Tractor Sizing Large Compact or Small Utility Tractor

[jeff9366]

I would use bottom plow and harrows for breaking fresh sod, then use rototilling to smooth it. Then plow again every couple years to break up compaction. I already have a John Deere 550 offset rototiller, hoping I can offset enough to use in larger compact or smaller utility.

Consider Unverferth "Perfecta": Cultivating with a Perfecta - YouTube

"Perfecta" Specs: Perfecta Field Cultivators - Unverferth Seedbed Tillage

https://media.unverferth.com/unverferth/tillage/perfecta-field-cultivator.pdf

I speculate a Perfecta would not foster plow pan. Perfecta appears time efficient and fuel efficient.

 

[hamdog]

Also I don't believe I stated this but to keep cost down I'm sticking with an open station tractor, would love a cab but the added cost and fear of breaking a window working in the thick woods has veered me away.

 

[newbury]

Your last post was very significant.

Also I don't believe I stated this but to keep cost down I'm sticking with an open station tractor, would love a cab but the added cost and fear of breaking a window working in the thick woods has veered me away.

I was a Vermont resident from 1958 until 1979 and still have a 73 acre piece of it in East Fletcher. An open station tractor may make you reluctant to operate during "snow season". Sure you will get out there and blow snow but a lot of other chores may get "put off".
Now I realize Vermont has warmed up since I left, but "snow season" used to be September through May.

Unless you have a great need/want for a backhoe I suggest a cab would be worth far more, just be careful of the windows.

I purchased a home last fall with 27 acres of land (5-7) acres of open meadow (potential to add another 5 acres of meadow and 12acres of pasture/woods), and 20acres of mixed woods. I知 looking to eventually start my own small farm (vegetables, fruit trees, xmas trees, few beef cows, chickens, etc) to carry me into retirement. I知 hoping this tractor will be my do all tractor, but understand it would be best to have more than one. Below is a list of items I will be doing:

Snow blow a 650FT-700FT driveway
Box blade / grade driveway
Brush hog meadows (using a rotary mower or flail), currently I have someone haying the meadow but not real reliable, hopefully in future hay myself
Potentially haying meadows (might buy an older tractor for bailing or mowing and use compact/small utility for

As others wrote, a small hay operation is very expensive.

Logging woods for firewood
Clearing/cleaning up woods for sap lines and trails
Wood Chipping
Plowing/Harrowing areas for garden
Rototilling
Post hole digging
Trenching and digging with backhoe

Buy/rent a used excavator

Pallet forks
Bedding gardens
Loader work (compost, gravel, moving large rocks)
Landscape around yard (large yard approx -1.5 to 2 acres)

I'm torn between what size tractor I should get and what transmission and mfg I should go with. I use to own John deere tractors but they have priced themself right out of the market I believe, and starting to see Kubota do the same. Locally within 20min from my house I have a John Deere, Mahindra, Kubota, New Holland Dealer and Massey. Neither of these dealers have a great reputation. Within 1hr-15min I have the same dealers available with better reputations. Anyway I'm initialing looking at the following tractors, I have not received final pricing yet hoping to get that over the wknd:

Massey 1749 12x12 Power Shuttle
New Holland Boomer 47 and 50 16x16 Synchro Shuttle
Kubota MX5200 8x8 Synchro Shuttle
Kubota M5660 8x8 hydro shuttle

My gut is pushing me towards the MX5200 but I'm concerned if the lowest gear will be slow enough for a rototiller or garden bedder, also I'm concerned with the dry clutch. I wish Kubota had the hydroshuttle option in this size tractor. The M5660 I think might be a little over kill for what I need along with price. I also would like to be able to trailer the tractor easily and pull with a 1/2ton truck, I can upgrade to a 3/4ton but hate to. I think the M5660 would be able to do everything I want plus hay in the future. The New Holland's I can't find much for review on them or there low range speed with the 16x16 synchro, they do not state whether these have a dry or wet clutch. I'm concerned with their reliability. The Massey is a great little package, but the dealers around here seem to be slowly diminishing and the closet dealer is very small so I'm concerned with future service and support. Also I've read that the new loaders with the 1700 series are weak and slow.

I apologize for the long read, but hopefully you guys can help persuade me in the right direction. Thank you!

As much as I like having a backhoe in your situation I'd trade for a cab and HST.

The MX5200 is close in size to my M4700:


And would do well for all your needs, but you will want HST and a cab.

And as far as trailering you need to add in all the attachments and things like loaded tires etc. for weight, I'm pretty sure my M4700 weight almost doubled when I added in loaded tires, FEL, bucket, chipper, fuel, chains etc.

 

[Oldoak]

hamdog, of the four tractors you listed, I would go with the Kubota MX5200 8x8 Synchro Shuttle. Which also appears to be your gut feeling. I am not a fan of hydros accept in a garden tractor.

