Buying advice for small land-owner in New Hampshire

[Carl_NH]

I bought my ripper/trencher from Brotek in Canada Bro-Tek. As far as the rear blade pulling sideways - yes if its deep/heavy snow it will want to skew the tractor. What I do is for over 12" snowfall I run my walk behind 28" Craftsman SB once down and back up the 250' driveway and clear out near garage doors, and walkways then I use the tractor FEL and Rear blade for the rest. Also, I use front chains which help a lot keeping the tractor in the right direction. With the FEL and rear blade my B21 is around 3400Lbs +- as its 3900lbs with the BH on.

On the BH Kubota vs Kioti - Kubota is closer mounted to the tractor with 4 Point mounts, and uses the swing seat. Also I believe the Kioti BH subframe comes off with the BH and check ground clearance and ease of removal and storage! Get a demo on how to remove the BH for each model.

Other points -make sure you get a thumb for your BH too, and QA Loader, and dealers will add hooks, fill tires to make the deal typically.

 

[Carl_NH]

Found this video on the BH for the 2465 Kioti Kioti Tractor Backhoe Review - YouTube - note the ground clearance on the BH subframe and also storage for this unit is pretty long and a dolly to move around would be big!

Here's one of the Kubota B2650/BH77 BH77 Backhoe Hookup to Kubota B265 - YouTube

I built a dolly for the BH for easy storage and reconnecting.

 

[BEAGLES]

After watching the Kioti and the Kubota BH installations on YouTube. If the BH is gonna be on/off regularly, then by all means Kioti. Like the whole system better.

 

[Carl_NH]

After watching the Kioti and the Kubota BH installations on YouTube. If the BH is gonna be on/off regularly, then by all means Kioti. Like the whole system better.

Do you have a BH Beagles?

IMO the Kubota 4 Point connection with the subframe as an integral part of the tractor frame is a better setup vs the Kioti undermount frame. Both will work at the end of the day - its just personal preference and if you want to store a 8' long subframe, and lose ground clearance as well with Kioti.

 

[BigNuge]

Hello, another fellow NH member! I’m in Seabrook, did very much the same shopping as you. Looking to do property maintenance and projects, move snow in the winter. However, my Kubota pricing from MB was not good at all, and that was with all sorts of implement incentives built in. I priced them all, was turned off by Kioti (because the the terrible one-man-band dealer), LS (same reason), JD (blew me off completely), Bobcat (rebranded Kioti, and they admittedly “didn’t really do tractors”).

I was talked out of the BH by the salesman at MB! His whole position on it was that for what I’d spend on the BH I could rent a mini excavator and get the job done quicker/easier, and a whooooole lot cheaper, and he’s right! A mini excavator is a purpose-built machine that will out-dig a tractor with twice the HP. In the end, I dropped the BH off the list. Now that I have the tractor, I’m **** happy I did.

I went with a Mahindra from Chappell. Fantastic dealer, been around a looooong time, know what they’re doing. I got the 1626, great size and weight (which is key, and I think the light weight of the B-series would have worked against me).

Already have 16 hours on my Mahindra, prepped a 26’ pool pad for our new pool, dug out a bunch of brush on the property line, stacked/consolidated a large pile of loam, the uses have been endless! The stats and performace of the Mahindra are solid. Operator station is comfortable, loader stats are **** near top-in-class, Mitsubishi power plant, split brakes....the list goes on. Savings of about $5k when the deal was done (vs. Kubota). I got a set of forks, box blade, already built a carry-all, Pats couplers.

Good luck with your search!

 

[RSR]

My thinking was that it would be better to have the tool and be able to slowly pick away at a stump or large rock an hour or so at a time whenever I have the chance rather than having to take a day or weekend and rush to get everything planned and done in one shot with a rented tool.

I wouldn't undervalue this argument. It can vary as well depending on your location, vehicle situation for hauling, etc. In my situation, I usually end up making do with what I have on hand to get something done. My life is busy enough right now that I never have time to carve out an entire day to get something done, which would preclude renting an excavator. I have to nibble away in increments of an hour here and there.

Also, depending on how cold it is, if you are going to be moving snow, SERIOUSLY consider a cab. It was the best decision I made. Sitting on a tractor not working gets a lot colder than say, walking behind a snowblower, where you are at least moving.

 

[nhbubba]

Yup. I think we are going to go for the hoe despite the expense. Nothing like long financing terms to get you thinking "eh, that's reasonable!"

If I were able to conveniently borrow equipment and use at my leisure I wouldn't be in the market for a tractor at all!
Rental houses all charge dearly for machine delivery. I don't own a pickup anymore and cannot tow their equipment myself. Leaves me at their convenience, not my own.

I was discussing this with my mother recently and she reminded me of the time we rented equipment to do some improvements to her land. We had a mishap that fortunately didn't hurt anyone but did cost us a repair bill. The mishap happened because we grossly under-estimated how much time it would take us to do the work. We only had the equipment for the weekend and rushed. We didn't get the work done. What we did get done we did not get done well. And wound up with a damage bill when we abused the equipment in our haste. Later she paid a neighbor (who owned a Kubota B-series.. oh, the irony) to do the final cleanup for her.

Long way round of saying I think I've sold myself on the hoe. It's only money.
Here I am selling myself things on the internets. Nobody ever does this sort of thing, do they?


Cabs are definitely out. We don't even get that much snow and I will keep my walk-behind blower for the walkways anyway. I am (or used to be, before children) a decent outdoorsman and motorcyclist. I have electric heated liners and waterproof shells. I can handle some elements.

 

[nhbubba]

However, my Kubota pricing from MB was not good at all, and that was with all sorts of implement incentives built in.

Ugh. Really? Their quote was so far under the "build now" pricing on the Kubota website that I just assumed it was reasonable.

Honestly the Kioti pricing is lower than anything I'd seen on the net. And the Kubota pricing is only a bit ahead of that. I had assumed that was good. Maybe I need to shop around.

Throwing Mahindra back into the mix when I was about to call this decision done. Doode, that's harsh!
Alright. Off to research Mahindra.

 

[BigNuge]

Ugh. Really? Their quote was so far under the "build now" pricing on the Kubota website that I just assumed it was reasonable.

Honestly the Kioti pricing is lower than anything I'd seen on the net. And the Kubota pricing is only a bit ahead of that. I had assumed that was good. Maybe I need to shop around.

Throwing Mahindra back into the mix when I was about to call this decision done. Doode, that's harsh!
Alright. Off to research Mahindra.

Lol....it’s worth a wag dude. Talk to Ted at Chappell in Brentwood, good guy. Take one for a spin, it’s a solid machine!

 

[nhbubba]

Already called. Ted is who I think I talked to. Quite helpful. We talked about the Max 26. Kubota is about $800 cheaper (B2301). Mahindra is right about the same as the B2601. But there isn't anything like a $5k delta here.
He didn't itemize backhoe out from the base tractor. Maybe that hoe is just obscenely expensive.

May go kick some tires at lunch if I can sneak out.