ChugiakTinkerer
Bronze Member
Hello TBN,
I need help spending my money! My wife and I recently bought 27 acres near Lake Louise in the Copper River basin in Alaska. This property is 10 miles from the end of the road and is only accessible over land in the winter. We're planning a cabin or two and I need to get to work clearing the land, hauling out my sawmill, and felling and milling some lumber. I've concluded I definitely need some piece of equipment to do the heavy lifting and I'm wondering if a 35 hp tractor would be my best choice.
The property is on a lake and we can hire a float plane and land on the lake in the summer. I'm working on a floating dock and improving a trail that runs about 600' to the planned cabin site at the top of the hill. I'd post a picture but as a new member I cannot yet post an image. We've got spruce trees and blueberries all over, and just a handful of birch at the crest. Most of the spruce are black spruce, too small for milling. I've got several larger spruce on the property and plan on harvesting timber off of the adjoining state land. The work I need to do in the immediate future includes assembling the sawmill, felling and hauling trees, cutting and stacking lumber to dry, perhaps building a sawmill shed, clearing the cabin site, and improving trails to the lake and around the property. I hope my parents will be visiting the property someday and I'd like to be prepared for a medical evacuation if necessary, so I need to clear the brush for a large enough area to qualify as a helipad. I will be milling for a timber frame which will need 8x8 up to 18' long. I figure the logs might run up to 2,000 lbs and pallets of stacked lumber will be in that range as well.
Access to the property in the winter is via snowmobile. I travel the first three miles over the frozen lake, then follow improved groomed trails for three miles. The final four miles are across state land to my property on a trail that I established last winter. It is these last 4 miles that really limit my flexibility because to drive any vehicle weighing more than 1500 lbs requires a permit from the state DNR. My choices are to tow a sled with my snowmobile or drive the equipment across the compacted snow. I can tow without needing a permit, and if I drive the permit will cost me at the very least $100 application fee and will be good for a winter season.
Those are my parameters and I originally settled on a CUT with loader as my best choice. If I keep the weight to 3500 lbs or so I can tow it with my snowmobile. We have a LS dealer not too far away and really liked the XR3135HC. A cab is a must-have, and hydrostatic is as well (I think). If we get this tractor I will have to take off the loader and haul that in separately. We have a Deere dealer in Anchorage and a sort-of Kubota dealer too. I've gotten quotes from a Kioti dealer in Juneau and a Mahindra dealer near Tacoma. I am not convinced that the Deere paint is worth a 30% premium over the LS tractor, but I am toying with the idea of saving some cash and getting a Kioti CK2510 with cab or a Mahindra Max 26XL with cab.
I've come to realize though that my needs for pulling an implement are pretty limited and wonder if I'm not better off getting a tracked loader or mini excavator for now. I've also looked at wheeled equipment such as a smaller backhoe or telehandler but I don't know what overland travel in the winter would be like with those. My budget is pretty much maxed with the price of the LS tractor, so if I opt for the heavier equipment I would definitely be looking at something used with several thousand hours on it. I'm no stranger to repairing my own stuff but I'd rather spend my time working with the equipment rather than working on it. So what do you all think about how I should spend my money?
I need help spending my money! My wife and I recently bought 27 acres near Lake Louise in the Copper River basin in Alaska. This property is 10 miles from the end of the road and is only accessible over land in the winter. We're planning a cabin or two and I need to get to work clearing the land, hauling out my sawmill, and felling and milling some lumber. I've concluded I definitely need some piece of equipment to do the heavy lifting and I'm wondering if a 35 hp tractor would be my best choice.
The property is on a lake and we can hire a float plane and land on the lake in the summer. I'm working on a floating dock and improving a trail that runs about 600' to the planned cabin site at the top of the hill. I'd post a picture but as a new member I cannot yet post an image. We've got spruce trees and blueberries all over, and just a handful of birch at the crest. Most of the spruce are black spruce, too small for milling. I've got several larger spruce on the property and plan on harvesting timber off of the adjoining state land. The work I need to do in the immediate future includes assembling the sawmill, felling and hauling trees, cutting and stacking lumber to dry, perhaps building a sawmill shed, clearing the cabin site, and improving trails to the lake and around the property. I hope my parents will be visiting the property someday and I'd like to be prepared for a medical evacuation if necessary, so I need to clear the brush for a large enough area to qualify as a helipad. I will be milling for a timber frame which will need 8x8 up to 18' long. I figure the logs might run up to 2,000 lbs and pallets of stacked lumber will be in that range as well.
Access to the property in the winter is via snowmobile. I travel the first three miles over the frozen lake, then follow improved groomed trails for three miles. The final four miles are across state land to my property on a trail that I established last winter. It is these last 4 miles that really limit my flexibility because to drive any vehicle weighing more than 1500 lbs requires a permit from the state DNR. My choices are to tow a sled with my snowmobile or drive the equipment across the compacted snow. I can tow without needing a permit, and if I drive the permit will cost me at the very least $100 application fee and will be good for a winter season.
Those are my parameters and I originally settled on a CUT with loader as my best choice. If I keep the weight to 3500 lbs or so I can tow it with my snowmobile. We have a LS dealer not too far away and really liked the XR3135HC. A cab is a must-have, and hydrostatic is as well (I think). If we get this tractor I will have to take off the loader and haul that in separately. We have a Deere dealer in Anchorage and a sort-of Kubota dealer too. I've gotten quotes from a Kioti dealer in Juneau and a Mahindra dealer near Tacoma. I am not convinced that the Deere paint is worth a 30% premium over the LS tractor, but I am toying with the idea of saving some cash and getting a Kioti CK2510 with cab or a Mahindra Max 26XL with cab.
I've come to realize though that my needs for pulling an implement are pretty limited and wonder if I'm not better off getting a tracked loader or mini excavator for now. I've also looked at wheeled equipment such as a smaller backhoe or telehandler but I don't know what overland travel in the winter would be like with those. My budget is pretty much maxed with the price of the LS tractor, so if I opt for the heavier equipment I would definitely be looking at something used with several thousand hours on it. I'm no stranger to repairing my own stuff but I'd rather spend my time working with the equipment rather than working on it. So what do you all think about how I should spend my money?
