So that one was a bummer.

I also stopped to see the New Holland, Mahindra, and TYM. Not much to say that I really liked. The New Hollands were real expensive for what I was getting and didn't care for the other two.

So I then started looking into the LS line up. My nearest dealership was over 250 miles away in Benson AZ. My wife and I drove down on a Friday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel. We than met their sales manager on Saturday morning. I have to say I was really impressed with how much customer service they provided. We spent roughly 4 hours testing the MT 125 and felt it was WAY to small, loved the price though. Within 5 minutes the wife said noway, I feel like I am putting around on a riding lawnmower machine and not a tractor. So we than spent the rest of the time using every feature on the XJ2025H. We really loved the tractor, even though it is smaller than our current tractor, we really loved everything it had to offer and felt we could feel comfortable with this size tractor. Where I went wrong was we stopped there and didn't test drive anymore tractors. I think the main reason we stopped was how hot it was and the sun was beating down on us. We were getting tired, sweaty and real hungry. So we left happy and felt we found our tractor.

We have been working on a deal this entire past week and an Invoice has been created. All I have to do is wire transfer and within a day, we would finally get an XJ2025H with FEL, Backhoe with 9" and 12" buckets. Well, that was until today that screwed everything up. See I was finishing getting my old tractor ready for sale when my friend called me up and said, have you purchased your tractor yet? I said no, and he said, well I have to go into Wickenburg and meet up with my Kioti dealership and thought you should check them out before making your decision. So I told him I was really set on the LS XJ2025H but hey, it wont hurt to look! So we went and the owner Sam was amazingly friendly. We actually spent around 3 hours their. He went through CS series tractors with me, which were to small and than we spent the majority of the time on the CK2610. The issue is, I love the size of the tractor as it is in the same category as my current tractor. Bigger, stronger and I feel like the tractor fit me really well. I am not a huge boy, but I am not small either. I'm 6 foot tall and weigh 230lbs. However, there are many things I didn't like about the tractor and felt I was sitting in a twin to the other orange tractor. But it did have me thinking, hmmm, maybe I should call my LS dealer and see what they can do for me in the XG3025H tractor with Backhoe. So I called him and he is going to get me a final price tomorrow morning. I feel bad, but I don't want to screw up this purchase. I want to buy the tractor once, and all you guys tell everybody how you should go up 1 size in tractor.

So help me out, knowing what I need to do on my property, should I stick with the XJ2025H? Or should I get what would be the same size tractor we currently have and purchase the XG3025H. The bummer is I cannot test drive one unless I drive another 3 hours down to the dealership. IF the XJ2025H fit me well, I know the XG3025H will fit me better right?

Spend the time!
Make the drive!
It is a one time purchase!
BUY THE BIGGER TRACTOR!
XG3025H

 

[Thomas]

Welcome to TBN.
As fried1765 wrote and think about project to comes days or years from now...go w/gut feelings.

 

[prof fate]

I've been using an old Kubota L175 w/ no loader - 17hp 1400lb. Great machine. But wanted a loader and bigger brush hog (most time is spent mowing horse pastures)

I went with a kioti CK3501HST - i'm also 6' 240 lbs and fit it well - at times the steering wheel is the way gettin gon /off - the SE model would fix that (tilt wheel and lots of other options..for $3500 more)

I paid 22450 out the door w/ many options. The 26hp is same frame and about 2k less. there backhoe is 7500..ouch. I can rent a small excavator for a LOT of days for that price..don't need it that often to justify the cost/storage.

Unless/until you spend quality time with a tractor you won't know for sure if it's for you, what issues you may have, etc. And to really compare you'd have to do it with multiple tractors...not really possible for 99% of us.

Kioti reviews are great. Neighbor and his had have them - 20 plus years and not ANY issues. But then my 40+ year old kubota only had a rad repair 20 years ago..so it's essentially the same (but I hear more issues on newer kubotas..but then they sell more tractors than anyone so it could just be that)

Bigger is better - as long as it fits hwere you need it to (like in your new shop).

The CK35 is DOUBLE the weight of the old kubota - way more comfortable in every way (it has hydrostatic steering, a 'big' feature and it's great!) It's way more capable, complains less and does every I ask.

I've got 28 hours on it in 10 days doing most everything so far except plowing and haying - future work for it.

I went up in HP for the ability to hay and run a foot bigger brush hog. WOuld like to have gone to 40hp but it was $2500 more the dealer told me. Maybe he was just pushing 35's out the door...but I"m happy.

 

[SimS]

With all that prospective digging/trenching I think I would be looking for a excavator. IMHO an excavator is much more productive that a TLB. You have a good "relationship" with your current tractor and it could do the dirt moving you for see. If you have well defined plans/timing you could get away with a rental excavator and bring it in for each project. Or you could buy a good used machine and sell it after you have completed all the digging projects. As an owner of both a tractor and an excavator I can tell you it really speeds up a project to have the flexibility of both machines at work. Good Luck

SimS

 

[Wishbonez51]

Fried1765, If I feel torn or a gut feeling it may not fit me I will do that ASAP.

Thomas, I went to be around 1:30 am and probably fell asleep around 2:30 am thinking about this. After waking up this morning, it is pretty clear I want to go with the bigger tractor because I have used my current tractor for a long time. I love the size, I use it for everything and push it to its limits. Having a newer tractor with much better ratings will help.

Prof fate, Great comments and views. My current tractor is a 25HP and it has never struggled for my projects so I am good at 25HP.

SIMS, I do agree with you that a designated machine that does that job perfect would be the right machine. However, time is not a factor for me. I have plenty of time and my labor costs are dirt cheap!

Its a done deal now, I cannot turn back. I listed my current tractor for sale at 12:35 am this morning, and by 7:30 it was sold and funds in my bank account. Now I am tractorless.

 

[vvanders]

Your JD experience matches ours the few times we've stopped in to look.

Not sure if it's just hubris or not being "worth" their time. Pretty annoying when your willing to buy and they won't meet you half way.

 

[Wishbonez51]

vvanders,

Right, there loss not mine. Very sad and I am sure in time, this will heavily impact them down the road. They feel since they have made the name for themselves will last forever with that mentality will not last. All the upcoming tractor owners and moving forward will not be so loyal to the green tractor and soon they will have to drop their prices to match heavy competitors. The good news is I didn't care for the set up anyway, and with aluminum housings that are junk no thanks.

 

[JLwoodworks]

One thing to remember comparing horsepower is your current tractor is gear drive and the new one will be hydro. In my experience hydrostatic eats a bit of horsepower depending on what you're doing with it. Does the larger tractor have a 3 range gear box?

Jay

 

[Gary Fowler]

I don't agree with those that say, rent a backhoe when needing it. There are some many times that you need a backhoe to complete a small project and not having one will delay or even cancel the project. Even if you have your projects planned out well, there is always the one that crops up that needs immediate attention and if you don't have a TLB then it is shovel time or trying to do it with an FEL which does not work at all in most cases..It doesn't take many rentals to eat up the price of a backhoe. I would sell my large tractor before getting rid of my TLB even if it may set for weeks at a time, it is there when I need it.
If the 30HP tractor is still within your budget, it may be a better choice for you, that extra 5 HP in HST will just about equal out to your old tractors 25 with gear drive. Many times there is only $1000 or less in difference.