looking for an ideal garden tractor

[CADplans]

First of all, do not buy something you DO NOT want,, just to have a tractor,

Most of the time, eventually you will run into what you want ,, if you hunt,

I ran into the mower of MY dreams, but, it took years, and it was at my price,,

It is a JD 4105, which is perfect for everything I do, but, I do have a different tractor with a loader.

This JD will be in my shed as long as I own land.

 

[blivy]

I live those tuff builts. Hard to find used but I’d jump on one!

 

[blivy]

First of all, do not buy something you DO NOT want,, just to have a tractor,

Most of the time, eventually you will run into what you want ,, if you hunt,

I ran into the mower of MY dreams, but, it took years, and it was at my price,,

It is a JD 4105, which is perfect for everything I do, but, I do have a different tractor with a loader.

This JD will be in my shed as long as I own land.

Nice tractor. Yep. Agree on not jumping headlong but also don’t want to get one years from now once I’ve taken care of all the hard stuff manually!!!

 

[blivy]

Really looking closer at this one:

Kubota B7100HST PACKAGE - farm & garden - by owner - sale

Kubota B7100HST 4WD Tractor runs great starts right up. Pto, lift, and everything works good. Clutch growls if pushed at full throttle it has done it since I got it 10 years ago. Throttle down when...

atlanta.craigslist.org

Have reached out with a ton of questions on how it’s been used, stores, maintained.
also have asked for pics on the deck to see if it is something my decent (but limited) mechanic skills can address.
what are y’all’s thoughts on the clutch growl he mentions?

 

[Vigo327]

Well, someone already mentioned the pilot bearing/bushing and i would suspect that is the problem as well. If you have ever tried to spin a round bit (drill bit, carbide bit, burr, etc) inside a hole that is not much larger than the bit, and it catches one side and proceeds to bounce all around in that hole and make a nasty noise and vibration, that's what the input shaft can do in the pilot bearing/bushing if it is loose and there is a big speed difference. So, i would suspect that its pilot bushing related. I have not inspected my own but i did see a youtube video that showed that you can actually visually inspect the 'wiggle' of the input shaft from underneath the tractor on a gear version of that tractor (not sure on HST?), so it is not a big effort to diagnose. Unless that belly mower is currently down there in the way, i guess! Actually fixing it would be a bit of a job because you have to 'split' the tractor, although we are talking about two ends of a pretty tiny tractor here. But getting pilot bushings out and back in is not something that people new to mechanics usually have any fun with. It's also POSSIBLE that the bushing is long worn away and the input shaft has been buggering up the hole in the end of the crank, which means a new pilot bushing wouldn't even fit. Not trying to scare you, but i think it would take a lot of joy out of your new toy IF you ended up having to deal with that right away. So.. be cautious.

The BX seems nice other than having no attachments, but if you get to NEEDING an attachment it might be the best of the bunch because im pretty sure everything ever made for a BX is still pretty easy to find, although it might be pretty expensive in the long run to piecemeal newer attachments together vs buying something older that includes some as a package deal.


The 8200 is not very much bigger than the 7100, but some peoples' idea of what 'rebuilt' means scares me.

I think in your position i'd keep looking.. but we're rootin for ya.

 

[blivy]

Vigo—thanks for great advice. Still looking around for certain. Got some pals with farms and they’re looking too.
good news is that work and fam keep me pretty busy so even if I have a hard time being patient they keep me from running off to buy a tractor on a moments notice.
Really do like the Kubota B7100 from what I’ve seen of it. It checks a lot of boxes for me (small enough to mow, strong enough to grade and potentially fit out with an FEL, a 30 year history with lots of availability and knowledge, 4wd, and looks pretty cool too!!)

 

[scaredychicken]

I really like my Kubota BX23S tractor, loader, backhoe.

However, for what you describe, I would look at Ventrac and Steiner ... pricey, lots of attachments (Ventrac 4500 shown)

 

[MossRoad]

I really like my Kubota BX23S tractor, loader, backhoe.

However, for what you describe, I would look at Ventrac and Steiner ... pricey, lots of attachments (Ventrac 4500 shown)

View attachment 714310

No loader. That was in his wish list. The one that they make for those is not very capable. Otherwise, very capable machines.

 

[scaredychicken]

No loader. That was in his wish list. The one that they make for those is not very capable. Otherwise, very capable machines.

yeah, the loader has limits, but the OP's original thought was garden tractors ... the options for attachments are impressive

 

[Randy Gann]

If you do buy a z turn mower you will find that the mid mount mower will be used very little. For a compact tractor a rear mount finish mower is a lower cost option. This way you are not limited to tractors with a mid mount mower. A compact tractor (not sub compact) will have more fel capability. So the z turn plus compact tractor sounds like a good solution.