Buying Advice Always two there must be?!

[TheMadOne]

The subject of tractors came up with a farmer friend of mine, and he recommended that I should budget for two tractors. One new(ish) smaller tractor with a FEL and one bigger used tractor without. His logic is that having a second tractor would, in combination with a cart, allow a single person to do much more, or two people to do even more than that.

The logic behind only one having a FEL is that the cart tractor will be mostly...well...pulling the cart, and have no need for it.

The reason for the larger tractor being hooked to the cart is so that you can fill the cart more, I guess.

The cart tractor wouldn't be getting worked as hard as the FEL one, and so could be older and still be expected to hold up.

With two tractors, as long as you don't need the FEL, if one goes down you still have one.

He also recommended that the bigger one have a cab if possible, since it wouldn't need to get into all the tight areas the FEL one would.

Thoughts?

 

[newbury]

Three chainsaws, two tractors, one wife.

 

[DT86]

Depends on what your doing I guess. What are you supposed to be carting?

 

[TheMadOne]

Depends on what your doing I guess. What are you supposed to be carting?

Firewood/brush mostly. His logic is that by the time I bring the tree to where I can buck and limb it with the smaller tractor, that having a second tractor ready to go and haul the wood would be much faster and easier than having to hook the smaller tractor to the cart, drive it to the pile, empty it, return, unhook, and repeat. Pretty much the same story for moving dirt around. Leaving the cart hooked to a tractor and loading it with the FEL of the other one.

 

[bcp]

An older 4x4 pickup would be more all around useful than a 2nd tractor for pulling the cart.

Bruce

 

[Wagtail]

As DT86 says but with the caveat of what your circumstances are.

In a way, your farmer friend's axiom held true for me. I bought my big tractor first, thinking that that would be all that I'd need; what with the implements I'd bought to go with it. This included a 3pt slasher.

It soon became apparent that I needed a second smaller tractor (the D110) to mow/mulch and, via a wheeled cart, do/haul smaller things around the property.

Since buying the lawn tractor, I've used the big tractor's slasher only 3 times in as many years.

 

[Bird]

I know a fellow in the hay and beef cattle business who had his own 18-wheeler to haul the hay he sold, and he had 2 John Deere tractors with air-conditioned cabs. He usually worked alone. So he finally got a third John Deere with air-conditioned cab. He'd cut the hay with one tractor; didn't have to unhook the cutter because he had the rake on one tractor and the baler on the other one. But the oddest thing, to me anyway, was when he'd start baling hay, he'd rake some, leave that tractor running with the A/C on so it wouldn't get too hot inside while he baled a bit, then leave the tractor with the baler running while he raked some more. When I saw what he was doing, I could hardly believe it.

 

[Grandad4]

Not a bad theory. If you're in the farming business, you get to depreciate your equipment so it's not the same as those of us who just own property that needs work. But heck, some of us own more than one tractor too! Funny how that works.

 

[Looking4new]

For every implement you should have a tractor hooked to it.

 

[murphy1244]

Yea screw the Quick hitch when you can Quick Tractor..:thumbsup: