Buying Advice: Tractor Sizing

[Pawatch]

A couple thoughts are...A heated cab is really nice if your dealing with a fair amount of snow in the winter.
On the other hand you have to be really careful in the woods with a cab, the O sh_t always seems to happen.

If it was me I would hire someone with a bulldozer to cut some roads for you. No wear and tear on your tractor and done in a day or two.

Loading wood on pallets to transport sounds like a practical and time saving idea.
I would think you would need at least need a larger frame tractor. The Kioti CK 2610 would probably also work...bigger size frame and tires with no emissions.

Good Luck with your search for a new tractor.

 

[Tractorable]

Kioti just came out with the new DK10SE series in 2018 which may work well for the OP. They look really nice and are a very nice size, 71 inch wheelbase and 60-ish inches wide, about the exact same footprint as a Kubota L3560 and the same weight (3500lbs ROPS, 4000lbs Cab). Kioti claims the loader can lift 2500lbs to full height at the pins. It also has a cool lever on the back to raise/lower the 3pt arms from outside the tractor.

I’m a died in the wool Japanese tractor guy but these new Korean tractors are making me look twice.

All New Kioti DK10SE HST Tractors - DK4210SE & DK4710SE Walkthru - YouTube

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I would not even consider an open station tractor for winter snow blowing. But it gets cold here. I mean REAL cold, not "cutesy" cold. Like all winter long it will NEVER warm up to 0 degrees. The only guys you see here moving snow on open stations are either soft headed, or poor. (Trying to be humorous here). But at 4am, when it's -40 F (raw air temp, not "wind chill"), and the wind is blowing at 20-30 mph... we call that WEDNESDAY. As in, just another day, and the snow has to get cleared anyway. A heated cab is worth it's weight in gold.

I've not seen a late model factory cabbed tractor that didn't have safety glass in the cab. Maybe some of the cheaper aftermarket cab kits don't? I dunno, haven't seen one that didn't. Point being, it is possible to break a window, yes. But just brushing by a small branch or two is not going to break a safety glass window. Think about it like the glass windows in your truck. Sure they can be broken, but it takes some extra effort to make that happen. If you can clear a path into the trees before hand, then running a cabbed tractor in the woods is a no-brainer (unless you're a no-brainer I guess).

I would definitely look at the heavier end of tractor chassis, get those rear tires filled, get a rear ballast (1000-1500 lbs minimum) for that 3pt hitch, and something with a FEL that can lift at least 2K, before you go diving into those woods picking up granite boulders.

 

[RSR]

I would not even consider an open station tractor for winter snow blowing. But it gets cold here. I mean REAL cold, not "cutesy" cold. Like all winter long it will NEVER warm up to 0 degrees. The only guys you see here moving snow on open stations are either soft headed, or poor. (Trying to be humorous here). But at 4am, when it's -40 F (raw air temp, not "wind chill"), and the wind is blowing at 20-30 mph... we call that WEDNESDAY. As in, just another day, and the snow has to get cleared anyway. A heated cab is worth it's weight in gold.

I've not seen a late model factory cabbed tractor that didn't have safety glass in the cab. Maybe some of the cheaper aftermarket cab kits don't? I dunno, haven't seen one that didn't. Point being, it is possible to break a window, yes. But just brushing by a small branch or two is not going to break a safety glass window. Think about it like the glass windows in your truck. Sure they can be broken, but it takes some extra effort to make that happen. If you can clear a path into the trees before hand, then running a cabbed tractor in the woods is a no-brainer (unless you're a no-brainer I guess).

I would definitely look at the heavier end of tractor chassis, get those rear tires filled, get a rear ballast (1000-1500 lbs minimum) for that 3pt hitch, and something with a FEL that can lift at least 2K, before you go diving into those woods picking up granite boulders.

I don't know that we get quite that cold, but we are definitely on that end of the spectrum. We go weeks without seeing temperatures rising above freezing, and it's not uncommon to go 3-7 days with temps never getting above zero.

I have a similar mindset. Most of the trees are maples with branches high up (no evergreens to push through). I figure a little yearly maintenance with a pole saw should make using the tractor in the woods manageable.

 

[RSR]

Unless your a mechanical dolt, I'd guess that honestly... very few.

Rock - so are you saying don't worry about local dealer support? As I said, I really only have access to the big two, and while I think their tractors are nice, I think there are better value options out there. I worry, though, as I don't have a way to tow it either, should it need to go to the dealer.

