orgt
Bronze Member
Like many other people who don't have 10 grand or more to put into one of those yummy new diesel tractors I'm trying to make a short list of quality SHAFT tractors (I mean by that a shaft between tranny and motor, and a shaft-driven mowing deck, anything else like PTOs front or back would be of course really nice but aren't a must at this point for me. Diesel would be super sweet!) A used tractors is not a problem as long as it's got low hours and has been well maintained. "Older" tracs are fine as long as there's some kind of consensus on model X being so good and reliable that YOU would buy one even now <G>.
I have two financial scenarii for those who might ask:
Low $$ (now and next few months): 2K
High $$ (high for my wife and I anyway, $$ in possibly by the Spring wish us luck LOL): 6K
I thought I'd start and share a short list based on my current (and very limited) knowledge of all those brands. Ideally I'm looking for a minimum 54 in. deck. Amongst new machines it seems only Cub Cadet sells affordable shaft-driven tracs but one wonders if the competition might take them on with their new 2007 lines (any birdies out there?)
I hope to get lots of input from all of you tractorheads. I think this thread might benefit lots of other folks who like me are tired of belt-based garden tractors. I now realize that I pretty much wasted twenty five hundred dollars with the last one I bought. Had I put that money into a shaft tractor I'm pretty darn sure it wouldn't need to be replaced after a few years...
Here it my draft list. Please chime in, what would YOU recommend? And if a model had a "bad year" due to flaws that made it a dog, please mention that too! Other than that, all makes/models welcome, thanks for any contribution!
Let's make this short list as good as we can, if I goofed up I'll be happy to remove any model:
Cub Cadet GT3200
Cub Cadet GT2554
Cub cadet 3185
Cub Cadet 3235
Kubota GR2100
Kubota GR2000
Kubota GR1900
Kubota GR1800
G5200H G6200H
G5200H G5200H
I have two financial scenarii for those who might ask:
Low $$ (now and next few months): 2K
High $$ (high for my wife and I anyway, $$ in possibly by the Spring wish us luck LOL): 6K
I thought I'd start and share a short list based on my current (and very limited) knowledge of all those brands. Ideally I'm looking for a minimum 54 in. deck. Amongst new machines it seems only Cub Cadet sells affordable shaft-driven tracs but one wonders if the competition might take them on with their new 2007 lines (any birdies out there?)
I hope to get lots of input from all of you tractorheads. I think this thread might benefit lots of other folks who like me are tired of belt-based garden tractors. I now realize that I pretty much wasted twenty five hundred dollars with the last one I bought. Had I put that money into a shaft tractor I'm pretty darn sure it wouldn't need to be replaced after a few years...
Here it my draft list. Please chime in, what would YOU recommend? And if a model had a "bad year" due to flaws that made it a dog, please mention that too! Other than that, all makes/models welcome, thanks for any contribution!
Let's make this short list as good as we can, if I goofed up I'll be happy to remove any model:
Cub Cadet GT3200
Cub Cadet GT2554
Cub cadet 3185
Cub Cadet 3235
Kubota GR2100
Kubota GR2000
Kubota GR1900
Kubota GR1800
G5200H G6200H
G5200H G5200H