Need buying advice - Kubota/JD/NH

[Oleozz]

A year ago I bought a cab tractor and all this week while using it I was thinking how nice it was to be out of the heat and noise. This past winter plowing snow was not a chore any more, I sorta looked forward to it because I could be out of the weather. If you can afford a cab you won't regret it.
One other thought, buy local, even if you have to pay a bit more.

 

[Bob_Young]

I see the slow slide toward a cab model is beginning to accelerate. Nothing wrong with that if your situation is right. One thing that can burst the cab bubble is trees. If you're going to be doing a lot of work near spreading, leaning, or low-limbed trees, the cab will be constantly at risk. So will a ROPS, for that matter; but they're tougher than cabs and can be folded.

As much as I'd like a cab, the trees I work around preclude it. If that's not the case, then.....color me jealous
Bob

 

[N80]

I agree Bob. Would love to do my summer mowing in a dust free air conditioned cab! But the truth is, I spend as much time on narrow woods roads as I do in open fields. In fact, my tractor spends a bit of time just in the woods. I do a lot of moving brush piles and downed trees too. I'm sure if I had a cab I'd be very careful and just avoid some of those activities, but then again, some of those activities are what makes having a tractor so important to me.

 

[IslandTractor]

I see the slow slide toward a cab model is beginning to accelerate. Nothing wrong with that if your situation is right. One thing that can burst the cab bubble is trees. If you're going to be doing a lot of work near spreading, leaning, or low-limbed trees, the cab will be constantly at risk.

Of course one could argue that any tree limb that endangers a cab should be promptly sent to tree heaven. A few more mouthfuls of dust and clogged sinuses following unprotected mowing could cause me to get out the pole saw to make my fields "cab friendly". We'll see how it goes this summer.

 

[Offy]

I like a "roadster". No top, no windows just plenty of outdoors all around. But then again, I live in Florida and use my traclor for weekends and evenings and don't ride it for a job.

 

[Kao]

Well...thought I'd stop back and let everyone know I appreciated all the good advice.

The whole cab thing kinda got to me...so I compromised a bit. I do have a cab and I do have a Kubota (motor).

I ended up buying a Bobcat skidsteer! It's used (1600 hours) so that put it into my budget, its 46hp (1700+lbs lift w/o counterweights), has a heated cab, new tires and a nice dirt bucket.

It fits my immediate priority of doing loader work..and it does it quite well.
I got it yesterday and I've already cleared out half a pile of gravel and filled in all my pot holes in my main driveway and re-enforced an additional driveway to my pole building.
Dug up and removed some old sidewalk pieces, leveled off some high rutted spots in the yard...and I have a whole list just waiting for my evenings and weekends.

My neighbor has a Bobcat and I really got tired of pestering him every time I needed something. Plus he has been unavailable since he works out of town a lot now doing demolition jobs with his skidsteer.
Part of my decision was made by watching my neighbor. He has two tractors, a Bobcat, full size backhoe/loader, forklifts, bucket lifts, etc...
He uses is skidsteer for 90% of his "around the house" projects.
As a big added plus - he has several attachments for his Bobcat and told me to "grab whatever I wanted and play around with it." such as his auger, landscaper, forks, etc...

He was pretty excited to see me get the machine. He is already trying to get me to do some weekend jobs with him...so he can get them done faster (not having to change implaments out as often) and I can get a little return on my money. hehe.

Here are some pictures.

Thanks again for all the advice from everyone. This is a great site!

 

[Z-Michigan]

Congrats! The machine looks great - actually looks pretty much new, so the 1600 hours must not have taken much of a toll. I'm jealous - looks like I need another toy!

 

[DK35vince]

Looks like new. Sure doesn't look like it has 1600 hours.
Congratulations.

 

[machmeter62]

Kao, welcome to TBN. Also, great description of your intended uses. This is an outstanding example of when the appropriate tractor size doesn't correlate with acreage. I think you are looking at the right size, and I would second the suggestion to consider a B3030 cab - slightly small, but the cab would be soooooooo nice to have that you probably wouldn't mind a couple extra hours in the seat. I think a B3030 would be perfectly adequate if you're willing to use a 4' wide brush mower. If you want 5' or 6', it will be too small.

I would strongly, strongly recommend HST for your planned uses. FEL work is much easier and somewhat faster with HST, and mowing can be too if you have obstacles to mow around.

Too bad that the JD dealer isn't good, because they make really nice tractors. Fortunately Kubota and NH do also. I think dealer quality is roughly equal in importance to quality of the tractor itself. In your situation, I would likely choose Kubota. Only caveat is that I wouldn't expect the local dealer to give you much service if you buy from far away to save a few bucks. However, the farther dealer may be willing to give you free transport for service, which would cancel that out. I would discuss service as well as price with both dealers. I disagree with IslandTractor on your likelihood of needing Kubota service, based on my own shopping and reading the Kubota forums here. It's not a knock on them, just a statement that all brands can have issues and I wouldn't buy something planning to have no issues.

I agree with "Z" on issues. Remember, those tractors come in a partial assembled metal crate, with the remaining assembly done at the dealership. I have seen some new tractors with poor final assembly!