Buying Advice First Tractor purchase advice

[airbiscuit]

We just moved to a 35 acre property in Colorado. The land is rolling pasture with some widely spaced evergreens and a pond.

So I appreciate any suggestions for dedicated mower models to look at ......

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So here's a thought. If you aren't quite ready to put down big $$ for a CUT and implements, but you want to tame the land a bit around your house sooner rather than later - then Axelhub may be on to something. Buy a cheap ($500?) used lawn tractor you can use and abuse in the tall grass. Something 15+hp and the higher it can lift the mower the better. Also, a deck with 2 longer blades is better for rough cutting than a wider one with 3 shorter blade. I cut trails over 3/4" brush and (hidden) stumps with a 15hp MTD with a 44" deck. These mowers are tougher than you think if you have the courage to plunge forward into the tall stuff. I do walk it first to look for the obvious obstacles.

That's not your long term solution, but it gets you a "yard" around your house. When it's done, you can sell it (if it's still working) and buy a nicer mower.

For later, I've also changed my thoughts on an option for your CUT - a flail mower:

Caroni 47 Inch Flail Mower-Flail Mower | Agri Supply #53412

FM-54 Flail Mower | PTO Mower | Mower Attachment | -WoodMaxx?

 

[nvmyhd]

I'll agree with AxleHub, you could get along fine with a small unit.

With the exception of the following:
- Driveway maintenance - You could maintain the driveway with the smaller tractor it will just take longer.
- Plow/snow blower -I would not want to be on a small 2ish HP with a 4' bucket/blade/blower in the winter here with that much driveway.
- Field mowing - 35 acres is a whole lot of area

Prior to moving out here I had a 23 horse NH on 3 acres that I used well past the ability that it would normally be used for.
100x200 arena, 100+ post holes, 24x24x5' hole for a horse stall, no grass but lots of rock to spreed and level.
Could you get by with a smaller tractor...sure but why work harder when you can work smarter.

If you did go smaller the $$ saved can be used to pay to have your lager areas mowed (I did it twice this year), buy cheap plow truck (only need it 2-4 time a year), cheap-ish riding lawn mower or mid mount for a sub..... That depends on the terrain and what you are comfortable with.
If you go this route you would not need a cab either, saving more $$.

I'll offer this. Come on out to my place some time and I'll show you what I'm working with and give you an idea of how much I use my 46hp and for what. I'm off all next week.

Do you plan on horses, large garden or other project that will require descent amount of dirt/gravel to be moved/ maintained?

 

[CobaltSky]

I'll offer this. Come on out to my place some time and I'll show you what I'm working with and give you an idea of how much I use my 46hp and for what. I'm off all next week.

Do you plan on horses, large garden or other project that will require descent amount of dirt/gravel to be moved/ maintained?

Thanks Adam! I may just take you up on that. That LS looks like a nice piece. I need to find time to get down to Penrose ASAP, but this weekend looks like it is booked with my daughter's swim meet at Cheyenne Mountain. If I am not mistaken, Kioti is also in Penrose. I think the Massey dealer is up in Aurora, but I would like to get there too.

I don't plan on adding horses at this time, but with 3 young daughters and a soft heart, I can never say never. I don't plan on mowing the whole 35 either. My in laws in Calhan don't bother mowing most of their 160 either. How many times per year do you mow? The most I have heard from anyone around here is 4x, and that depends on getting a wet year.

Axel might be right about what I can get away with. If I had left our yard back in Virginia sit idle for 2 years, it would be a full out jungle, with weed trees, and vines, and you wouldn't be able to see the house! Here, it seems you just get a couple of feet of sparse matted down native grasses and some thistle.

I am curious about the high altitude/turbo factor. Who makes turbo diesel models? And is there an easy way to tell if a model has a turbo?

Also curious about that flail mower airbuscuit mentioned. I was trying to get away with not having both a rough cut rotary and a finish mower. Looks like I could replace both with a flail mower? I was thinking that the bush hog seemed almost like overkill for maintaining this property, which is mostly grass, and the finish mower might work fine, but not until I got it knocked down a few times first with the rotary, plus the extra expense of a finish mower. Sounds like a flail might be just the ticket for all of my mowing needs. A local dealer told me folks around our area typically don't even bother trying to establish and maintain a groomed lawn at all. I may be in a situation where around the house is just shorter, more often mowed, pasture grasses.

Strongly leaning toward a cab, based on what local people keep telling me. If I don't got aftermarket, looks like b2650 in Kubota is starting point. JD doesn't offer them till 3 series. MF has them in the premium 1700 series. And it looks like LS offers the option in the XR line starting around 33hp.

Snowfall seems to be my biggest wildcard...

