I spent about 6 months looking at the other "major" (in this area John Deere and Kubota) brands before going with a Kioti CK35 HST with a 7 ft Woods backhoe complete with 7 position thumb. It now has 181 hours on it in 19 months. I use it for light logging, putting rounds on my wood splitter, snow clearing, grading about 3/4 mile of private road with a box blade and back blade as well as general use in moving dirt and manure on our 14 acres. Found it has worked better than expected. One of the reasons I really looked at it is the ground clearance. If I am going into the bush I sure didn't want to bend/break something underneath. It has the R4 tires which so far have worked very well.
I would drive several different models and then see which one works best for you.
