New guys take on pros & cons of 45 HP range of CUT's

[Gittyup]

Yep, you would have been happy with a CK20 TLB.

I actually had a CK20 at my place for a few days. Tried it out a good bit. Found it for my father-in-law for a steal: CK20 TLB manual tranny, 250 hours for $8000! What I found out is that the CK20 would have made my chores just too long, and many it just wouldn't have had the power/weight/reach to do. The CK25 was at its absolute limits on many of those jobs. Using a CK20 would have taken much longer, required that I do more manual labor, and required renting equipment/hiring out for some of the tasks. I am completely convinced I bought the right sized tractor for what I had to do. While I don't have a big lot, I do have BIG projects.

Still I liked the little 20 a lot, as does my FIL. He did offer to trade it to me for my CK25 plus $4500 in cash. It was tempting because I'm just about done with my big jobs. But, then I got to thinking about my attachments. They would have been too big for the CK20. Anyway, as I said, I like having the capabilities of the bigger tractor at-hand when I want/need them. Besides, I don't have a need for a smaller tractor. I don't mow nor plow snow with my CK. My JD GT handles those chores much better.

I re-read the OP's postings, and perhaps I am wrong in thinking that digging is a big priority for him. In that case the B3030 would be a good choice. It is a very nice setup. But, if one doesn't really need a backhoe and still has money to spend, it would be better to invest in a snow blower, chipper, log splitter, grapple, rake, or other attachments that would make life easier all around. You can buy a lot of toys for the money spent on a backhoe.

 

[Lt CHEG]

To the OP,

Is more land in yout future? And having a cab, and blowing snow is the only way. If we were to trade the 1523 in, it would be bigger, and with a cab. Those 1600 series look oh so sweet!!

Honestly, I'm not sure. There is another unused parcel of land right next door, but it is not for sale. I don't know if it ever will be or not. I'm thinking that once we get everything set up with the house and can start saving more money I may make an unsolicited offer to buy the land. Certainly if the land is ever offered for sale and the price is affordable for us we will try buy it. The neighboring parcel is about the same size as our land, so potentially we could double the size of our land, but I'd say the chances of doing so are 50/50 at best. Certainly we'd like to but I don't know for sure if we'll be expanding.

 

[Builder]

I don't think you're buying too big. These compacts are powerful, but they're not that heavy or clumsy compared to older ones. 25 years ago, I cut 2 acres with a 10HP gas tractor with a 36" cut, 20 years later I use a 20HP Deere with a 54" cut. Much faster & more efficient.

I would have no problems using a 45HP cab compact on 6-7 acres if most of it has to be mowed, cleared, long driveway plowed, etc. My time is my most valuable and rapidly diminishing asset. If I can cut with a 84" mower behind a 45HP compact rather than a 54" mower behind a smaller one, it's worth it to get the job done fast.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

I don't think you're buying too big. These compacts are powerful, but they're not that heavy or clumsy compared to older ones. I would have no problems using a 45HP cab compact on 6-7 acres if most of it is to be mowed, cleared, etc. My time is my most valuable and rapidly diminishing asset. If I can cut with a 84" mower behind a 45HP compact rather than a 54" mower behind a smaller one, it's worth it.

I agree 100%. Time is the most valuable thing that there is. Once it's gone, you can never get it back. As so many have said, the smaller tractors can get the job done, and I do not dispute that, but at what cost in time?

Me, I have to go out and work, so I need to get stuff done around the property as fast as I can, because at this time my property makes me ZERO income. Please don't get me wrong, all the tractors have their place, otherwise they wouldn't be getting built. Everybody tries to get what best suits them and their circumstances, being their financial situation, type of property, time line, whatever it may be. But as the OP said, he has mostly open property and wants to get his work done in a quick comfortable manor, and can afford to get a little bigger tractor than so many others would get for his size property. Nothing wrong with this, and more power to him.

One of the things that I don't understand is why some of you act as though you should have so many acres to have a 40-50HP tractor. It's not like you're trying to do U turns in the garage. I have a 75HP tractor, it takes 30 feet to make a U turn, not hundreds of feet. Again, I'm sure that there are circumstances where it is preferable to have a smaller tractor, but if a bigger machine will work and one can afford it, well I just don't understand the hard push from so many for the smaller tractors.

 

[IslandTractor]

if a bigger machine will work and one can afford it, well I just don't understand the hard push from so many for the smaller tractors.

The OP can buy whatever he wants. He can buy a Ford Excursion to drive two miles to the grocery store to purchase a box of cereal too. The point of pointing out that smaller tractors make sense is the same as arguing that a smaller road vehicle would be appropriate for the run to the grocery store. If the OP has needs like pulling a horse trailer every other weekend then an Excursion may make perfect sense. Likewise if there is a task he cannot do with a 30hp tractor it would make sense to get bigger. Nothing on the list of tasks however seems to require more than a good 30hp tractor which pulls a six foot mower and seven/eight foot BH). The difference in time saved mowing with a six foot mower compared to a seven foot mower is not that much...maybe he should be looking at something that pulls a 15ft batwing if time is that critical.

