What to Buy

[sirjohnathon]

I have read about 500 posts it seems, and I am still not sure what to buy.

Here is what I have: about 60 acres of rolling land in Southern Indiana. At current it is mostly tillable acreage, with about 8 acres of woods and a small stream. My wife an I are currently building a home on the property. I am looking for a good all around tractor to do some of the following chores:

Brush Hogging about 30 of the acres once I put it in grass.

Mowing about 10 acres of lawn

Using a blade to cut a few ATV trails around the woods

Front end loader for setting some metal fence posts / making some hills to jump on the ATV, spreading gravel on drive, etc.

Clearing some snow from drive in the winter

Pulling a trailer around for general cleanup work

I own a company in Kentucky where we use primarily John Deere equipment (large dozers, excavators, artic trucks, etc), and had considered getting a JD but recently I have noticed the Mahindra, Kubutoa, and Montana smaller tractors. The Montana dealer is the closest to our property. I definitely want a cab, 4wd, and front end loader. Not sure what else I need as far as type of drive, HP, etc.

The price is not a big issue, but don't want to pay extra just for a name. I want to pay for quality and the tractor that comes with good attachments.

Any comments are appreciated!!

Thanks,

John

 

[flusher]

I have read about 500 posts it seems, and I am still not sure what to buy.

Here is what I have: about 60 acres of rolling land in Southern Indiana. At current it is mostly tillable acreage, with about 8 acres of woods and a small stream. My wife an I are currently building a home on the property. I am looking for a good all around tractor to do some of the following chores:

Brush Hogging about 30 of the acres once I put it in grass.

Mowing about 10 acres of lawn

Using a blade to cut a few ATV trails around the woods

Front end loader for setting some metal fence posts / making some hills to jump on the ATV, spreading gravel on drive, etc.

Clearing some snow from drive in the winter

Pulling a trailer around for general cleanup work

I own a company in Kentucky where we use primarily John Deere equipment (large dozers, excavators, artic trucks, etc), and had considered getting a JD but recently I have noticed the Mahindra, Kubutoa, and Montana smaller tractors. The Montana dealer is the closest to our property. I definitely want a cab, 4wd, and front end loader. Not sure what else I need as far as type of drive, HP, etc.

The price is not a big issue, but don't want to pay extra just for a name. I want to pay for quality and the tractor that comes with good attachments.

Any comments are appreciated!!

Thanks,

John

With 60 acres and 30 acres of brush hogging, I'd be looking at a tractor in the 60-90 hp (engine) range that can handle at least a 10-ft wide brush hog. Candidates:

Mahindra 7010
JD 5525
Kubota M7040
NH T5040
CaseIH JX70
Challenger MT445B
McCormick CX-75L
Kioti DK90
Massey Ferguson MF583

Versions of these tractors can be had with 4WD and cab. FELs can be dealer-supplied or bought from second sources.

I have a new Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD) for use around my 10 acre place. Mahindra makes solid, heavy, simple tractors. It easily handles a 6-ft Hawkline brush hog.

Previously I had a small 21 hp Kubota B7510HST that I bought new in 2005. Nice machine. My neighbor has a 45 hp Kubota, also very nice.

 

[IslandTractor]

Looks to me like real good advice from Flusher. Those are all well respected brands/machines. See what the dealer situation looks like in your part of Indiana and I'm sure you'll find a good match.

 

[sirjohnathon]

I have looked briefly at the Mahindra, MF, Case, Kubota, and JD....and also the Montana. These all seem to have somewhat local dealers.

From what I can tell, there are basically three price points, with the Montana the cheapest ($30k), the JD the most expensive ($50k), and the others clustered all at about the same price in the middle ($40k).

Is there anything that would make one of them stand out from the others? From what I have seen I like the Kubota, JD, and Montana, but for different reasons. Price for the Montana, name and attachments for the JD, and kind of a blend of both for the Kubota.

I have also noticed that there are about 15 different options you need to choose on each (PTO, Hyrdraulics, etc.) Anything that is a "Must have", a "Don't get", or a "nice to have"?

Thanks for all your help!! I appreciate forums like this where people will help a newby like me go in the right direction.

John

 

[IslandTractor]

I don't own and have not used any of these machines so this is purely second hand. The Kubota M7040 has a lot of fans here. I don't know what an extra 10K would get you from JD. Looking at the Kioti DK90 in comparison to the others seems like it is a bigger class. The Kioti DK65 is a bit closer in horsepower to the Kubota and would be in the 30s I believe.

 

[sirjohnathon]

Thanks. There isn't a close Kioti dealer, so I have pretty well narrowed it down to John Deere, Kubota, or Montana.

 

[ScottFarm]

Sound like the same boat I was in a year ago. I bought the Montana 5740C and i'm very pleased with it. I grew up on Deere and Case and never had a complaint about any of them. I got the 5740 with cab and FEL for 26K. I was concerned about parts because other dealers always put that idea in your mind. With McCormick making the same tractor, i don't think there will be a problem. It seems like Kioti, Montana, and Mahindra are taking a huge chunk out of the 60hp and less tractor market.

