Comparison newbie

[louisianaswampman]

hey y'all! I'm new to looking at tractors and plan on purchasing one here very soon. i have a older john deere 950 (hamidown) and its just about crapped out. I'm looking at purchasing a new mahindra or kubota. I'm asking a favor from you guys on who recommends which one may be better in terms of long lasting and easy to take care of. i have 60 acre pine plantation that i bush hog the roads and food plots in and i purchased another 7 acre field as a home site, and will also be keeping up another 10 acre field now the we don't own cattle anymore. so my question is.

.Mahindra 4025 2wd, no loader, and a disk and bush hog.
.kubota 38 hp package with the loader, bucket, grapple bucket, and a bush hog.

can anyone suggest the pros and cons? which may be best for my situation?
thank you!

 

[deerseeker001]

Welcome from Wisconsin

 

[jimpen]

:welcome: from Ohio.

I would recommend that you get the FEL at least. I looked at various tractors that were second hand and without a FEL for years. I always felt I might as well get the largest MTD piece of crap than pay an extra $2-3K for a large mower but had no other advantages.

 

[terryknight]

i also vote for FEL. also grapple. and 4wd.

 

[GManBart]

Which Kubota are you looking at, the L3800? Kubota and Mahindra have very different build styles, for lack of a better term. Kubota tends to build machines that are lighter, with less FEL and 3pt lift capacity, for a given engine size/power. Mahindra tends to build much heavier machines that have more FEL and 3pt lift, with similar sized engines. It wouldn't surprise me to see 1,000lbs difference between the two of similar engine power. That may, or may not, make a difference in what you're planning on doing.

I can't imagine buying a new tractor to serve as your primary machine and not getting the FEL.

Welcome to TBN!

 

[Cherokee140]

hey y'all! I'm new to looking at tractors and plan on purchasing one here very soon. i have a older john deere 950 (hamidown) and its just about crapped out. I'm looking at purchasing a new mahindra or kubota. I'm asking a favor from you guys on who recommends which one may be better in terms of long lasting and easy to take care of. i have 60 acre pine plantation that i bush hog the roads and food plots in and i purchased another 7 acre field as a home site, and will also be keeping up another 10 acre field now the we don't own cattle anymore. so my question is.

.Mahindra 4025 2wd, no loader, and a disk and bush hog.
.kubota 38 hp package with the loader, bucket, grapple bucket, and a bush hog.

can anyone suggest the pros and cons? which may be best for my situation?
thank you!

That is a pretty open question there. Personally I think that I would go with the machine that has the longest proven track record. That does not mean that down the road you might have problems finding this part or that part....I had that with a JD machine. But to paint with a real broad brush I think that the bigger companies that have sold more units are usually better to deal with down the road. Also if you are looking at a very popular machine I think that is another plus, as if there are tons of them sold, down the road there will be more used parts available....another thing I learned lately.

If they don't make the parts new anymore and you pick a machine that was in very wide use you stand a better chance at finding what you need at one of the tractor salvage yards.

My two bits.

 

[jeff9366]

Can anyone suggest the pros and cons? which may be best for my situation?

.Mahindra 4025 2wd, no loader, and a disk and bush hog.
.kubota 38 hp package with the loader, bucket, grapple bucket, and a bush hog.

Both Mahindra and Kubota are mainstream tractor brands; with Kubota enjoying far greater sales in the USA.

Both my Kubota tractors have had four wheel drive, as did my first tractor, a John Deere 750. I occasionally operate two 50+horsepower John Deere tractors with two wheel drive on other properties. I find two wheel drive to be very limiting and would not buy a tractor without four wheel drive. Fuel is expensive. You have to use a much heavier tractor to pull implements with two wheel drive, which costs in fuel, and two wheel drive tractors get mired much easier. Two wheel drive is poor on slopes.

You have 60 acres of woods. A grapple will be highly useful.

How distant are the Mahindra and Kubota dealers for parts and service? Transporting a tractor for service on a heavy duty trailer, pulled by a heavy duty truck, is expensive.

 

[GManBart]

I occasionally operate two 50+horsepower John Deere tractors with two wheel drive on other properties. I find two wheel drive to be very limiting and would not buy a tractor without four wheel drive. Fuel is expensive. You have to use a much heavier tractor to pull implements with two wheel drive, which costs in fuel, and two wheel drive tractors get mired much easier.

A lot of that will depend upon tire selection. I can go places with my 2wd Massey that I can't with the 4wd LS. The Massey has R1 tires and is light years better in mud/wet stuff than the LS with R4s.

Also, saying you need a much heavier 2wd tractor to pull "implements" could be misleading....maybe ground-engaging implements, but something like a rotary cutter, flail mower, etc, would be different.

Not trying to be picky, just trying to keep from confusing the OP with blanket statements that aren't always true.

 

[jeff9366]

I find two wheel drive to be very limiting and would not buy a tractor without four wheel drive. Fuel is expensive. You have to use a much heavier tractor to pull implements with two wheel drive, which costs in fuel, and two wheel drive tractors get mired much easier. Two wheel drive is poor on slopes.

I reiterate my judgement. I have the opportunity to compare 2-WD Vs 4-WD tractors on a regular basis. (Deere 5103 and Deere 5105) Louisiana soil is not too much different from northern Florida soil.

Both the 2-WD Deere tractors have ag tires. My 4-WD Kubota L3560 has R4 Industrial Tires.

I was bulling my Land Pride RCF2060 Rotary Cutter through thick brush yesterday. (And, man, was it hot!) Tractor and implement would not have penetrated the thick stuff without Four Wheel Drive.

 

[GManBart]

I reiterate my judgement. I have the opportunity to compare 2-WD Vs 4-WD tractors on a regular basis. (Deere 5103 and Deere 5105) Louisiana soil is not too much different from northern Florida soil.

Both the 2-WD Deere tractors have ag tires. My 4-WD Kubota L3560 has R4 Industrial Tires.

I was bulling my Land Pride RCF2060 Rotary Cutter through thick brush yesterday. (And, man, was it hot!) Tractor and implement would not have penetrated the thick stuff without Four Wheel Drive.

Hot and dry is different than wet and slippery....which is why blanket statements like you've been making don't help the OP.

I've taken my LS (5,200lbs with FEL on it, and R4s) into a muddy/wet area to clear brush and had nothing but slipping and sliding. Went to the barn, swapped it for the Massey 241 (4,300lbs with R1s) with the same cutter, and had virtually zero slipping or sliding around. Same day, same place, same cutter, and the lighter 2WD tractor with R1s was far better in the muddy stuff than the 1,000lb heavier 4WD tractor with R4s. That's about as direct a comparison as you can get.

That's just one situation, so it won't always work out that way, but a blanket statement saying that a 2WD tractor has to be heavier to do the same job is simply not true.