1.5 acres. Am I nuts for thinking about a tractor?

[Yander]

I remember you saying that before - that in your opinion top quality is a "marketing myth".
That sounds to be like your expertise is somewhere else rather than in mechanical things.

I'm a gearhead, & have been involved in every aspect of mechanical things my entire life - including manufacturing, dealership, and mechanical engineering. For us gear guys, top quality certainly does exist in mechanical things, it is often coupled with high cost of manufacture - and results in a product that costs more to buy.

I maintain - as do most mechanical guys - that differences in quality of manufacture are real. Especially in tools and commercial equipment I see a wide range in quality. It is simply superiority, and not an illusion.

I also agree that high price does not guarantee quality. One does not guarantee the other.

rScotty

If all of this is true, why aren't you recommending a Yanmar?

 

[Yander]

At 1.5 acres, with a structure and trees taking up a lot of it, and a slope to the terrain, I can't imagine needing a tractor. Zero turn will mow MUCH faster. You can get a leaf bagger or leaf sweeper to pull behind in the fall. When jobs need to be done, rent the perfect machine for the job.

I've not see a ZTR lift 800lbs yet but would love to.

 

[rScotty]

If all of this is true, why aren't you recommending a Yanmar?

It is all true, and along the way we have owned several Yanmars. Wonderful quality; like a fine watch. I wish we still had them.

Did you know that Yanmars used to be one of the most expensive compact 4wds? In the early 1980s the knock against them was the high price.

Anyway, back in 2007 we were looking for our next tractor to be a Yanmar again - this time we wanted a real TLB because we had heard that Yanmar was making one: The CBL-40.
Couldn't find one, and JD had just quit making the JD110 small TLB - which had problems anyway - so we ended up at the Kubota dealer. I'd never been to the Kubota shop even though we could see it from the JD dealer AND the New Holland/Ford dealer.

Ended up buying a Kubota demo off his lot. The brand new - just out - M59 TLB. It is simply one of the best purchases we've ever made.
rScotty

 

[milkman636]

The guy we buy our syrup from has 65 acres of woods that he taps and produces hundreds of gallons of syrup every spring. The only vehicle he uses is a quad with a customized trailer that holds about a mile of poly tubing. He has a vacuum pump that pulls the sap from the woods up to three large storage tanks at the back of his barn with the evaporator in it. From there he gravity meters it through filters and into the pan as he boils. After seeing the cleanliness of his sap and simple efficiency of his process, I think anyone doing syrup on a small property should look at the possibility of manifolding taps onto common lines and using gravity to move the sap as close to where you need it as possible. That minimize the collection time, equipment cost, and travel troubles that other have alluded to in prior comments.

 

[Yander]

It is all true, and along the way we have owned several Yanmars. Wonderful quality; like a fine watch. I wish we still had them.

Did you know that Yanmars used to be one of the most expensive compact 4wds? In the early 1980s the knock against them was the high price.

Anyway, back in 2007 we were looking for our next tractor to be a Yanmar again - this time we wanted a real TLB because we had heard that Yanmar was making one: The CBL-40.
Couldn't find one, and JD had just quit making the JD110 small TLB - which had problems anyway - so we ended up at the Kubota dealer. I'd never been to the Kubota shop even though we could see it from the JD dealer AND the New Holland/Ford dealer.

Ended up buying a Kubota demo off his lot. The brand new - just out - M59 TLB. It is simply one of the best purchases we've ever made.
rScotty
View attachment 804926

I did not know that about the Yanmar prices in the 80s. I was joking though, I think Yanmar are great but I think there are a lot of companies making great tractors now.

 

[Tractorable]

My vote is for the new Kubota L2502 or Yanmar YT235.

No, you’re not crazy for considering a tractor on 1.5 acres. It makes a lot of sense.

 

[Duds13]

The guy we buy our syrup from has 65 acres of woods that he taps and produces hundreds of gallons of syrup every spring. The only vehicle he uses is a quad with a customized trailer that holds about a mile of poly tubing. He has a vacuum pump that pulls the sap from the woods up to three large storage tanks at the back of his barn with the evaporator in it. From there he gravity meters it through filters and into the pan as he boils. After seeing the cleanliness of his sap and simple efficiency of his process, I think anyone doing syrup on a small property should look at the possibility of manifolding taps onto common lines and using gravity to move the sap as close to where you need it as possible. That minimize the collection time, equipment cost, and travel troubles that other have alluded to in prior comments.

Definitely saves a lot of time and hassle, but not a cheap investment by any means. You have to consider the cleaning of those lines and maintenance of the pumps, squirrels and deer and other animals chewing on the lines, damage to the lines from trees and tree limbs, etc. My next improvement for my operation will be a small revers osmosis system to cut down on boiling time and firewood consumption. I actually enjoy going around and collecting the sap in the buckets!

 

[rScotty]

I did not know that about the Yanmar prices in the 80s. I was joking though, I think Yanmar are great but I think there are a lot of companies making great tractors now.

I agree with that. The small tractor industry wasn't as mature in the 80s as now. American industry was caught flat-footed when they found what was happening overseas. The small hillside farms popular in foreign countries had undergone their own industrial revolution featuring 4wd & miniature tractors with tiny diesel engines - and all without help or even knowledge on the part of the US farmer or farm industry..

Somewhere I've got a list of about 50 companies that made small tractors back then....most of them were Asian and many never heard of again - but their products were surprisingly good for the time.

