Buying Advice Tractor or mower?

[Grandad4]

I'm still not sure where that leaves my 'intermediate' tasks though - bush hogging around 3 acres and breaking new ground for gardens. I'm concerned those jobs are too big for a fancy mower but too small for a real tractor.

Also on sizing - my local deere dealer (no particular affiliation there, but they are the closest dealer of the big three) recommended an x320 with deck, blower, chains and weights for $7k if I only want to cut the grass and blow the snow, but as I was saying they are pushing for the 1023E (which they have 0% financing on) to do "everything".

I'd agree with Soundguy's approach. Get a basic mower for the lawn work and a compact for the other near-term work like snow removal, bush hogging, food plots, etc. As noted earlier, something a bit larger than the 1023E would give you more capability without costing a great amount more. If you shop among the other good brands, you may or may not find a better value than what you've found so far.

Later you can bring in some big iron for the heavy work, if needed.

 

[DMW]

If you wait to save up the money, something will always come up to delay the purchase. Bite the bullet now, and get the most tractor & implements that you can comfortably afford. Sometimes implements can included in the 0% financing. Shop around, there can be a big difference in price between dealers.

A subcompact can do everything you described. Personally I would go for a scut (JD2305/1023,Kubota BX2360,MF GC2400, Kioti CK20hst etc.) with FEL, box blade (also used as counterweight), mid mount mower, rear snowblower, tiller?. Front mount snowblowers are nice but pricey. The MMM will take care of all the grass cutting. Turf tires, can always use chains in winter IF needed.

Take care of it , and every time you look at it you will consider it money well spent, and disbelief that you were ever able to get along without it .

Dennis

 

[dodge man]

The big question is how much money can you spend. If you bought a new compact tractor with all the toys, its easy to spend over 20k. Even a sub compact with all the toys can start getting close to 20k. If you buy used, you can save some money. I know I felt like I wasted my money buying cheaper riding mowers before I bought a sub-compact. The difference is I have twice as much finish mowing than you would be.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Trying to find one tractor to do everything is like trying to find the one piece of welding equipment to do everything, they just dont exist. If I were you, I would get a mower for the yard (I prefer the zero turn models) and then go for a used 30-45HP 4 wd tractor with FEL (adding a rear snow blower as an option for snow removal as this is practical use for the FEL). I mow about 5 acres of lawn using my ZTR mower because I can do it faster than using my tractor with 7 foot bush hog. I use the tractor with FEL to haul brush from woods clean up, move dirt, pull disc for garden work, dig holes etc. With regard to your stump pulling, I doubt any tractor you could comfortably use with any other task is going to pull a 12-14" stump without lots of digging and cutting of the roots so I wouldnt count on that work being done with a tractor. Likely use for that would be a rented back hoe or contract it to a professional operator with a trackhoe. I can usually get green pine trees up to 6" in diameter out with the FEL but you can warp your FEL if you arent careful doing this (see my post on this) Thorn trees and sweet gum will play havoc with your equipment if you arent careful. I have found that $80 an hour for a JD 550 LGP dozer is dollars well spent when it comes to major tree clearing, stump pulling, land leveling etc. especially where I live when at any time, you can hook a large rock and bend or break some of your equipment.

 

[JDgreen227]

If you wait to save up the money, something will always come up to delay the purchase. Bite the bullet now, and get the most tractor & implements that you can comfortably afford. Sometimes implements can included in the 0% financing. Shop around, there can be a big difference in price between dealers.

A subcompact can do everything you described. Personally I would go for a scut (JD2305/1023,Kubota BX2360,MF GC2400, Kioti CK20hst etc.) with FEL, box blade (also used as counterweight), mid mount mower, rear snowblower, tiller?. Front mount snowblowers are nice but pricey. The MMM will take care of all the grass cutting. Turf tires, can always use chains in winter IF needed.