 

[fried1765]

The drag actually maintains the crown pretty well. If you look at the pictures or video, you can see that there is a guide wheel that slightly elevates the left side of the drag, and that keeps a crown in the center of the road. It leaves a very smooth surface. That said, I have also attached a picture of my (old) secret weapon for establishing crowns and road contours. Those old pony graders are awesome!

I have been adding gravel to the road over the years, and that really helps. I have also been eliminating any place where water could pool (puddles), and making diversion ditches on hills to slow the velocity of water running along the side of the road during down pours. Good drainage makes for good roads. Easier to keep it up (the drag), than let things go and do bigger repairs. I hope that more fully explains.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URHteVfiYDI

Seems as though you have your driveway situation under MUCH better control than I thought.
Your "old secret weapon" is a great thing to have. I looked, but never could find one.
The absolute best would be an old "Huber Maintainer". They are a small (Continential or Hercules) powered grader that looks like a lengthened tractor.
They are all old (50's - 60's?), but are a perfect machine to repair as necessary, and use forever.
If you want to see what one looks like, there is a restored one currently on E-Bay for $10,800, but they can be picked up for $5000 or so in usable condition.
I use a rear blade on my Ford 8N or my Ford 1920, and after 45 years of using the blade, have gotten very good at driveway maintenance.
Still would like to have a Huber Maintainer though!

 

[CobaltSky]

So, about that snow... After my 800ft driveway, there is another mile and a half of private dirt road until we hit county maintained roads. We have had two significant storms this year, mid November and early February, that resulted in driveway drifting, packed snow a couple feet deep. Without a plow we were stuck in the house a few days each time. I work from home so not a huge deal. It has been bone dry and sunny since the first week in Feb, knock on wood. I am told those blizzards aren't really typical for the area, but nor are they the worst we can expect.

My neighbor told me of a year that our community was snowed in for 6 weeks! They finally had to pay $3000 to get a big plow in here. A few neighbor's have skid loaders with chains and plow blades and another has a pickup with a plow. That year was so bad that none of them could get out with that equipment. I was wondering if a tractor with a snowblower would have made a difference or not.

So as I said, snowfall seems to be my biggest wildcard with tractor size and hp. I'd like enough hp to run a 5' mower, and eventually a 42" rototiller for a small garden, but I'm still really lost on snow options and what I'll need. Ranging from FEL+rear blade, to front snow blade, to hydraulic snow blade, to rear push blower, rear pull blower, to big $$ for what I would probably prefer, a front blower, but I really don't know.

Getting myself out of the driveway won't matter much if the neighbor's haven't plowed the other roads in yet, so I'd kind of like to be able to contribute to that effort a bit, which would keep me from having to wait on them to save me, and keep me from having to pay cash to them for helping to maintain the community roads. So one way or another I pay. With the right tractor and implements, I can pay with my equipment and time, without them, I just have to keep forking over cash to the ones with equipment doing the work.

 

[TJP89]

Someone asked what you need 35+ HP for. The answer is snow. 800ft of drive and half a mile of road is impossible with a SCUT. Period. There is no way a SCUT is going to clear a 18+ inches of drifted snow off that length of road before the spring thaw does. 35HP is nearly impossible, it will take you all day. I really struggled the say my road drifted over with about 2 ft. of snow. In fact it took the neighboring farmer's 300HP JD Row Crop tractor with a front blade to really clear it. (that was the day I realized that I would never have enough tractor). The only time I max out the tractor is in the snow. 4WD, LO, Diff lock, going in reverse there are times I'm still sliding. Loading the tires would help, but not a solution. With 35HP you could at least conceivably get out and clear the road. A bigger tractor makes it go quicker. Here weight is way more important that HP, so look at that. That said, you probably need 75HP before you could reliably say that you can clear anything that winter throws at you, and that of course is way overkill.

A hydraulic rear blade and loader are what I would like to get eventually. You can plow going forward up to about 10in. Then you can push to about 2ft. Over that, the loader is used in the scoop and dump fashion. Loader also very useful for drifts, and for that reason I would never give up the loader for plowing. Hydraulic means you can angle the blade without leaving the seat, but manual will work as well. Snowblower- eh, expensive, slow, finicky. Yes they can handle deeper snow, but at some point even that's going to be overwhelmed. Also, a rear blade is useful for grading as well. A front blade, expensive and you lose the loader.

Once you have 35HP, you will find that it is in no way too big. 35 acres is a lot of property just to get around, and things will crop up. Can you maintain it with 25HP, yes, but it will take way longer.

I think getting a mower and waiting on the bigger tractor is a good idea. You might rent a bigger tractor for a day/weekend and see how it works out. That would give you a good sense of what you need and feel comfortable with.

 

[AxleHub]

Cobaltsky,

Its gotten a bit confusing again with the new revelations regarding driveway/dirt road needs.

