jrdepew
Silver Member
Hello All,
I have been lurking for a few weeks, doing some reading, and finally decided it was time to make a post. I have a little under 4 acres of land currently. I mow about half of it with the LT180 and am happy with its performance. I am looking for a tractor for the following tasks:
-There are 15+ stumps in the "field" section of my land, standing from 3" to 36" tall. This makes it impossible to mow with the LT180 as I would end up breaking something. I would like to be able to remove the stumps and use the tractor to mow/hog this ~1 acre part of my yard once or twice a year. The biggest stump is probably 8" diameter, the smallest being 3" diameter.
-Many of these stumps are located on a grade that my LT180 doesn't like climbing with even the slightest amount of moisture on the grass, so a 4wd tractor would be a big help here
-Old garden needs to be turned back into lawn....This garden was built near the leach field of the septic system, and it is also WAY to big for me (25' x 20' or so). It is overgrown and uglyyy. We built a small garden higher up on our property. I would also like to be able to rent or borrow a tiller to turn this garden once a year or so.
-Smaller raised bed (maybe was a garden) needs to be knocked down and turned back into lawn. It is approximately 2 ft wide by 10 ft long. I have a couple more of these around the property as well that I would like smoothed out.
-I have a HUGE bramble of blackberry bushes, and other NASTY prickers that I would like to pull out. At least 10' diameter. Thinking about wrapping a chain around a few at a time and using the bucket to lift them up and out of the ground to get rid of the roots. This would also be the perfect spot to have a nice burn pit in the future, and maybe a horseshoe pit as well.
-I have some drainage work that needs doing on my property. Main problem is that the french drain (which works very well) dumps out into the back yard, so it is always wet at that section. I would like to extend this back near the woods and build a critter and crush proof exit. I was also going to add fill and possibly a few dry wells to the front yard as there are some low spots that stay soupy when we get a week or so of heavy rain. These weren't a concern this year, but they were BAD last year and we couldn't mow the front yard.
-Spreading crushed stone on my driveway until I put up the money for blacktop
-Lots of working as a "powered wheel barrow"
-Snow removal
I am sure I will think of 1000's of other uses for the tractor as well as I use it more and more.
What I THINK I want is:
25-35hp
FEL
ROPS
4wd
HST
Optional backhoe
If I get a JD that can accept the backhoe on my co-workers 2520, then he said I could borrow that when I wanted to do the drainage work. I am also thinking that a 2520 is about the perfect size tractor. I will have around 12k to put down on a tractor when I get around to buying it. I am selling my race car project (my only toy currently) to get the tractor, so the tractor will become my toy as well.
The local JD dealer has a 2320 for sale with a drive over MMM, tiller, and FEL for 10950. It is a repo with 180 hours on it. The price seems great, but after reading the hydraulic specs on this unit, and how much lighter it is than the 2520 as well as the tire size difference, I am thinking that the 2520 is a better size. I am afraid of getting something too small and ending up with a second lawn mower that has a FEL....Then again I have never owned a tractor so I don't know...
The only tractor I have operated is a Yanmar 276d that my neighbor let me borrow for a weekend. I used this to dig 9 post holes in our awful clay/stone soil, as well as move all the extra dirt to a pile at the back of my property. When comparing how this drove to how my HST LT180 drives, I really think that for the work I will be doing that the ease of direction change and the nimbleness of the HST would be better.
I have good mechanical ability and have worked on everything from my turbo race car, welding, to refurbing a coal boiler, to house upgrades and building a deck. I am confident that I can do most anything to a tractor at this point, although I haven't worked on one as of yet. I wouldn't mind buying a tractor that needed a bit of TLC to get it back to working 100%, as long as I wasn't going to spend so much on parts I should have just bought new of course.
I guess my question to the forum is...Is the 2320 enough for my needs? Will going bigger hurt anything except my wallet? Used/new? Brand?
The dealers I have in the area are: John Deere, New Holland, Kubota, Yanmar/Cub, LS, TYM, Zetor, Case, Massey, Kioti, and probably more
The JD and Kubota dealers are closest to my house, while the others are a bit of a drive.
Thanks for reading my novel,
Joe
I have been lurking for a few weeks, doing some reading, and finally decided it was time to make a post. I have a little under 4 acres of land currently. I mow about half of it with the LT180 and am happy with its performance. I am looking for a tractor for the following tasks:
-There are 15+ stumps in the "field" section of my land, standing from 3" to 36" tall. This makes it impossible to mow with the LT180 as I would end up breaking something. I would like to be able to remove the stumps and use the tractor to mow/hog this ~1 acre part of my yard once or twice a year. The biggest stump is probably 8" diameter, the smallest being 3" diameter.
-Many of these stumps are located on a grade that my LT180 doesn't like climbing with even the slightest amount of moisture on the grass, so a 4wd tractor would be a big help here
-Old garden needs to be turned back into lawn....This garden was built near the leach field of the septic system, and it is also WAY to big for me (25' x 20' or so). It is overgrown and uglyyy. We built a small garden higher up on our property. I would also like to be able to rent or borrow a tiller to turn this garden once a year or so.
-Smaller raised bed (maybe was a garden) needs to be knocked down and turned back into lawn. It is approximately 2 ft wide by 10 ft long. I have a couple more of these around the property as well that I would like smoothed out.
-I have a HUGE bramble of blackberry bushes, and other NASTY prickers that I would like to pull out. At least 10' diameter. Thinking about wrapping a chain around a few at a time and using the bucket to lift them up and out of the ground to get rid of the roots. This would also be the perfect spot to have a nice burn pit in the future, and maybe a horseshoe pit as well.
-I have some drainage work that needs doing on my property. Main problem is that the french drain (which works very well) dumps out into the back yard, so it is always wet at that section. I would like to extend this back near the woods and build a critter and crush proof exit. I was also going to add fill and possibly a few dry wells to the front yard as there are some low spots that stay soupy when we get a week or so of heavy rain. These weren't a concern this year, but they were BAD last year and we couldn't mow the front yard.
-Spreading crushed stone on my driveway until I put up the money for blacktop
-Lots of working as a "powered wheel barrow"
-Snow removal
I am sure I will think of 1000's of other uses for the tractor as well as I use it more and more.
What I THINK I want is:
25-35hp
FEL
ROPS
4wd
HST
Optional backhoe
If I get a JD that can accept the backhoe on my co-workers 2520, then he said I could borrow that when I wanted to do the drainage work. I am also thinking that a 2520 is about the perfect size tractor. I will have around 12k to put down on a tractor when I get around to buying it. I am selling my race car project (my only toy currently) to get the tractor, so the tractor will become my toy as well.
The local JD dealer has a 2320 for sale with a drive over MMM, tiller, and FEL for 10950. It is a repo with 180 hours on it. The price seems great, but after reading the hydraulic specs on this unit, and how much lighter it is than the 2520 as well as the tire size difference, I am thinking that the 2520 is a better size. I am afraid of getting something too small and ending up with a second lawn mower that has a FEL....Then again I have never owned a tractor so I don't know...
The only tractor I have operated is a Yanmar 276d that my neighbor let me borrow for a weekend. I used this to dig 9 post holes in our awful clay/stone soil, as well as move all the extra dirt to a pile at the back of my property. When comparing how this drove to how my HST LT180 drives, I really think that for the work I will be doing that the ease of direction change and the nimbleness of the HST would be better.
I have good mechanical ability and have worked on everything from my turbo race car, welding, to refurbing a coal boiler, to house upgrades and building a deck. I am confident that I can do most anything to a tractor at this point, although I haven't worked on one as of yet. I wouldn't mind buying a tractor that needed a bit of TLC to get it back to working 100%, as long as I wasn't going to spend so much on parts I should have just bought new of course.
I guess my question to the forum is...Is the 2320 enough for my needs? Will going bigger hurt anything except my wallet? Used/new? Brand?
The dealers I have in the area are: John Deere, New Holland, Kubota, Yanmar/Cub, LS, TYM, Zetor, Case, Massey, Kioti, and probably more
The JD and Kubota dealers are closest to my house, while the others are a bit of a drive.
Thanks for reading my novel,
Joe