Yanmar is different from most because their manufacturing economy is unique. They make much of their own equipment in house - including smelting and casting. Tractors are a sideline for them. Yanmar mostly makes large diesels for tanker-size ships. They are also involved in aquaculture & deep sea factory fishing fleets - industries which are important in other parts of the world but mostly unknown in the US.

 

[Schoochie]

I’ve never regreted buying a sub compact tractor instead of a lawnmower-over the past 20 years I’ve accumulated 4 tractors and they take care of 3-4 acres easily-i bought 3 for under 3600.00 and another one with a bucket for 6500.00 -Good luck with your decision

 

[Texasmark]

Test drive an LS MT2-25s with loader.......then go home and think about what you can/will do with that! Then go back to the dealer and haggle him down and buy it. Mine is a 2021 I bought new for $15,500 and that included shipping 250 miles and the seller took 2 trade-ins back with him making my out of pocket cash $6k.

 

[Mike1955]

Hey all! I've been lurking for a bit but I've yet to see a use case quite like mine.

We recently bought a large ~1.5 acre property and historic home in a small town center in Maine. Originally a small horse farm, it was at one point extensively landscaped like a park, with lots of garden plots and about 60 old growth maples and while it's not a big property, it's been a fairly high maintenance one for its small size. The whole property is on a gently sloping hillside with about an acre of lawn, which currently takes me about 90+ minutes to mow with a commercial walk behind (there's a ZTR in our near future). On top of that, it had been neglected for a couple of decades when we bought it, and we're in the process of digging it out from the overgrowth and restoring it to its former glory.

We've got a long list of major landscaping projects planned, including building stone stairs and doing a lot of terracing/retaining wall construction to build foundations for an outdoor dining pavilion as well as a workshop/sugar shack/garage for the ZTR. In addition, the 60 maples generate about 20 cubic yards of leaves every year, which has been "fun" to manage and sustains a leaf pile that's about 45'x25'x6' deep. We're also doing the millennial hobby farmer thing and expanding a large vegetable garden and I'm growing a large hobbyist/small commercial scale maple syrup operation.

With the cost of getting any work done these days, I figure I'm easily at $30-40k or more to get all of the outstanding landscaping projects done, and between moving sap barrels around the yard during syrup season, gardening/landscaping odds and ends, and turning over our large compost pile, a loader would be nice to have. Am I crazy for thinking that a tractor more than pays for itself with the landscaping/earthmoving projects and afterwards becomes a useful tool for managing a small but high maintenance property while raising a growing family and often being pressed for time? What size/hp range should I be considering?

The only rear implements I'd likely be running are a box blade, a small rotary cultivator, and probably a wood chipper. I'd like to be able to lift/move ~800lbs for the landscaping projects. I was thinking that a 25hp emissions-exempt compact with loaded tires would be a good place to start. My local dealerships sell Deere, Kubota, Kioti, Massey Ferguson, and Yanmar, and they all seem pretty decent. If I even need a tractor, what should I look for?

Absolutely not. Get on big enough. 40 hp. No less than 35. You will love it and don’t be afraid to buy a used one. People do pass and their equipment has to be sold. Just stay away from the stealerships. Lol

 

[buckeyefarmer]

A BX would be perfect

 

[boatmoter]

60 trees? that would be a lot of serious zig zagging with a tractor. I have 1 acre with bout 20 trees, I use a JD 320 48" cut hydro for yrs and now only use it in my fenced back yard and I have a international 234 compact tractor I use on the other 3/4 of the property with a 60" belly mower and a 48" 3 point rake,this set up works great

 

[Soloz2]

60 trees? that would be a lot of serious zig zagging with a tractor. I have 1 acre with bout 20 trees, I use a JD 320 48" cut hydro for yrs and now only use it in my fenced back yard and I have a international 234 compact tractor I use on the other 3/4 of the property with a 60" belly mower and a 48" 3 point rake,this set up works great

60 trees on 1 acre is nothing. I had double that on my just over acre lot when I moved in. Sadly, many were ash and I've removed 81 so far and have 4 more standing dead still. I have 3 more that I've been able to successfully treat so for now they are alive and doing well. The rest of the trees are a mix of maple, pine, spruce, and fruit. I'm planning to add a couple more spruce, another shade tree, and a cherry tree or two.
Definitely wish I would have gotten a zero turn as mowing takes a few hours to navigate everything with my 46" cub cadet XT2.

 

[rScotty]

A BX would be perfect

A little small for dealing with trees. Even on an acre, with that many trees I'd not be afraid of something in the 40 to 60 hp range. It needs the frame strength for lifting.

 

[boatmoter]

60 trees on 1 acre is nothing. I had double that on my just over acre lot when I moved in. Sadly, many were ash and I've removed 81 so far and have 4 more standing dead still. I have 3 more that I've been able to successfully treat so for now they are alive and doing well. The rest of the trees are a mix of maple, pine, spruce, and fruit. I'm planning to add a couple more spruce, another shade tree, and a cherry tree or two.
Definitely wish I would have gotten a zero turn as mowing takes a few hours to navigate everything with my 46" cub cadet XT2.

you have more patience then I, it would drive me nuts. I have 1 acre and I have 15 on mine. I use a JD 18hp hydraulic deck,hydrostat for the back yard bout 1/3 of and acre fenced in and a compact tractor with a 60" cut belly mower on the rest