City girl needs advice on buying 1st tractor

[stuckmotor]

Make sure your feet will reach the pedals. Even if you don't plan to drive it, there may be times when you have to.

 

[Ted Summey]

Welcome! You didn't say what size stumps you will be clearing. I agree with the previous posts suggesting that the heavier work clearing stumps be hired. Especially if you are talking about any size to the trees. A tractor is a fine tool but is not the best tool for clearing property of stumps. A tractor properly equipped CAN dig stumps out but it is slow work. There are lots of members here who have and do use their tractors for that kind of work.

If doing the clearing yourself is really important to you, and that is understandable, I suggest renting or leasing a dozer, track loader with a multifunction bucket or an excavator to do the initial work. Then invest in a "right-sized" tractor for your ongoing work and maintenance. An excavator with a thumb attachment on the bucket for gripping and picking things up would be ideal.

There's lots of good advice on this site. You just have to be able to evaluate what is best for you.

 

[Grandad4]

We are very new but are determined to do it ourselves. We will take it slow and get comfortable with whatever tractor we decide to buy before jumping headlong into clearing the land. We will be living on there full time so time isn't an issue so we won't be rushing.

I'll just reinforce what others are saying about the challenges of do-it-yourself land clearing. If the equipment is large enough to do this kind of work, it's also large enough to cause serious injury (or worse) in about 500 different ways. Until you've done enough things and spent enough time operating this type of equipment, you may not even recognize some of the things that might go wrong and cause harm.

Add to that the risks associated with tree felling and logging (two of the world's most dangerous occupations) and the small matter of operating on uneven terrain and you have a perfect storm of hazards for the newbie.

So please be cautious and safe as you work on your new place!

 

[k0ua]

You have been given a lot of good advice already, as you can see I am a Kioti lover, but I like lots of other brands too!. If I were you, I would look at several brands and see what fits you. One thing to consider if you want to clear land, but do not need to till it up, is instead of digging out stumps, you can get a stump grinder and grind them down them down to below grade. This is somewhat easier than digging them up. Just an idea you may not have thought of.

James K0UA

 

[Coyote machine]

Welcome to TBN.
Before I went looking for a tractor suited to my needs on my land I would first find local professional tree experts and land clearing guys to access my property and figure out what it would likely cost to have certain parts of the work done by those who know the local land and trees.
This way you can determine what you are really capable of doing, realistically, on your land with the tractor you plan to buy.
I'll give you my own personal experience to toss around while contemplating what you want to do in your situation.
Briefly, I started an addition at our house in 2009. I hired a builder and he sub-contracted an excavator to dig holes for foundation, new septic, etc. We added a 30 x 30' with a 15 x 12' L onto the 30 x30' kitchen/ dining room.
During this process I bought my first tractor/loader/backhoe, a Kioti 3 cylinder DK-35se/hst. It was great and I put it to work- probably a little too enthusiastically, and ended up bending the loader support structure. I had it repaired and bent it again. Then in '010 I traded up to a DK-40se/hst with 1750# greater lift capacity, 4 cylinder, and now I'm happier than all get out. I have the KB-2485 backhoe and it's great, but it's not really a stump digger full time. I bought a 'ripper tooth' from Michigan Iron & Equipment, semi- custom made, to dig out tree roots, and a log grapple, and I can now tackle just about any tree stump that comes along, BUT do I want to dig out each and every stump I create or come across on my property. Maybe originally, but I've found it's just not practical nor productive time and effort wise to do so. Truthfully, stumps, especially big ones are a pain to dig out even for small trackhoes.
I ended up using the excavator's machines to dig out 98% of the stumps from trees I dropped, and stack them to burn, and haul the stumps to a dump site, because stumps do not burn well. I, my son and his best friend spent WEEKS cutting trees into a mix-matched jumble of what looked in some places like a nuclear blast blowdown, which we then tried desperately to clean up by chain sawing a path through, with the intent of stacking and burning acres of felled trees. We worked for weeks and eventually called back the excavator and two large machines to finish the job.
It took two machines working 8-10 hours/day over two weeks to complete the clearing we had begun. It probably would have taken us a year to do the same job ourselves with the tractor and several men including me working constantly and much less effectively.
My point is some jobs make sense to hire out, others one can do over time at reasonable effort levels, and some tasks are just impossible to do without the right equipment no matter how motivated one may be.
FWIW, I have over $300K into excavation on my property, and the one I bought next door to sell as a flip house over a period of 3-4 years from start to finish. I also built a huge barn on my property while in process of doing the addition to my house, so that took a LOT of excavator work too. This is NOT to discourage you- you sound motivated, BUT IMHO, it makes sense to figure out what you can do and what you want to do and how you're going to get there by real assessment of your objectives through consultation with those who've been there already.

Good luck. And, BTW, get yourself a Kioti - you won't regret it.:thumbsup:

 

[troutsqueezer]

We bought our first tractor because it was "cute". :cloud9:

I was just lucky it was a B21 'cause I didn't know a darn thing about them at that point.

 

[MarkV]

Just my 2 cents. If you plan to clear much of your wooded 25 acres hire it out. If you want to clear a smaller amount and do the building yourself buy a used commercial backhoe and sell it after you are settled. What you would buy now to meet your initial goals and what you will need later to maintain and work your homestead will be two different things. Good-luck.

MarkV

 

[Ted Summey]

Troutsqueezer, that takes a confident man to admit. What is this word "cute" and what does it have to do with tractors. It isn't in my copy of A Man's Dictionary of Tractor Terms LOL!

 

[GreenWannabe]

Sure it is - it means "A small pretty shiney thing."

 

[sd455dan]

Welcome! You didn't say what size stumps you will be clearing. I agree with the previous posts suggesting that the heavier work clearing stumps be hired. Especially if you are talking about any size to the trees. A tractor is a fine tool but is not the best tool for clearing property of stumps. A tractor properly equipped CAN dig stumps out but it is slow work. There are lots of members here who have and do use their tractors for that kind of work.

If doing the clearing yourself is really important to you, and that is understandable, I suggest renting or leasing a dozer, track loader with a multifunction bucket or an excavator to do the initial work. Then invest in a "right-sized" tractor for your ongoing work and maintenance. An excavator with a thumb attachment on the bucket for gripping and picking things up would be ideal.

There's lots of good advice on this site. You just have to be able to evaluate what is best for you.

Agreed- and if by clearing you have more than a few standing trees and stumps to be removed, I would suggest renting an excavator in the 30-40k lbs. range, or if you don't have excavator experience hire it out. A large ex can just push the trees over, pick them up with a thumb, hold them while the root ball is cut off with a chainsaw and pile the trees for firewood or what ever. We rented a 312 cat excavator, cleared the entire site , dug 6 foot deep trenches for power water phone and cleared and leveled our house sight and finished in under a week. We did buy a tractor and it helped clearing and building a garage and horse barn but the excavator got the big stuff done quick. and no big stumps were left to dig out.