Buying Advice A tractor for 35 wooded acres

[ripHST]

I have the CK30HST with a kioti backhoe... I use it a lot on my acreage for various things...

However, I'm in construction, not residential but we do some land clearing for roads. We build cell towers...

If you get a CK35 and the backhoe and want to put a 300' road in thru roads, dig out a foundation etc etc.... You better realize your going to take forever and basically beat your machine to death. It's not really made for that type of work...

Can it do it, sure.... It's not designed for that heavy regular use.

I cut in a new 1/8th acre food plot in my woods, and I was averaging about 1-2hrs per big
Oak stump with back filling. I have a hydro thumb as well. It struggled to pick up the big stumps to remove from the holes. I eventually just flipped them over and back filled on top of them which will result in depressions when they rot.

What will take a civil crew 3-4says will take you months.

I love my machine, and I have 0 regrets, but just realize it's an all in one in a mini version. It's not the greatest backhoe, it's not the greatest FEL, but it also brush hogs, mows, tills etc etc... Know its limits.

Congrats on your purchase!

Thanks EJP.....I wouldn't attempt excavating for the foundation at all but was thinking that doing the clearing of the trees and brush would be a good task for me. Partly to do it in a more controlled manner (I worry about someone coming in with a big bulldozer and banging off trees I want to keep) and partly to try to save some money (and partly because would be fun and gives me an excuse to buy a tractor). In your experience, coming into a wooded lot to build a cell tower....how much time (money) would that save on a job not having to clear brush or trees?

 

[ripHST]

And so are cabs! But I guarantee you being without a heated cab in New York moving 5 feet of snow will be a LOT cooler Downright freezing!

Oh I know.....I think I started drooling the first time I opened up a cab to look inside. It's probably a no-go for me though....I'd probably have the windshield broken inside a week. Are many folks using them in the woods? Does it limit visibility much?

 

[jeff9366]

I suggest shopping for the heaviest 4-WD tractor you can afford, with a Category 1 Three Point Hitch, new or used. Horsepower should be second to tractor weight.

Category 1 tractors span 20-horsepower to 45-horsepower. Category 1 implements are where the volume lies along with the most competitive implement and attachment prices.

A well maintained tractor with 200 engine hours is "almost new". Most tractors have a few teething problems during the first 100 hours. At 200 engine hours all teething problems should be resolved.

The "100K mile mark" for well maintained, diesel tractors is 12,000 engine hours. (However, finding a mid-life, one or two owner tractor with uninterrupted, careful maintenance is difficult.)


~~~~~~ I say: BUY THE BACKHOE.

 

[ripHST]

~~~~~~ I say: BUY THE BACKHOE.

Haha....you're killing me. We'll see I guess. I was thinking more about it and I guess that'll be handy cleaning up around the ponds. I think being able to remove and replace quickly is important though.

 

[sea2summit]

Haha....you're killing me. We'll see I guess. I was thinking more about it and I guess that'll be handy cleaning up around the ponds. I think being able to remove and replace quickly is important though.

My BH comes off in less than 30 seconds if you don't count turning the tractor off and starting it again to unhook hoses. Probably 5-10 minutes to put the 3 point arms on. It's very painless.

 

[ripHST]

A well maintained tractor with 200 engine hours is "almost new". Most tractors have a few teething problems during the first 100 hours. At 200 engine hours all teething problems should be resolved.

The "100K mile mark" for well maintained, diesel tractors is 12,000 engine hours. (However, finding a mid-life, one or two owner tractor with uninterrupted, careful maintenance is difficult.)

This helps a lot.....the more stuff and bigger tractor you guys have me buying the more I think I should try used first. There are a few sub 1000 hour tractors around....at least one with a BH! What kind of maintenance records should I be looking for? The usual filter and fluid changes I assume. Anything else? What kind of frequency is the norm?

 

[woolyAcres]

Don't know how far you are from this one. Might be worth checking out.

I've got about 30 acres, mix of woods, pasture, scrub, and rocks. I've got a 24HP (old-1983 ) Yanmar and frankly, it's too small for pulling my heavy 5' brush hog. The loader is actually ok, but more capacity and more stability would be nice. I've been fortunate enough to have access to a 45HP NH and it's clear the 24HP is too small. Some things it does just fine with- grading the 700' driveway, pushing snow, moving mulch, but most loader work and brush hogging it's noticeably slower. It also moves 4x4 round bales with no problem. My little Yanmar has no chance at that. In an ideal world I'd find something as capable as the 45HP in a smaller package. I'm trying, slowly to tame my property. There's about 10 acres of woods that I'm not doing anything with except removing firewood. The rest of it is abandon pasture (20 years ago) that I'm (slowly) trying to bring back into use- brush hogging, tree removal, and brush removal. The small tractor just takes longer to do everything but it does get around (closer to trees, under more branches, etc) than the bigger machine. The other really nice thing about the larger tractor is the SSQA loader. I've got access to a bucket, grapple, and bale spear. The little YM240 only has a bucket and that really limits it versatility.