 

[ovrszd]

maybe he should be looking at something that pulls a 15ft batwing if time is that critical.

4WD, Center Pivot, w/duals of course!!! I think they all come with a cab too!!!

 

[greggh]

I don't think that anyone has to justify what they buy. They buy because that's what they want. The argument may be made that it is the wrong purchase for that person making the argument, but the person making the argument is not the one plopping down the money. But I must admit that it all makes good reading.

 

[Builder]

The OP can buy whatever he wants. He can buy a Ford Excursion to drive two miles to the grocery store to purchase a box of cereal too. The point of pointing out that smaller tractors make sense is the same as arguing that a smaller road vehicle would be appropriate for the run to the grocery store. If the OP has needs like pulling a horse trailer every other weekend then an Excursion may make perfect sense. Likewise if there is a task he cannot do with a 30hp tractor it would make sense to get bigger. Nothing on the list of tasks however seems to require more than a good 30hp tractor which pulls a six foot mower and seven/eight foot BH). The difference in time saved mowing with a six foot mower compared to a seven foot mower is not that much...maybe he should be looking at something that pulls a 15ft batwing if time is that critical.

Couple additional points:
1.A higher HP tractor can not only pull a bigger mower, but it can also pull a bigger mower faster. That saves more time. If I can cut my field 2 hours faster, it leaves me 2 more hours to coach my kid's lacrosse team, sleep, etc.
2. A higher HP tractor can do other jobs faster-snowplowing, backhoe & loader work, etc. That is also time and effort saved.

Try to remember that many series of tractors of different HP have the same frame, chassis & tires, but more HP within that given frame size.

Look at the Kubota M-5040/6040/7040. They're nearly identical in size, weight, etc., but the 7040 has 20 more HP than the 5040. That means a lot more PTO HP to pull a bigger mower faster.

 

[lungdoc]

Nothing on the list of tasks however seems to require more than a good 30hp tractor which pulls a six foot mower and seven/eight foot BH).

I have a hard time thinking you could do much brush hog work with a 7-8 footer on a 30 hp tractor - maybe a light duty unit mowing fields but not a heavier duty unit (might be too much weight alone) or for real brush/trail work. I have always thought 5 hp/foot rule, and I thought that was PTO HP. We use a 6 foot, fairly heavy duty MX-6 on our 4320 (40 PTO hp, 48 total) and I wouldn't want bigger.

 

[IslandTractor]

Couple additional points:
1.A higher HP tractor can not only pull a bigger mower, but it can also pull a bigger mower faster. That saves more time. If I can cut my field 2 hours faster, it leaves me 2 more hours to coach my kid's lacrosse team, sleep, etc.

Maybe, but.... To save 2 hours when comparing the cutting speed of a B3030 pulling a 6ft mower compared to a 45hp tractor pulling a 7ft mower would mean that you must be mowing at least 30 acres as any smaller acreage would just not show that sort of difference in time spent mowing. With that kind of acreage even bigger equipment is justified. There are various estimates on how much you can mow in an hour with different size machines but I doubt that the 30hp/6ft would be more than 5-10 minutes an acre slower than a 45hp/7ft rig. Soundguy has a lot of experience with different mowing equipment and his estimates from a prior thread are useful to consider: for the same 10 flat Florida acres of fields that are regularly mowed, it takes him 5hours with a 30hp tractor and 5ft mower (2acres/hr) or 3 hours with a 70hp tractor and 10foot mower(3.3 acres/hr). So doubling the size of the mower deck and the tractor nets a 50% increase in cut speed. Put another way, to save two hours in mowing time he has to mow a total of 20 acres. And that is using a 70hp/10ft mower rig which doubles the cut width. The difference between a 30hp/6ft and a 45hp/7ft rig would be considerably less as the cut width is only 16% different. After all, it is just cutting an additional 12 inches per pass and still needing the exact same set up time, put away time, travel to field time, manuver around bushes and trees etc. The difference in mower size maybe be 7/6 or 116% but that means that at most you'd get 16% extra speed due to the mower width. If it takes 3 hours to actually mow 6.5 acres with a 7ft mower then it would take approximately 3hrs and 20 minutes to mow with the 6ft mower. If 20 minutes makes that much difference to your extracurricular activities then go for it but it is not really such a big savings in time especially when you factor in the non mowing time of set up etc. I appreciate your assertion that a bigger tractor might mow faster but that would mostly be in conditions such as very tall heavy growth of grass where the extra PTO power might help. For routine mowing I don't think 45hp tractors mow at a higher MPH than 30hp CUTs.

By the way, it only takes Soundguy 2hrs to mow the 10 acres with a 95hp tractor pulling a 15ft batwing. Now we know why he spends so much time hanging out in his hot tub!