Garandman
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2014
- Messages
- 3,151
- Location
- Mount Sunapee NH / Dorchester, MA
- Tractor
- Kubota L3200 HST
We are purchasing a camp with a little over 10 acres of land near Mt Sunapee, NH. There is a roughly 200 yard gravel drive, about a half acre of grass and flowers behind the house, and about 150 yards of old stone wall on two sides of the cleared area, although brush and saplings have started encroaching and will have to be cleared to see the stone wall again. There is a mountain brook that runs through the front of the property and the land near it is wet in the spring. There is a good-sized garage that should accommodate anything we might use.
There are a few trails on the property and we'd like to start maintaining the forest, so we might have to be doing some skidding if we choose to drag a tree-length log out to a staging area, otherwise we would cut the wood in place to cord length or smaller and take it out in the bucket. The property slopes uphill from the house but I'm not sure how narrow any trails might be. There are a lot of trees: here shown the house, garage, and our new neighbors - the trees.
This is a second home, mostly for skiing and winter sports, and we plan to hire someone local to plow the driveway after storms, since we may not be there. But we will have to clean up after storms, in particular the snowbanks at the end of the drive as it's hard to see out. We have a walk-behind snow thrower (Ariens 926 Pro) to clean up around the house.
I've spoken to the dealer about a B2920SU and an L3200, both with FEL and backhoe. The suggestion is that we will need the backhoe for stumps and stone wall maintenance, will the FEL will be handy for snow cleanup, moving dirt, stumps, firewood etc. A brush cutter is probably in the works but I am going to buy a heavy-duty string trimmer first to go exploring, as there are some sloping areas that I won't be able to clear anyway.
The dealer suggests that the L3200, being heavier and with a higher capacity implements, is a better tractor for woods clearing than the B series. But when I visited the John Deere dealer he had another take. He suggested that after a year or two of cleanup, a machine of that size would be too big and I would be better served by getting a smaller tractor and working it harder.
I can see both sides of that coin here: some people who've bought "too big" and others who've bought "too small." Most of my friends with tractors have B series of 20-something horsepower and are content, so the idea that I might be going too big is at the back of my mind.
Am I missing anything?
There are a few trails on the property and we'd like to start maintaining the forest, so we might have to be doing some skidding if we choose to drag a tree-length log out to a staging area, otherwise we would cut the wood in place to cord length or smaller and take it out in the bucket. The property slopes uphill from the house but I'm not sure how narrow any trails might be. There are a lot of trees: here shown the house, garage, and our new neighbors - the trees.
This is a second home, mostly for skiing and winter sports, and we plan to hire someone local to plow the driveway after storms, since we may not be there. But we will have to clean up after storms, in particular the snowbanks at the end of the drive as it's hard to see out. We have a walk-behind snow thrower (Ariens 926 Pro) to clean up around the house.
I've spoken to the dealer about a B2920SU and an L3200, both with FEL and backhoe. The suggestion is that we will need the backhoe for stumps and stone wall maintenance, will the FEL will be handy for snow cleanup, moving dirt, stumps, firewood etc. A brush cutter is probably in the works but I am going to buy a heavy-duty string trimmer first to go exploring, as there are some sloping areas that I won't be able to clear anyway.
The dealer suggests that the L3200, being heavier and with a higher capacity implements, is a better tractor for woods clearing than the B series. But when I visited the John Deere dealer he had another take. He suggested that after a year or two of cleanup, a machine of that size would be too big and I would be better served by getting a smaller tractor and working it harder.
I can see both sides of that coin here: some people who've bought "too big" and others who've bought "too small." Most of my friends with tractors have B series of 20-something horsepower and are content, so the idea that I might be going too big is at the back of my mind.
Am I missing anything?