YMMV.

I should have added I'm also lucky enough to have use of a Case mini excavator. I think it's around 10,000 lbs. Even it's over matched for a foundation where I live. If there were no rocks, it could pretty easily do a footer, but digging out an entires basement would be slow. With rocks, which I've got in abundance, it was overmatched. Even doing a trench from the well to the house I had to hire a big machine. For stump removal at an evening/weekend pace, it's great. Does have a push-blade as well. In the right conditions, I could see doing at 300' driveway, but it would take a while. I guess what I'm saying is, I'd rather have a rear-mount BH than no backhoe, but having a dedicated machine is also really nice. It's EASY to find uses for a backhoe.

 

[ripHST]

Don't know how far you are from this one. Might be worth checking out.

I've got about 30 acres, mix of woods, pasture, scrub, and rocks. I've got a 24HP (old-1983 ) Yanmar and frankly, it's too small for pulling my heavy 5' brush hog. The loader is actually ok, but more capacity and more stability would be nice. I've been fortunate enough to have access to a 45HP NH and it's clear the 24HP is too small. Some things it does just fine with- grading the 700' driveway, pushing snow, moving mulch, but most loader work and brush hogging it's noticeably slower. It also moves 4x4 round bales with no problem. My little Yanmar has no chance at that. In an ideal world I'd find something as capable as the 45HP in a smaller package. I'm trying, slowly to tame my property. There's about 10 acres of woods that I'm not doing anything with except removing firewood. The rest of it is abandon pasture (20 years ago) that I'm (slowly) trying to bring back into use- brush hogging, tree removal, and brush removal. The small tractor just takes longer to do everything but it does get around (closer to trees, under more branches, etc) than the bigger machine. The other really nice thing about the larger tractor is the SSQA loader. I've got access to a bucket, grapple, and bale spear. The little YM240 only has a bucket and that really limits it versatility.

YMMV.

I should have added I'm also lucky enough to have use of a Case mini excavator. I think it's around 10,000 lbs. Even it's over matched for a foundation where I live. If there were no rocks, it could pretty easily do a footer, but digging out an entires basement would be slow. With rocks, which I've got in abundance, it was overmatched. Even doing a trench from the well to the house I had to hire a big machine. For stump removal at an evening/weekend pace, it's great. Does have a push-blade as well. In the right conditions, I could see doing at 300' driveway, but it would take a while. I guess what I'm saying is, I'd rather have a rear-mount BH than no backhoe, but having a dedicated machine is also really nice. It's EASY to find uses for a backhoe.

Thanks for the tip. That looks like a nice machine for the money and what I should be looking for. It's a bit far and no Yanmar dealer close by, but worth considering.

Sounds like your experience reflects what others have been telling me. I need a tractor of a certain size, but it won't do everything. What's your most useful implement in the woods (or one you wish you had)?

 

[ripHST]

Well TECHNICALLY she is still at Cornell, she's presenting her PHD thesis (Department of Communication) this summer and is a "dorm mother" at their facility in Washington, DC.

Might want a blade then.

Alaskan mills are nice. I've got two. I bought one for regular price then I bought the second for $450, but the guy threw in an almost new 120CC Stihl w/ bar, chain, and boxes.

Try and get a tractor that will lift a ton, at least on the 3 point, if not on the FEL.

Is she based in DC then? My wife actually works for the USDA, but is based on campus. She also has an appointment in the Dept of Plant Pathology.

That's an impressive bar on your saw. That's for the mill I presume? How big a power head do you need for the mill. I'm guessing my saw isn't big enough.

 

[woolyAcres]

Thanks for the tip. That looks like a nice machine for the money and what I should be looking for. It's a bit far and no Yanmar dealer close by, but worth considering.

Sounds like your experience reflects what others have been telling me. I need a tractor of a certain size, but it won't do everything. What's your most useful implement in the woods (or one you wish you had)?

Since I'm not too concerned about cleaning up the woods, only gathering firewood, the most useful aspect of the tractor is the FEL and a box on the back for hauling wood. But frankly, a beat-up pickup could do that around my woods (save for the mud). Even more important than the tractor for woods work is a chain saw. I've cut down a few trees, but mostly I just clean up what's already down.

For cleaning up the pastures and taming the brush, Hawthorne trees and Multi-flora rose, I have a grapple (for the big tractor) and the HD brush hog. I'm not trying to get it perfect, just open things enough to grow grass for the cows to eat. Tools really do have a specific purpose. The box blade for grading and keeping the drive in decent shape, the loader for moving material, the grapple for cleaning up brush and building burn piles, the brush hog for keeping things under control. PTO HP isn't really that big a deal to me. The 5' cutter is the only thing I have that uses the PTO. My father uses the 45 NH to run a small square baler. But for what I want to do, clean up woods, move material, etc, running a 5' brush hog is probably about it so 45HP is probably overkill. Having said that, the weight and FEL lift capacity of the larger tractor are nice. Getting those in a lower HP (and smaller) machine would suit me fine.