Having owned an 8N, I wouldn't be surprised at what you can get done with one, but the reality is, I cost as much per day as a dozer does, so it wouldn't save me a penny.
That is something that I think is where our sticking point is. In reading between the lines here (and I could be getting this all wrong) you see time on the tractor as work. The comment that you cost as much as a dozer does and saving you money finally made the light bulb go off in my head.
I have been doing the computer thing from the early 80's. Quite a while ago I quit consulting.....I just valued my time more then the money I made....and I made good money doing that. For me time on the tractor is my away time. Where I work now (law enforcement) I am on call 365x7....so I am always stuck with that rotten cell phone, and you can feel it vibrate even on a tractor, but I am away from a rotten screen. I am outside watching the birds, looking at the dirt and the bugs, blue sky and fluffy clouds with green grass and not the same smells I deal with day in and day out. Smells are a very strong memory trigger and some work smell take me back to another much more stress filled time. Getting on the tractor is my get away. For a long while diesel reminded me of military, but finally I now think of the tractor when I smell that smell.
Sorry I rambled....but I am thinking that a great many of you look at these chores as real chores and work....to me it is fun time. I LOVE it outside, I LOVE to mow the yard and have the martins fly around the machine grabbing the bugs that fly up.
But as you see the machine to get something done as fast as possible and go on to your fun time, I look at the machine to save my back, I can't use a shovel anymore, I cut some barb wire fence last weekend, about 2hrs later I could not move my left arm and was hitting the Oxy pretty hard.
If I have read between the lines and gotten this right, then I do understand.
If not guess I am still clueless.
But the words I used to describe the little machines are accurate in what other people have called them. Only the Kubota dealer really wanted to sell the bx, JD wanted to sell me a 3 series, MF the 17xx IIRC....even those dealers don't push those machines.
When the young man came out to give me my new tires (thread in Kubota section) he asked how I liked the grapple....I told him I loved it and that I picked up 3 RR ties with it....that shocked him....that little machine lifted 3 ties....yup...did not seem to have a problem doing it. He was a very nice and polite young man...(I almost said kid again) but even he was shocked at what I was doing with the machine....we even looked at stumps....he said the one had to weigh around 500lbs.
I think that people really underestimate the machine....yes it is smaller and if your goal is getting the work done as fast as possible this is not for you.....but if you just want to take the time and see the humming birds starting to come back while you are "working" then this might be for you.