Take care of it , and every time you look at it you will consider it money well spent, and disbelief that you were ever able to get along without it .

Dennis

Excellent post.....:thumbsup: !!! I agree with your reasoning in advising the OP to buy something decent now, one of the things many first time buyers overlook is the excellent trade-in/resale value of a SCUT or CUT versus a LT or GT. When you spend the extra bucks to buy a strong and durable tractor, it's not so much a purchase as it is an INVESTMENT. I invested nearly 24 grand to buy my CUT and attachments package 9 years ago, yet it has paid for itself time and again, and the resale value is far superior to what I expected.

As the old saying goes: "Buy the best equipment you can afford, and you will never regret it".

 

[canoetrpr]

I'm with Soundguy. I was in a similar situation when we bought our place. About 1 acre of grass, 10 acres of pasture, woods that I mow a small trail in.

I was originally looking for one tractor with a MMM until I found out what a MMM attachment costs! Instead I bought a dedicated Husquvarna riding mower for the mowing around the house and a Kubota L3400 CUT for the rest of the farm.

Believe me the loader is key. It will make your tractor at least 2x more usable.

I would bite the bullet now and get a CUT. If you don't want to spend much you can go with an economy model like a L3200 / L3800 much like my L3400 or look for used machines with a few hundred hours of those types of models. Others to consider are the Kioti CK25-30. Deere and others have good CUTS as well. The JD 790 is a great economy model that they used to sell and can be had with a manual non sync transmission for a really good price with a few hundred hours. Hydro is king IMHO but I'd rather be with a CUT and a loader on your property than without one.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with whatever you do.

 

[Pete Judd]

I love my CUT, and if you don't have to finance, craigs list, is a great place to pick things up. I have both a CUT with a finish mower, and a small "lawn" tractor to do our place. Let someone else pay for the first couple of years of depreceation, like buying a car. My CUT is around 30 years old, and runs like it was build yesterday. But cash in hand is what is needed to do craigslist.

 

[aquafiend]

Thanks again for all the responses.

Based on this thread and a bit of calling around / budget checking, I'm currently thinking of the following:

-Small, cheap mower for the lawn, possibly used or on sale.

-Bite the bullet and get a compact / subcompact that can handle the snow (thinking FEL + rear blade, mostly to save money and get a loader in the deal), the bush hogging, and the garden jobs. I'll keep it out of the woods (except maybe to move brush or bring in firewood).

-Wait for clearer needs / projects in the woods and look for a bigger (40+ hp?), old 2wd tractor in a few years.

For the compact, I'm currently looking at the JD 2320 (seems like a worthwhile step up in functionality from the 1023 for not too much more) and the kubota B2320 or 2620. Looking at new because of the financing deals and because my other half is highly supportive (!).

Thoughts & critiques of this plan highly appreciated!

 

[JDgreen227]

Thanks again for all the responses.

Based on this thread and a bit of calling around / budget checking, I'm currently thinking of the following:

-Small, cheap mower for the lawn, possibly used or on sale.

-Bite the bullet and get a compact / subcompact that can handle the snow (thinking FEL + rear blade, mostly to save money and get a loader in the deal), the bush hogging, and the garden jobs. I'll keep it out of the woods (except maybe to move brush or bring in firewood).

-Wait for clearer needs / projects in the woods and look for a bigger (40+ hp?), old 2wd tractor in a few years.

For the compact, I'm currently looking at the JD 2320 (seems like a worthwhile step up in functionality from the 1023 for not too much more) and the kubota B2320 or 2620. Looking at new because of the financing deals and because my other half is highly supportive (!).

Thoughts & critiques of this plan highly appreciated!

Looks good to me, I have always preferred the FEL/RB attachments for moving snow, as a blower is a lot more costly and is a single use attachment, although they do a cleaner job of moving snow. Both your suggested choices for a compact are well built, reliable tractors.

 

[dodge man]

Sounds to me like you are on the right track.