Buying Advice Overwhelmed by All the Options!

[amaxwell]

I had to imagine the stability I'd get with some more weight, but overall I was really pleased with the capabilities of this tractor for moving dirt around. I hope that I'm not let down by the PTO HP, but I think it's the right size machine for what I want to do.

I have an old ford 1300 ,13pto hp ,and I can cut anything with it that I can cut with my 45pto hp Yanmar: I just have to do it a lot slower. I think you will be surprised with how well that size pto tractor will perform. You have less then 5 acres to deal with, so I would not worry about that size being too small.

 

[Parkanzky]

I have an old ford 1300 ,13pto hp ,and I can cut anything with it that I can cut with my 45pto hp Yanmar: I just have to do it a lot slower. I think you will be surprised with how well that size pto tractor will perform. You have less then 5 acres to deal with, so I would not worry about that size being too small.

Thank you (and everyone else) for all the great advice. I am always a bit uneasy before I write a five-figure check, but I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm headed now. I've been a bit obsessed about the extra HP that the Kubota supposedly has, but the JD is 100 cu. in. and the Kubota is 91.5 cu. in., so they might be more similar than I'm thinking in actual use and I'm no longer worried about power. Now it comes down to which I'd rather spend an hour sitting on and if the smaller snowblower on the JD is a big disadvantage.

 

[Parkanzky]

After a long test-drive of both and a lot of agonizing, I finally made my decision.

I ordered a John Deere 2032R with a loader, 61" material bucket, fork frame and 48" forks, front-mount snowblower, and a 5' box blade.

I had originally planned to get a ballast box now and a box blade in the spring. I ended up deciding that a heavy-duty 5' box blade would be pretty good ballast. At ~500#, it's not as much weight as I could have gotten in a ballast box but it's a bit farther back. If it doesn't turn out to be enough, I can add weights to it when I do heavy loader work. This way, I am not storing a box blade and a ballast box.

 

[jeff9366]

Good man. Best of luck with your new tractor-loader.

 

[Parkanzky]

I want to thank everyone for the helpful advice. My father-in-law and I tore a kennel out from behind the house and walked the property today. We definitely identified a ton of things I'm going to need the tractor for right away so I'm looking forward to it showing up.