What's the right tractor? 10 acres now; 35 acres later: L3800 vs L3540/3940 or.....

[rScotty]

There's some things that almost everyone on this forum share:

For example, I think it's fair to say that most of us started out looking for one tractor to do everything, forever. And that we all were sort of stunned by the price of new machines. It's a shared experience.

And it seems that nobody who has ever had one wants to go back to not having a tractor handy....in fact, the more common comment is, "I should have bought a tractor years ago."

And finally, if you look at the signatures of posters Ithink you'll see that a lot of folks here have more than one tractor. There's good practical reasons for that.

Most of us started with a general purpose 20 to 40 hp tractor with a loader. Regardless of the job, that first tractor really opened our eyes to how much more we could get done with the right machine - even if that first one wouldn't do it all. Maybe that's why so many of us still have that first tractor.

They're all good in different ways. My recommendation is to follow your instinct and get the one that appeals to you - In fact, I'd bet that you already know which one that is. Chances are you'll have it a good long time.
rScotty

 

[flashpuppy]

I have 34 acres in North Carolina. We just bought the place and as such, got a tractor as well. For our land, there is lots of mowing, a 3/4 mile long driveway to maintain, general farm chores such as round bales and scooping out manure and a lot of timber and firewood to handle.

I went bigger than was probably needed but am really glad I did. I found a nice used M7040 Kubota with MFWD a cab and a loader. Not once have I wished I went smaller. Today even while trying to pick up a rather hefty oak tree that was down I was wondering if I should have gone up on size even.

My advice,for whatever it is worth, is go bigger than you think is needed.

 

[Bigpuddie]

What he said ^^^^^^

 

[Cat_Driver]

You know I hve never heard of anyone ever saying " my tractor is too big I think I'll get a smaller one"

 

[rScotty]

You know I hve never heard of anyone ever saying " my tractor is too big I think I'll get a smaller one"

Well, there has to be one of us in every crowd. For a couple of decades our tractor was a large and long old JD farm tractor. An unwieldy thing, but old farm tractors are very inexpensive & this was all we could afford with a decent size loader. Of course old farm tractors are also incredibly powerful, stable, and durable. There's not much they can't do if they have enough space.

My wife finally convince me to get a smaller, shorter, handier machine that could do chores for us in tight spaces. We had owned a compact tractor years before and remembered it fondly even though it was too small to do real work. Now we were both getting older and looking forward to having a tractor that wasn't a wrestling match to operate & turn around.... So we downsized to the compact Kubota M59. That machine is downright "Zippy!" It was a great decision, the M59 is as handy as a pocket knife. Frankly, I wouldn't mind also having another one half the size to go with it. Compacts are real handy.
rScotty

 

[rbtjr]

Briefly, we had a L3800. Good, versatile tractor. Two considerations: First, we had the HST with R4 tires. Unlike the L3800 model with R1 tires, the width of the R4 rear wheels was fixed--couldn't be widened. We wanted more stability and installed 4" spacers on each rear wheel. Helped a lot. We ultimately sold the L3800 and bought a MX5800 because we wanted more power, especially with the FEL capacity. We agree with the posters who have recommended resolving doubts in favor of a larger tractor.