30hp CUT: New vs. Used ?

[michael.white]

It depends on how comfortable you are working on your tractor. As has been said, at 300 hours it should be good for quite a while. If you do all the work on it yourself that extra $6000 will go a long way towards any repair needed. I bought my '01 with about 350 hours, and mine sounds a bit more heavily used than the one you're talking about. Other than maintenance items, I've only had to spend about $25 to buy a battery box and some Ford blue paint to fix battery corrosion.

 

[ovrszd]

It depends on how comfortable you are working on your tractor. As has been said, at 300 hours it should be good for quite a while. If you do all the work on it yourself that extra $6000 will go a long way towards any repair needed. I bought my '01 with about 350 hours, and mine sounds a bit more heavily used than the one you're talking about. Other than maintenance items, I've only had to spend about $25 to buy a battery box and some Ford blue paint to fix battery corrosion.

That's a good point Michael. I feel the same about having a dealer service the tractor. If you have the ability, service it yourself. Then you'll know what you have rather than depending on a dealer to find everything he can wrong with it to run up the bill. I'd freak out to pay a dealer $500-$700 to change the fluids in my tractor.

 

[NoTrespassing]

He's going to brush hog 10 acres once or twice a year and probably do 5 hours of snow management each winter. Not heavy use.

My 2 cents; used for sure. Wth the planned hours it will hold its value well if it's kept inside. You're talking about putting on less than 30 hours per year I'd say. The new one will be worth about the same as the used one 10 years from now IMHO.