 

[RSR]

Kioti just came out with the new DK10SE series in 2018 which may work well for the OP. They look really nice and are a very nice size, 71 inch wheelbase and 60-ish inches wide, about the exact same footprint as a Kubota L3560 and the same weight. Kioti claims the loader can lift 2500lbs to full height at the pins. It also has a cool lever on the back to raise/lower the 3pt arms from outside the tractor.

I’m a died in the wool Japanese tractor guy but these new Korean tractors are making me look twice.

All New Kioti DK10SE HST Tractors - DK4210SE & DK4710SE Walkthru - YouTube

I was pretty excited when they came out with the DK4210SE, until I realized the PTO HP is less than the CK4010SE.

With snow blowing being my main priority, that is a concern.

 

[jeff9366]

5 Acres of land, ~1/2 acre of lawn (no plans to mow with a tractor), the rest heavily wooded, very rocky, and uneven, on the side of a fairly gentle hill.

My tasks:
1) First and foremost, snow removal and road maintenance.

2) Woods maintenance.

I understand your desire for a cab tractor. However your conundrum is that cab tractors and work in the woods is an impractical combination. Cabs are fragile.

I used to have a (Grand L) L3240 which weighs 3500 pounds base tractor and lifted 1800 pounds to full height at the pins on the loader. I’d want something at least that big and not a lot bigger. I’d take a used Grand series over a new economy for the same money any day.

I have the current small model Grand L, L3560. Heavy for its small size.

Buy a stick of PVC pipe. Cut it to 72", the width of the larger Grand L tractors equipped with R4 tires: L4060/L4760/L5060/l5460/L6060. Mark pipe with tape at 62", width of L3560 (L3240) equipped with R4 tires. Walk around your property testing pipe width between trees.

(Bear in mind that you may want rear wheels spread 2"-3"-4" wider than standard/default, to increase stability on sloping ground.)

When I went through this exercise the 72" wide tractors were ruled out.

Landscaping. I'd like to harvest some of the rocks for building retaining walls across the lawn. I'd like to move as large of rocks as possible, and have the capacity to lift and place them where I want with a grapple. Eventually, the plan is put in some walls, bring in a bunch of dirt, and terrace the lawn (which is currently just the side of a hill).

My thought is a grapple and a heavy tractor would be needed for any serious progress on this front. There is no hurry, so I can just chip away at it a little bit at a time. The trade-off seems to be the size to handle/move large rocks with agility. Again, practical experience would be greatly appreciated here. I can calculate how much a granite boulder weighs, and try to estimate the needed lift capacity to move it around with say a grapple, but specs on paper are a lot different than real world experience as the center of mass is well past the pivot pins, not to mention the safety of it all.

I would use an old car hood from the junkyard, attached to tractor Three Point Hitch cross-drawbar, as a sleigh to skid boulders. You can push large boulders onto the car hood with an unadorned FEL bucket and lift boulders modest heights where you want retaining walls, perhaps securing them with nylon straps during lift.

You will need heavy Three Point Hitch counterbalance when lifting boulders in the FEL to place for walls.

Kubota offers optional heavy duty SSQA buckets. With your conditions a heavy duty bucket would be advisable. The 60" heavy-duty, round-back bucket is option model L2296.

CROSS DRAWBAR: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/404017-tractor-three-point-hitch-cross.html

 

[jeff9366]

The question, then, for weighing risk, is "what percentage of new tractors require dealer support/service in the first 5 years of use?"

No.

More properly two questions.

1. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators damage their tractor due to lack of experience during first five years of operation, to an extent requiring dealer repair?
[Neophyte operators do not know what they do not know.]

Answer: 100%


2. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators buy a too light tractor first, then operate it constantly at 100% trying to compensate, leading to repetitive damage requiring dealer repair?

Answer: 25%


It is not the hardware. It is the software.

 

[RSR]

No.

More properly two questions.

1. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators damage their tractor due to lack of experience during first five years of operation, to an extent requiring dealer repair?

Answer: 100%


2. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators buy a too light tractor first, then operate it at 100% trying to compensate, leading to repetitive damage requiring dealer repair?

Answer: 25%


It is not the hardware. It is the software.

You point is well taken.

 

[kenmac]

you said something about calculating the weight of the rock to give you an idea of loader lift capacity.
Don't forget to add the grapple weight into your figures. A heavy grapple will reduce loader lift capacity.

I used a 35 hp tractor for years and have done most anything I needed to do.
No grapple, only a thumb

Since moving to the farm last year. I purchased the mx5100. Though I hardly use it. Most of the time is still spent on the 35 hp yanmar