 

[Soundguy]

With 30-40 ac to mow.. i'd want about 70hp so i could pull a 10' mower.. etc.. otherwise you will be spending lots of time to mow it..

I have read about 500 posts it seems, and I am still not sure what to buy.

Here is what I have: about 60 acres of rolling land in Southern Indiana. At current it is mostly tillable acreage, with about 8 acres of woods and a small stream. My wife an I are currently building a home on the property. I am looking for a good all around tractor to do some of the following chores:

Brush Hogging about 30 of the acres once I put it in grass.

Mowing about 10 acres of lawn

Using a blade to cut a few ATV trails around the woods

Front end loader for setting some metal fence posts / making some hills to jump on the ATV, spreading gravel on drive, etc.

Clearing some snow from drive in the winter

Pulling a trailer around for general cleanup work

I own a company in Kentucky where we use primarily John Deere equipment (large dozers, excavators, artic trucks, etc), and had considered getting a JD but recently I have noticed the Mahindra, Kubutoa, and Montana smaller tractors. The Montana dealer is the closest to our property. I definitely want a cab, 4wd, and front end loader. Not sure what else I need as far as type of drive, HP, etc.

The price is not a big issue, but don't want to pay extra just for a name. I want to pay for quality and the tractor that comes with good attachments.

Any comments are appreciated!!

Thanks,

John

 

[EddieWalker]

Of the local dealers closest to you, I think Kubota is the best by a huge margin. I don't own a Kubota anything, but allot of peopel will abree with me that they have set the standard that the other brands shoot for. Kubota makes all their own engines, which are probably one of the very best diesels in the world. We're splitting hairs if we try to find a better engine. Of the others, they all use other companies to supply their engines, or they are relativly new and don't have a long term history.

Deere has a great name, but for me, they farm everything out and you just don't know what you are actually buying. If you get a big enough tractor, you might actualy get a Deere engine, but then again, you might not. They tend to buy other brands and paint them their color and label them as a Deere. They do this with their excavators, dumpt trucks and some dozers. In their small tractor line, Yanmar was the main supplier, but they have announced that they are switching to a Chinese engine maker for their new stuff. It's enough to make me very cautious of them.

Montana is also a repainted, chinese tractor that is also sold at Northern Tool. Deeler support and long term reliability is still something that I don't know about. Buying one means that you may or may not have a dealer available five or ten years from now.

For mowing 30 acres, I would consider a batwing over a massive ten footer. The ten foot mower is a very large, flat deck with two blades. It will do a heck of a job, but it will also scalp and ride high over rough terrrain. The batwing will give you three seperate rotary cutters that will each follow the lay of the land allot better. It will get out into the sides more then the ten footer and it will cut just as big of stuff as the ten footer, but without the flat deck issues.

For the batwing, you'd want 80 hp. That will also give you enough tractor for doing everything else you want and then some.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[john_bud]

Of the companies listed, you'll find many advocates but few detractors. Both JD and Kubota will have excellent reliability and dealer support that is proven over the years. You ARE paying for the name with JD. Some don't mind, some do.

The others are less proven over here - but as stated, they have vocal supporters here. Even so, my opinion would be to stick with either JD or Kubota and to get an extra bit of hp over what you initially think you need. The cab will suck out about 5-7 hp to power the larger alternator, the higher weight and the A/C ! Mostly the A/C. You can sometimes here people wish for more power to do a job better or faster, but rarely do you hear them say they wished they had less power so they could work slower...

For a machine in that class, get the cast iron wheel centers for more weight and have the tires filled with solution. It's really a benefit with a front loader. Speaking of front loaders, be sure to get a quick attach bucket. It's probably included, but.... Then you may want a creaper gear for slow work and fine positioning.

An important issue is the hydraulics. It sounds like you will be doing some landscape work on the trails and jumps etc. Having a hydraulic top and tilt will make your life a pleasure. T&T replaces the screw top link and screw adjustable side links with hydraulic cylinders so you can make adjustments from in the cab and on the fly. It will keep you from having to jump down, grab 2 wrenches and make manual adjustments.

With the front loader, see if you can get a factory 3rd valve for the front to power a grapple. Even if you don't get a grapple now, having the plumbing there to support it will be a blessing. A grapple is a claw powered by hydraulics to grab and hold stuff in the front bucket. The same hydraulics can be used if you go with a hydraulic powered snow thrower mounted to the FEL arms.

Next is rear remotes. That is just a fancy name for having hydraulic power ports available at the rear of the machine to power cylinders and such on 3pt attachments. You may want to use a bat wing mower and they use cylinders to raise and lower the wings. Larger attachments use cylinders and hydraulic power. Normally, 2 ports is plenty.

If you plan on working at night, extra lights can be nice. They may not be needed, but you may want to ask.

hope that helped,
jb