Although, price wise, I don't think Kabota are any cheaper than J.Deere.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I would also urge you to go with HST. I have a Utility (LS P7010) with 20 F/20R gear drive with shuttle shift(have to clutch to shift) and believe me, it will wear on your knees after a while. The P7010 was too large to handle tight working spots although I have used it a lot in the woods and never broke any thing (so far). You do have to be careful about going under low hanging limbs, not so much for the glass but for the roof and lights.
After a year or so of ownership of the P7010, I found that lots of places I needed to get to, I couldn't so I found a second tractor was needed. Thanks to a fellow TBN member, I found a used (slightly with 68 hours) Kubota B26 TLB which is my go to tractor for almost all my work now. I put about 100 hours on my P 7010 the first year but have only put 56 on it in the last 6 years. I only use it for the extra heavy lifting and garden tilling with my 6 foot tiller which is a little too heavy for my B26 to handle. I do use my backhoe quite a bit still, mostly digging up rocks or tree stumps, cleaning out drainage ditches etc. I have recouped my money for the entire TLB purchase in the 450+ hours that I have used it so far although YMMV depending on how much work you have for a back hoe. If you don't plan to do a lot of backhoe work, you might consider investing the money in a cab rather than a backhoe attachment. If available, a rented excavator will do a lot of work in a short time period and is much more maneuverable. I like the fact that an excavator can swing 360 degrees rather than the 85-90 left or right for a backhoe. This is very handy when cleaning out a ditch or pond where you need to get your spoils back away from the edge of work.

As for haying, DONT DO IT. Equipment cost is way too much for that limited amount of hay even if you put the entire 27 acres in hay and used a small square baler, you still couldn't justify the cost of the equipment plus you would need a much larger tractor than all your other chores requires.
I really don't have any favorite tractor brand but I would think that a 40-45 HP (PTO) would be way more than you would need to do any chore that you have listed. My brother in law uses a New Holland 2910 to pull a 6 foot bush hog, lift round bales 3 high plus do all the FEL work that he needs on his cattle operation. I don't see that HST robs a lot of HP from CUT tractors since most if not all have more power than they have traction anyway. 3-4 HP from engine is not a significant amount for most instances and they are robust enough to handle all the ground engaging tasks that you would have PLUS be way easier on the legs when doing FEL work or even tight work with a mower that may require slow forward and reverse actions to get in and out of tight spots.
I think that if you try the HST, you will like it much better than a gear drive even a power shuttle type. I had a Yanmar with power shift and while good, it was not even close to working with HST especially in tight conditions where inching forward and reverse was needed. At the time, I thought the power shift was greatest thing until I got my HST tractor.

 

[audsp98]

I went with a Mahindra 3550 HST for my 33 acres. It's a large compact and works well for my needs, which are similar to what you listed. I also have the backhoe and do not regret the decision to purchase it with my tractor. I can work at my leisure to do the backhoe work. In my area, I saved thousands by going with Mahindra over Kubota and JD.

 

[hamdog]

Newbury, I live in Fairfield which is adjacent to Fletcher. The cold winters snow blowing and warm summers brush hogging does not bother me, yet. This year I plowed the driveway with a 4ft plow on an atv (big snow storms took me 4hrs). I'm not sold on a cab now, I'd rather take the money and put it into attachments.

As far as the HST, my dad has a Deere one series 1026 HST and what I don't like about the HST is your constantly adjusting throttle, I guess I could leave it at the higher RPM's. I do have many hours experience on a Deere 3320 HST and a Massey 1533 Powershuttle in my previous life. The HST is nice for close quarters yard work, loader work and snowblowing, but I like the powershuttle on the Massey as well. I feel these tractors are to small for the chores I have now.

Dealer support is going to the number deciding factor along with price on this purchase. The thing I need to do is see if they will be willing to let me use a tractor around my property for a wknd to see if the Synchroshuttle or HST is what I want. Thanks guys!

 

[hamdog]

I went with a Mahindra 3550 HST for my 33 acres. It's a large compact and works well for my needs, which are similar to what you listed. I also have the backhoe and do not regret the decision to purchase it with my tractor. I can work at my leisure to do the backhoe work. In my area, I saved thousands by going with Mahindra over Kubota and JD.

audsp98, have you had any issues with your 3550. I was looking at this unit as well, the dealer and MFG support though makes me nervous. I have heard mixed reviews. I priced a Mahindra 3540 PST last fall with loader, weighted tires and rear remotes, open station and they wanted $34,553 with 0%/84mos and for the 3550 PST $37,830 with 0%/84mos. These prices are higher than the MX5200.

 

[newbury]

Newbury, I live in Fairfield which is adjacent to Fletcher. The cold winters snow blowing and warm summers brush hogging does not bother me, yet. This year I plowed the driveway with a 4ft plow on an atv (big snow storms took me 4hrs). I'm not sold on a cab now, I'd rather take the money and put it into attachments.<snip>

Well then I know your territory. My land is on the west of RT 108 and the Bakersfield/Fletcher Town line is the northern boundary.


I wasn't trying to indicate that snow blowing would be a problem, but I've noticed as I get older things like sleet and cold affect my joints more. Thus when those conditions happen down in Mississippi I'm more liable to put off non-critical "tractor chores" (which only occurs a few times per year).

As far as HST vs gear - that's a real old argument. My B7610 is HST, my M4700 is shuttle-shift, I would have preferred an HST but that would have been at least several thousand more (I only paid about 12K for it in 2013). I don't have to do a lot of back and forth work with the M4700, rather lately it's been load it up, drive out to the trail, cut some trees and drag them back. Or run my rotary cutter, and that's very little back and forth.

But the couple of times I've "plowed" snow in Virginia with my B7610 I really appreciated the HST because it required a lot of back and forth work.

 

[hamdog]

I can most definitely see where hst transmission has it's benefits, and to be quite honest I'm still between the two. I'm now wondering if I take the $10k for a backhoe and invest into a mini ex in lieu of? The only issue is loosing out on the 0% financing that most companies are running right now.