Lets start with frequencies. You had 2 big events of snow this year and apparently that was exceptional for your area. Other than that very very little snow. So in my opinion snow should not be your major consideration because getting to your road still is a mike plus of unplowed snow. To be clear . . and precise . . anything you would get in any size is going to help . . and anything you get can not be a solution because you are dependent on others no matter how big you get.

Now the idea of "helping the neighbors clear the dirt road" will save you money is unclear . . because how is that apportioned? If you have the ability to clear your own driveway . . you also have the ability to impact clearing of some of the road. But how much does it mean to your wallet? Is it a couple hundred dollars a year or a couple thousand dollars a year? What is the cost justification? Remember that justification has to support number of times per year and added fuel and maintenance costs and loss of work time as well as added costs of euipment and implements that you may only justify need for a couple times per year.

And a 4 foot snowblower vs. a 5 foot snowblower . . how important is that extra foot when you still can't get out anyway on the dirt road? Is your driveway 12' wide? At most thats 4 swipes with heavy snow. But imagine how much resistance to throw having another foot wider makes on the first path thru . How much hp and equipment cost is needed to do your driveway in 3 swipes instead of 4 ?

We get big wind drifts at our location regularly. We had a 5 inch snow but I had a strip 175 feet long that was drifted in 2 feet deep. My subcompact handled it fine. But in your scenario if your 800 feet took 2 hours to do or 4 hours to do or 6 hours to do . . You still can't get out on the road. Inless you have snowmobiles your kids can't get to school or the wife go to the grocery store.

My point is that you don't buy equipment to do 100% of your needs. You buy it based on your MOST FREQUENT 80% or 85% of your needs in my opinion . . and then you rent equipment or hire the other needs done. Just my opinion.

P.s. is there some agreement on who gets paid and how much to clear the dirt road? Or is this a profit maker for some of the neighbors? In other words . . justification for who dictates pay and rules for helping.

 

[AxleHub]

Tony, Cobalt's responsibility is for 800 feet of driveway. Then there is 1.5 miles of community dirt road that every house on that road is responsible for.

 

[CobaltSky]

P.s. is there some agreement on who gets paid and how much to clear the dirt road? Or is this a profit maker for some of the neighbors? In other words . . justification for who dictates pay and rules for helping.

It is very informal situation here. There are about 10 neighbors with 35-70 acres here and a handful of them have some equipment to maintain the private roads into the community. No one has ever asked me for money, but when I asked about road maintenance and plowing fees, I was told that the residents with equipment take care of it and those that don't have equipment try to chip in whenever they can.

Typically I wait for the snow to stop and the wind to slow down at least a bit, then spend a few hours hours walking behind a snowblower freezing my tail off getting wind blown snow thrown in my face, clearing to the to of the driveway to get one car width bobsled run cleared. By then or shortly after, someone with a skid has been by to clear the rest of the community roads. At least that has been my experience here during just this one winter.

This driveway never had anything done with it since it was installed in 2005, and all they did was scrape the vegetation off. It got muddy last month due to lots of snow melt so I brought in 90ton of 3/4" minus and paid the retired neighbor with a skid loader to grade it before the stone went in, and to spread the stone, which is why the drive looks so nice in the pics, it is brand new. He gets $40/hr for skid loader work. It was $200 for the driveway hours and I volunteered an extra $200 for the time I know he spent clearing the roads out from our driveway those few times earlier this year, and he seemed happy with that. He is a nice guy and I don't want to take advantage of him, so I'm just guessing that unless I can h lo out some on the roads closest to my house, I'd feel obligated to contribute at least 500/year for the road (plus our share of any extra stone needed over time), because I know it will need not only plowing, but grading and repair.

I'm new to the community and I want to help out however I can. Whether that is in monetary form or doing a little work on the roads myself is up for debate.

I will say the main N/S road in and out of the community seems to always be better cleared and in better shape than the .5 mile E/W connector road from our driveway. I think it is a matter of wind direction, combined with someone lives out that way with a truck mounted plow, and better drainage and less drifting. If I could help out a bit with what amounts to an extension to our driveway that is shared by 3 other houses, I'd be happy and so would those neighbors, and the ones without equipment might just kick back a little cash my way to pay for gas and maintenance.

Living at 7300ft of elevation, I'm now concerned that I need a turbo diesel, after reading a bit about that. Something like an LS XR3037HC or XR3135HC seems like something I should at least investigate, and look for some competition to those. I hate being a newbie . Thanks for everyone's patience with my cycles of indecision.

 

[murphy1244]

Peyton (zip 80831), Colorado, gets 19 inches of rain per year. The US average is 37. Snowfall is 86 inches. The average US city gets 25 inches of snow per year