Buying my first tractor

[Brandon101884]

Hello all!

My wife has decided I need a tractor in order to complete my ever growing 滴oney-do list. I致e only recently begun the search so my knowledge isn稚 exactly extensive at this point. I have a 20 acre property, mostly wooded, so no real farming will happen. I値l be using it to build a shooting backstop, clear out some wooded sections, flatten the cleared out sections, clear out paths, create some kind of garden area... who knows. Pushing snow down a half mile driveway. My theme seems to have a lot to do with moving dirt.

I e looked at John Deere, great tractors. I have a riding mower and it痴 a blessing. They seem to have everything simplified. The only drawbacks I致e seen are their power and price. I知 not sure why their bucket lifting poundage is so low. I can稚 remember the model exactly (I believe it was a family 3 model) but it痴 lofting pounds was around 1500. That seems very low to me. Or is that normal for mid size tractors? I致e been looking at New Holland but their website is difficult without prices listed, the same with TYM. I致e looked at mahindra and Kubota as well. It seems like pretty much everything is similar.

I really do not want to be the guy who goes to push brush, or move a pile of dirt, rocks, whatever and have to say to myself... I should have gone bigger. So, what should I be looking for exactly? My price range is no more than $25,000. Well. It can be more, I just don稚 want it to be.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

You don't really say, but is your plan to buy new? Or will you be shopping used? Makes a huge difference.

 

[Brandon101884]

I plan on buying new

 

[flusher]

35-45 hp (engine), power steering, hydrostatic tranny, front end loader (FEL) with 6-ft wide bucket and skid steer quick attach, dual rear hydraulic remotes (3 is better), R1 ag tires loaded with suitable liquid for your climate.

Test drive the ones you like and ask questions of the dealer. Check out his service area and parts department to see if they meet your requirements.

Good luck

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I think doing a lot of dirt work = a medium to large CUT. Hp and tractor weight are your 2 biggest factors. Sure FEL lift too, but having the tractor weight and grunt to drag that full box blade or land plane. I sure wouldn't go any lighter than 35 hp and 4k in bare tractor weight. More would be better. Are you going to cut trees down and grind stumps, or try to pull them out or dig them out?

How much snow? Big difference in demand if we're talking 6"-10" annual snowfall vs. 4'-6' per snowstorm and 20'-30' annual snowfall. We had a record snowfall last year, and guys were literally running out of places to push snow. Times like that a snowblower is solid gold.

Try to figure out what attachments you need to power (from pto), and which one will be the biggest pto hp demand. Then make sure whatever unit you end up with can meet that capacity demand. A tractor is like an air compressor, it needs the capacity to drive the tools, but it is the tools that actually do the work. Brush hog, wood chipper, tiller, snow blower? What about ground engaging tools, plow, box blade, land plane, cultivator?

Don't forget to add cost of attachments to your budget, or you'll end up with a tractor and limited tools to get the work done.

 

[MESSMAKER]

You can probably get buy with a 5 foot bucket and at least 30hp. Weight should be at least 3000lb. Bigger might be better but you are in danger of running out of budget.

 

[Brandon101884]

I think doing a lot of dirt work = a medium to large CUT. Hp and tractor weight are your 2 biggest factors. Sure FEL lift too, but having the tractor weight and grunt to drag that full box blade or land plane. I sure wouldn't go any lighter than 35 hp and 4k in bare tractor weight. More would be better. Are you going to cut trees down and grind stumps, or try to pull them out or dig them out?

How much snow? Big difference in demand if we're talking 6"-10" annual snowfall vs. 4'-6' per snowstorm and 20'-30' annual snowfall. We had a record snowfall last year, and guys were literally running out of places to push snow. Times like that a snowblower is solid gold.

Try to figure out what attachments you need to power (from pto), and which one will be the biggest pto hp demand. Then make sure whatever unit you end up with can meet that capacity demand. A tractor is like an air compressor, it needs the capacity to drive the tools, but it is the tools that actually do the work. Brush hog, wood chipper, tiller, snow blower? What about ground engaging tools, plow, box blade, land plane, cultivator?

Don't forget to add cost of attachments to your budget, or you'll end up with a tractor and limited tools to get the work done.

I値l always chainsaw a tree down, I doubt I値l be able tomafford a tractor that is able to pull a stump out. That seems like a ton of power would be needed.

As for snow, it痴 always a toss up around here. Could get half a foot to a foot at a time, could get a few inches. The main thing with that is aside from my driveway I壇 push/move the snow off of the side road leading to the main roads because of them not being plowed.

 

[Piston]

Try to figure out what attachments you need to power (from pto), and which one will be the biggest pto hp demand. Then make sure whatever unit you end up with can meet that capacity demand. A tractor is like an air compressor, it needs the capacity to drive the tools, but it is the tools that actually do the work. Brush hog, wood chipper, tiller, snow blower? What about ground engaging tools, plow, box blade, land plane, cultivator?

Don't forget to add cost of attachments to your budget, or you'll end up with a tractor and limited tools to get the work done.

Excellent advice here! The implements get the work done, the tractor is just the engine that drives them.
(Tractors themselves, are pretty much useless with no implements/attachments)

 

[Brandon101884]

Excellent advice here! The implements get the work done, the tractor is just the engine that drives them.
(Tractors themselves, are pretty much useless with no implements/attachments)

I agree, pretty solid information. Thank you.

 

[DieselBound]

Yup, Slowpoke has provided great guidance.

I always spend a lot of time forcing myself to define my requirements first. Have to tell you, when I got my first tractor (B7800) I really didn't have a clue as to what I needed a tractor to do: I did know I needed to do a lot of brush mowing (and the tractor has done an amazing job at that). That tractor was purchased used. I've never bought any new machine/vehicle (other than my lawn mower!) until I bought my Kioti NX5510. When I went to buy my second tractor I knew a LOT more of what I needed. So far my NX5510 has done everything that I've wanted it to do, and that's all to do with my due diligence in defining my requirements.

So, first think through all the things you believe that you need your tractor to do. Do so not necessarily from the point of it being a tractor, but from the point of a job that needs to be done. You may find that a tractor isn't going to be able to do the things you think you need to do: or you'd need a much bigger one. Don't lock yourself into defining what your tractor is going to do, but defining what you need to get the jobs you need done, done. Keep in mind that, in most cases, you can always rent equipment for doing infrequent jobs: I rent excavators and, for one time only- to drill some holes for fence posts, a skid steer.

I've mashed up my B7800 pretty good. I'm very leery of pushing my NX5510 because it's new. With something that's already used you might not feel quite so bad about smashing something up. AND, you WILL, eventually, smash things up! I'm thankful that I had my B7800 to learn on. If I'd started out with my NX5510 I'm sure that I'd have really messed up: getting a big piece of machinery unstuck is no fun; I learned from a smaller machine how to be careful how NOT to get stuck; also learned how to get unstuck.