Buying Advice Bought a farm, looking for a tractor...and help choosing!

[curdy]

What are your thoughts on having an older backhoe loader and then another machine for brush mowing and any other PTO related work? This was the way my grandfather did it and I keep coming back to it and thinking it made a lot of sense.

 

[Reg]

What are your thoughts on having an older backhoe loader and then another machine for brush mowing and any other PTO related work? This was the way my grandfather did it and I keep coming back to it and thinking it made a lot of sense.

Depends on the "mowing" and the hoe.
If "Lawns" then I would suggest a split between a ZTR and a medium/large CUT.
If "Pastures & Meadows" then yes a PTO mower (flail is my preference) and general tractor plus another machine with a hoe would be nice, to avoid the hoe swap on/off.

Trouble is you then have two fair sized machines with quite a lot of overlap and perhaps some difficulty justifying the capital tied up in BOTH of them.
So I flip back to the large end of Cat 1 and MANY implements to get the most bang for the buck - ESPECIALLY a very easy on/off hoe.

Do you anticipate a LOT of hoe work ?
If only for a year or two maybe a (used) mini-ex would work out better, or hire the jobs out and conserve your capital.

 

[TripleR]

What are your thoughts on having an older backhoe loader and then another machine for brush mowing and any other PTO related work? This was the way my grandfather did it and I keep coming back to it and thinking it made a lot of sense.

We did this quite a few years ago. My brother is a pretty good mechanic and he got a well used Case backhoe, split it and replaced some gears and got it up in decent shape and we used it for several years for backhoe stuff while using a Case 995 and Ford 600 for PTO stuff.

We still have the backhoe, but have run out of stuff to do on a regular basis, so it lives in a shed and we rent an excavator now when we need to do some digging.

 

[curdy]

Can't say I anticipate a lot of hoe work, but I can think of several things that I could use it for already...and others in the future. The much bigger loader capacity on it would give me a lot of options too.

 

[Soundguy]

i kinda like the 'one tractor for each implement.. plus a spare or two' concept..

soundguy

 

[TripleR]

Can't say I anticipate a lot of hoe work, but I can think of several things that I could use it for already...and others in the future. The much bigger loader capacity on it would give me a lot of options too.

The good thing about buying a good older backhoe is that you can buy one and use it for quite a while and sell it for about what you paid for it. My son has a friend who owns a small construction company and he often does this with some of his equipment.

It is often really hard to know how often you would use one until you have one around. It makes more sense for us to rent than own, but we already have a lot of stuff done and it was really handy when we were building our house, putting in septic fields and so on.

 

[3nickles]

the old farm loaders where barely adequate,that is why your dad had an industrial for loader work.If you think you may need a hoe and you have money the jd 110 is one of the few industrial hoes with a three point and pto.but is a little small. I have as you say a backhoe/loader and a separate tractor jd 1830 for pto and wagon work.I find the backhoe an idespensible machine,able to solve any problem.

 

[Soundguy]

the old farm loaders where barely adequate,that is why your dad had an industrial for loader work.If you think you may need a hoe and you have money the jd 110 is one of the few industrial hoes with a three point and pto.but is a little small. I have as you say a backhoe/loader and a separate tractor jd 1830 for pto and wagon work.I find the backhoe an idespensible machine,able to solve any problem.

i agree.. a regular ag tractor.. especially the smaller ones are just adequate a loader machines.. nothing special. have to get to the larger machines or ones with HD front axle setups to be better at it.

still better'n a wheel barrow though!

soundguy

 

[Massey_lover]

i know people that has a 5+ ac yard.an they mow the front yard an backyard side an along the driveway with the riding mower.an then mow the rest with tractor an finish mower.an they do that once a week.

Wow, I wish I could use the tractor to do my 6 Acres... We just got a 54" Husqvarna. Thinking about building a self-powered 50" offset trail mower out of the deck from our old garden tractor to pull behind the husky lol

 

[jenkinsph]

What are your thoughts on having an older backhoe loader and then another machine for brush mowing and any other PTO related work? This was the way my grandfather did it and I keep coming back to it and thinking it made a lot of sense.

That is what I found to work the best separate lawnmower with 4x4ws, 3pt and 540 pto the X749 is great for close in work. The 110tlb works great as the loader/backhoe and can also handle 3PH work if necessary, the 820 for light field work and the 4520 as my main 3PH machine.

Curdy,
It can take quite awhile to get this all figured out, thats why I recommended starting with the lawn and close proximity of the house(s). Get that figured out and then evaluate your needs for the rest of the place. Plan what to do and what you need to do it.