What to do?

[chim]

We have 2.25 acres, and whatever isn't covered by the house, driveway and sand volleyball court is grass. I get around it in less than 1-1/2 hours with a 5' deck. I mow another 5 acres. The driveway is about 300' long. Sometimes it snows in the Winter, but in this part of PA we generally don't get hammered. We have no garden, so we don't till. Wifey, for whatever reason, agreed we needed a FEL this time, so a-shopping we went. I looked at Blue, Green, Red and two shades of Orange before deciding on a Kubota B7500HST w/ a 302 FEL and Landpride AT2560 side discharge RFM. This setup is replacing a Ford 1210 that I picked up used about 8 years ago. The first tractor had a MMM, the Ford a RFM. Having owned both, decided on the RFM again. For me, the B7500 is ideal. It's big enough to handle anything that comes up, has good ground clearance and yet is small enough to be very nimble.

If I had a pole barn building business, this would probably not be my first choice for a piece of equipment. If I were going to build one or two, it would be entirely suitable. Since most of the hours are spent mowing, and the 1210 (16HP) had enough zip except on the occasional mowing up a steep hill, going with the 21HP tractor seemed just about right........................chim

 

[snooks]

Thank you to all that responded. Very useful information. After all the looking, test driving, and good advice from this forum, I believe I have decided what I'll do. Since I love my 8N so much, I believe I will find a used 20 - 25 hp with FEL and also keep my 8N. Have an eye on a MF 1030 and a Hinomoto E2004. With two tractors, I can have various implements on at a given time and accomplish much more in a short period. Gee, might even get my kids or wife in on the action and we'll really get some landscaping done... I can certainly see benefit in having the FEL tractor with a tiller and the 8N with a blade/box blade at the same time. Just need to find someone else that wants to play in the dirt. I guess it is no different than our days in the sand box, just a bigger sand box and bigger toys. Thanks again....