trf215
New member
Ok, I'm new to this site as of today and don't know much of anything about tractors so I sure would appreciate some help.
I have a 600' "s" shaped uphill gravel (not much gravel left) driveway. The driveway is located at the top of an open hill overlooking a valley in central NY. To put it mildly the wind can be brutal and some days causes large hard packed snow drifts that you would think was sand. To top it off about 30 feet near the top of the driveway is prone to icing. (But it really is a nice place to live in the summer.)
I plowed with a SUV which worked reasonably well except for the damage to the driveway and yard plus in bad winters my driveway looked like a bobsled run. Well, a few days ago my mechanic advised me it was time to retire my SUV so I am giving serious thought to buying a tractor with a heated cab and front blower.
I've done some quick research and like the used Kubota B7800s. I found a local dealer with a used 2003 B7800, hydro, 30 hp., with 100 hours on it, LDR, and a heated Curtis cab, for $15,500. The tractor was used by local school district. The dealer also quoted me a list price of $5,357 on an in stock front mount Kubota 51" high capacity snowblower. Here's the price breakdown: snowblower - $2,735, hydraulic chute rotator - $764, quick hitch - $1044, mid PTO driveling kit - $620, and front half PTO driveline kit - $194. The dealer offered to give it to me for an installed price of $4,500.
So what do you think? Are the prices for the tractor and snowblower reasonable? Do you think the tractor/snowblower could tackle my driveway? Should I fill the tractor tires and/or get chains? Also, as freezing slush is a big problem in March, would the snowblower get low enough to blow the slush out? The main thing I'm concerned about is reliability. The last two winters I had my SUV breakdown in the middle of snowstorms and as you can imagine it was very ugly. I also don't know if this matters but right now I can only leave the tractor outside in the winter. I assume that's no big deal.
I need to make a decision on this fairly soon as snow will be here before you know it and I want to hunt the rest of deer season with some piece of mind.
Thanks again for the help.
I have a 600' "s" shaped uphill gravel (not much gravel left) driveway. The driveway is located at the top of an open hill overlooking a valley in central NY. To put it mildly the wind can be brutal and some days causes large hard packed snow drifts that you would think was sand. To top it off about 30 feet near the top of the driveway is prone to icing. (But it really is a nice place to live in the summer.)
I plowed with a SUV which worked reasonably well except for the damage to the driveway and yard plus in bad winters my driveway looked like a bobsled run. Well, a few days ago my mechanic advised me it was time to retire my SUV so I am giving serious thought to buying a tractor with a heated cab and front blower.
I've done some quick research and like the used Kubota B7800s. I found a local dealer with a used 2003 B7800, hydro, 30 hp., with 100 hours on it, LDR, and a heated Curtis cab, for $15,500. The tractor was used by local school district. The dealer also quoted me a list price of $5,357 on an in stock front mount Kubota 51" high capacity snowblower. Here's the price breakdown: snowblower - $2,735, hydraulic chute rotator - $764, quick hitch - $1044, mid PTO driveling kit - $620, and front half PTO driveline kit - $194. The dealer offered to give it to me for an installed price of $4,500.
So what do you think? Are the prices for the tractor and snowblower reasonable? Do you think the tractor/snowblower could tackle my driveway? Should I fill the tractor tires and/or get chains? Also, as freezing slush is a big problem in March, would the snowblower get low enough to blow the slush out? The main thing I'm concerned about is reliability. The last two winters I had my SUV breakdown in the middle of snowstorms and as you can imagine it was very ugly. I also don't know if this matters but right now I can only leave the tractor outside in the winter. I assume that's no big deal.
I need to make a decision on this fairly soon as snow will be here before you know it and I want to hunt the rest of deer season with some piece of mind.
Thanks again for the help.