Looking for a good compact tractor

   / Looking for a good compact tractor #21  
I'm for sure in a minority but I don't agree that tractor weight is the most important criteria at all. You can always make a light tractor heaver but you cannot make a heavy tractor lighter. For mowing my lawn I want my tractor as light as possible. If I need extra weight for stability or traction I can always pick up my rear three point hitch weights. If I need more weight up front I have two different sets of front weights depending on the job. The two most important considerations are: How well the dealer takes care of you and is able to supply parts, and how comfortable and intuitive the tractor is to operate. For example I will never buy a treadle pedal HST tractor. Others find them comfortable but I don't. Also very high on the list is reliability.

Actually you are supporting the statement that "weight is most important criteria". You need a machine that can vary weight based on your needs. However that still means it is a very important criteria!

This is the reason Kubota tends to make lighter machines...give the operator the choice. Take a L series, drop the FEL and dont get the rears loaded and you have a really light machine.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #22  
I've 8.5 acres on very hilly property and uneven. Gotta have some clearance. A BX or series 1 JD just won't cut it, but only need about 1300-1600 # and 18.5 hp to get the bush hogging, wood chipping, snow moving and wood hauling jobs done with an occasional bit of dirt hauling or stump pulling. First job for my 18.5 hp 1300 # 4010 was to move 22 tons of gravel. Did fine.

Another philosophy is my neighbor with a "Lamborghini" JD 4052 on 5 acres.

Some places I go with the (now) 2025R, my neighbor's tractor will not fit.

Don't mow lawn with the tractor, only trails. Lawn mowing is now done with battery power Ryobis, both regular and ZT.

Got my eye on a Kubota B2301 for my next tractor.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #23  
As SmallChange has mentioned, "Tractors are not the best machine (not really close) for clearing wooded areas. Rent a large excavator or pay someone to clear it. After, the tractor is great for maintaining."
I entirely agree with this statement. If you have trees you want taken out, renting or hiring a dozer or an excavator will make short work of it. Use your tractor for clean up and later maintenance. You will destroy your new tractor attempting to clear trees. So 5 aceas you want to remove, and how big these dead trees? A Pic would help here. Then again, if the trees are dead anyway, why bother to remove them? Chainsaw them down and leave the stumps? Goats don't care if there are dead stumps around. :)
 
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   / Looking for a good compact tractor #24  
To be fair, a tractor is also not the best tool for mowing a 'lawn'. I think of it more like a Swiss army knife. It does a bunch of things pretty well, but the individual things it can do are often done better by a specialized tool.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #25  
To be fair, a tractor is also not the best tool for mowing a 'lawn'. I think of it more like a Swiss army knife. It does a bunch of things pretty well, but the individual things it can do are often done better by a specialized tool.
Swiss Army knife, yep, and also maybe like channel locks or a crescent wrench. They work okay for many tasks but often the "right" tool for the job will do it better with less risk of injury or damage.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #26  
"Loading" the tractor's rear tires with liquid will increase traction in a cost effective way.

Adding wheel weights will also increase traction, though iron weights are much more costly.

MORE ON WHEEL/TIRE BALLAST:



Consider routinely carrying around a Three Point Hitch implement as FEL counterbalance and additional wheel ballast if you need yet more traction. A considerable amount of the implement weight is transferred to the tractor wheels, both front and rear, through the Three Point Hitch.

Before your next tractor purchase consider this: Within subcompact and compact tractor categories, a significant tractor capability increase requires a bare tractor weight increase of 50%. It takes a 100% increase in bare tractor weight to elicit MY-OH-MY!
Not quite correct. Any weight carried by the 3-point hitch actually reduces the weight on the front axle. Simple physics; the lever principle.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #27  
To be fair, a tractor is also not the best tool for mowing a 'lawn'. I think of it more like a Swiss army knife. It does a bunch of things pretty well, but the individual things it can do are often done better by a specialized tool.
Indeed. That is why I am happy I finally bought a zero turn mower. Extra cost, but it mows the lawn in 1/3 of the time compared to using a tractor with a 3-point mower. That also let me go to a larger tractor (Mahindra 5035HST) with ag tires, that I never use on my lawn. I use it for bushhogging, logging and loader work. My working weight on it is over 10,00 lb; the tractor bare weight is about 5400 lb.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #28  
2032r seems like a good fit. I have 25 acres of sometimes heavily sloped fields, woods from which I pull tons of downed trees every year and flat lands and stables etc. Very rarely do I find something I can't pick up. I've pulled, to my amazement, 50ft trees along the ground. I'd get some wheel spacers if you have sloped land.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #29  
I'm looking for a compact tractor for 11 acres. 5 of those acres have a lot of dead trees ...
I would add to the already good advice: 4WD and equal-sized tires, front and rear. There is an ideal solution for your situation, which seems to be the same as mine: Antonio Carraro TTR 4400. Regrettably expensive and no longer in production. "Pre-owned"?

I'm working at removing dead trees that were downed by the fire crew, on 20-30 degree slopes and very loose footing, so my recommendation comes from experience.
 
   / Looking for a good compact tractor #30  
I would add to the already good advice: 4WD and equal-sized tires, front and rear. There is an ideal solution for your situation, which seems to be the same as mine: Antonio Carraro TTR 4400. Regrettably expensive and no longer in production. "Pre-owned"?

I'm working at removing dead trees that were downed by the fire crew, on 20-30 degree slopes and very loose footing, so my recommendation comes from experience.
Those are indeed great tractors to work on hills. Super low center of gravity and great tractor, along with great stability with the rims setup as wide as they go.

I looked at a Tigre 4000 when I was shopping for a new tractor and kind of regret not going with it. Would fit a lot better in my orchards that the conventional tractor I have now, at the cost of losing the loader capability and some other features, but wouldn't be a big deal either.

Antonio Carraro had to change their line quite a bit due to the Stage V emissions in Europe. Basically the 4000 (31HP) and 4400F (38HP) were discontinued and replaced with the 3800 and 3800F, both with 25HP so it falls under the no DPF requirement. I'm sure they will release higher HP versions of these tractors once they get the emissions figured out and find a place to mount that big DPF.
 
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