Front-End Loader Do I need a FEL?

[JRobyn]

Probably not the best thing for the bucket, but if you park it outside with the bucket turned up some, and then have a rain or two, it makes a wonderful bird bath and wildlife drinking fountain.

- Jay

 

[keegs]

Thanks gents... I know it's more than an expensive wheelbarrow .. but I don't have or plan to have horses or livestock of any kind and my garage is getting full of attachments as it is. I tow a small utility trailer around for gathering firewood.

I thought of moving piles of snow but I have a PTO powered snowblower attachment that can throw the stuff sixty feet or more depending on the snow.

I get it though.. you have one and all of a sudden you find a million things to do with it ... someone told me he uses his bucket for a field workbench... now that's creative.

 

[jerrybob]

The reason I have a tractor is because of the FEL.......go get one........you will not regret it!

 

[4570Man]

You might get by fine without one, but once you have one you will wonder how you made it without one. Same goes for a tractor.

 

[k0ua]

Probably not the best thing for the bucket, but if you park it outside with the bucket turned up some, and then have a rain or two, it makes a wonderful bird bath and wildlife drinking fountain.

- Jay

At another place we used to own that had a creek, I used to go into the creek and scoop up a load of water and bring it out to water a bunch a young trees we had planted. We did that for several months. It actually worked pretty well.

 

[mecan]

You might get by fine without one, but once you have one you will wonder how you made it without one. Same goes for a tractor.

Usually with a lot more bad words, sweat, and pain

 

[k0ua]

Once you get a FEL, then you can start down the road of different purpose built buckets, forks, and grapples. Just to name a few!:thumbsup:

 

[Gary Fowler]

I use my tractor for cutting back the brush around the edges of the fields, around the pond and along the driveway. An FEL w/hydrolics is going to run close to $7k. I'm still employed but nearing retirement and think it would be easier to spring for it now rather than later. I'm not sure whether it's worth the cost since I haven't had much use for a FEL thus far.

What say you?

TIA

That is awfully high $$$ for a FEL. That price quoted looks more like the price for a backhoe rather than FEL. FEL shouldn't be more than $3500 for your size tractor.
If that is accurate pricing, then you might consider looking for a used CUT with FEL. You could get a used 25-30 HP CUT with FEL for about that much money and it would be so very handy and with its smaller foot print, it could get into places where your larger tractor cant. Also there is nothing like having 2 tractors so you don't have to remove implements everytime you need to do a different chore..

 

[GPintheMitten]

That's a 55Hp tractor right? That's a lot bigger than mine. Do you need all that power? Have you considered trading it in and getting a tractor with a fel? Possibly get a little smaller unit to offset the cost?

If you have already brushed back what you need to and just need to maintain it might be a good option.

I expect that a loader purchased separately is more costly than at the time you buy the tractor.

 

[prichard]

Gpin brings up a good point about size. But what are you trying to do? Are you looking to replace your tractor? Just because you might want a FAL?

If you're good with your tractor you may be able to add a loader to your tractor.