Buying Advice Another first time buyer!

Alasdair · Feb 9, 2011

Hello all,
My wife and I are planning our first foray into tractor ownership. :thumbsup:
We have 28 hilly wooded acres on Cape Breton Island. 12 x 24 in Cape Breton Around 4 acres are cleared and need cutting. We plan to clear another couple for garden and pasture and keep the rest wooded as our fuel supply - we would also like something which will help us put a wood road into the rest of the land.
We have a lot of building and gardening plans! We built a cabin last year, began a house this year and I hope the future holds a garage and a small barn. I guess you could call us homesteaders or hobby farmers (although I'm not sure either label really fits.)
We also live in a snow belt (I enjoyed a snowday from work today - which allowed me to discover how little I know about tractors!) Our driveway is a hill around 200 yards and one of our priorities would certainly be snow removal!
We are lucky we have great neighbours who have their own machines - one has an older JD tractor backhoe another a JD with several attatchments - FEL, 3PH, BH, winch, snowplow, rear grader - (is it OK to covet your neighbours' tractors?) These guys have enabled us to get a foothold here and have often helped us out for little or nothing but we can't always rely on their charity and sooner or later we will need our own machine.
Like everyone else we are scraping along financialy and on top of the building projects (we're building the house as we can pay for it) there's not much fat to skim.
I'm looking for pointers on what kind of machine would be most useful (and realistic) for us. I can see it's easy to look for too much, snowremoval, grasscutting, groundwork etc. etc. At the moment I am imagining a 4WD compact tractor with frontloader and snow blower but perhaps I am asking too much from a smaller machine. What do you all think?
We're not in a huge rush to buy but if we know what to look out for we can shop around for a deal.
Alasdair

tk1469 · Feb 9, 2011

My recommendation is: Go with a Kubota 4WD. They are built to withstand almost anything you can dish out. Go with something in the L series - if you have extra money - go with the "Grand L" (aka: 40) series. The Grand series allows you to put a mower underneath the tractor - unlike the native L series. If you plan to do a lot of loader (FEL) work - definitely go with the Hydrostatic (HST) option. The cruise is good for those cases where you want to maintain steady RPM's over a long time - like brushhogging. Speaking of brush hogging - you'll need enough HP to run those units. I would suggest you look at something in the mid to high 30 HP range. Good Luck.

coyotebaker · Feb 9, 2011

I am a big fan of ford tractors...so you could start with an old 8n in good shape and not to expensive...many good deal available...good Luck from new Brunswick

nybirdman · Feb 9, 2011

Have to say having used 8n,9ns...for years on the farm,can't recommend them for first time users.Manual shift,clutch,bad gearing,lack of FEL in most cases,don't start well in the cold,lack of live PTO ect.Used may-be but something a little more modern.

flusher · Feb 9, 2011

Alasdair said:
Hello all,
My wife and I are planning our first foray into tractor ownership. :thumbsup:
We have 28 hilly wooded acres on Cape Breton Island. 12 x 24 in Cape Breton Around 4 acres are cleared and need cutting. We plan to clear another couple for garden and pasture and keep the rest wooded as our fuel supply - we would also like something which will help us put a wood road into the rest of the land.
We have a lot of building and gardening plans! We built a cabin last year, began a house this year and I hope the future holds a garage and a small barn. I guess you could call us homesteaders or hobby farmers (although I'm not sure either label really fits.)
We also live in a snow belt (I enjoyed a snowday from work today - which allowed me to discover how little I know about tractors!) Our driveway is a hill around 200 yards and one of our priorities would certainly be snow removal!
We are lucky we have great neighbours who have their own machines - one has an older JD tractor backhoe another a JD with several attatchments - FEL, 3PH, BH, winch, snowplow, rear grader - (is it OK to covet your neighbours' tractors?) These guys have enabled us to get a foothold here and have often helped us out for little or nothing but we can't always rely on their charity and sooner or later we will need our own machine.
Like everyone else we are scraping along financialy and on top of the building projects (we're building the house as we can pay for it) there's not much fat to skim.
I'm looking for pointers on what kind of machine would be most useful (and realistic) for us. I can see it's easy to look for too much, snowremoval, grasscutting, groundwork etc. etc. At the moment I am imagining a 4WD compact tractor with frontloader and snow blower but perhaps I am asking too much from a smaller machine. What do you all think?
We're not in a huge rush to buy but if we know what to look out for we can shop around for a deal.
Alasdair

What's your budget for the tractor? For the implements?

Alasdair · Feb 9, 2011

We're planning between 10-15k CAD Although less tractor means more house for us at the moment!

nybirdman · Feb 9, 2011

Talk to your neighbors that have tractors:they should be able to steer you to a dealer or dealers they trust.Stop in to the dealers and tell them about your projects and plans.They may have something on the lot or may take one in trade.New owners,I would reccommend a 4wd,HST type tractor,any brand as long as it can be serviced local.
a couple sites to look at www.tractordata.com,www.eqiptmenttraderonline.com,ww.machinefinder.com

TripleR · Feb 9, 2011

Good information over all and find myself in agreement with nybirdman. Sit down and write out your needs such as, at least for me, 4WD, FEL, HST, 35HP to 50HP or so, diesel, 540 live/independent PTO, good 3 point hitch, ability to wide stance or good wide stance anyway for hills.

I have used 2WD tractors and we still own some, but for hill use, I really don't find them safe. I kept one on our hill farm for several years and finally took it to another farm and left it. It is a great flat land farm tractor, but sucked in the hills. This is especially true for a new owner.

I obviously like Kubota, but we own JD, Case, Massey Ferguson and some old Fords, so I would not hesitate to buy a good used tractor from any of the top brands. My brother is a mechanic and since I am not, we don't buy anything very old without having him check it out. The last used tractor I bought, I got from our local dealer where it had been service since sold new and I got all of the service records. There had been no repairs done on it and the owner traded it in for another one just like it only without the cab, go figure.

Good luck and keep researching all of the forums. When you think you have it arrowed down, come back for input in case there are any known problems with that model.

flusher · Feb 9, 2011

Alasdair said:
We're planning between 10-15k CAD Although less tractor means more house for us at the moment!

Hmm- 4WD CUT with FEL for $10-15K Canadian--I'd say look for a used CUT around 30 hp pto in the $8-10K range and use the rest of your budget to get an aftermarket FEL. Koyker makes nice FELs

Koyker Manufacturing - Loaders

Something like a 2000-05 L-series Kubota would do what you want and fall within your budget.

silvertramp · Feb 10, 2011

I have a similar property with 4 long driveways. I've got a Yanmar 276D that does it all. (4x4, loader, 12 speed powershift, 27 hp) I've got a 5' bush hog & boxblade, & a 6' scraper blade & rake. I paid $6k us for the tactor loader.
I also have an '83 chevy plow truck, chained on all 4. IMHO that old truck will move alot more snow faster than the tractor. Not even close.