1ST TRACTOR

MW66 · May 25, 2009

My wife an are in the midst of building a house on land that I've owned for about 10 years. There is approximately 3-4 acres to mow and another 16-17 of woods. I don't currently own any type of riding mower or snow removal equipment. Our driveway will be about 180' back from the road and living in Buffalo, we get snow! My brother bought an L3400 about a year ago and it is a really nice tractor and I've been torn between that and a B3200. I will have some landscaping to do since it is a new build, but I'm assuming that a lot of it will be mowing. There aren't a lot of trees other than the orchard I put in and whatever else we plant will probably go into islands (easier to mow around). It is is also very flat. I love that the B3200 excels at mowing and allows a front attached snowblower and an MMM 72" mower, but the L3400 is just beefier, great for dirt moving, pulling logs out of the woods, but the tradeoff is that I'd have to pull a RFM and if I wanted to attach a snowblower, I'd have to go in reverse. I could always buy a separate snowblower, but I thought that it would be nice to consolidate and run everything off of the Kubota. Man....what a tough decision! Need some help. What would you do in my situation if you didn't own any other equipment, well, other than a push mower. I have push mowed that orchard for the past 10 years and I've had enough!

munchie · May 25, 2009

I have blown snow cab-less in reverse for some years and I got to hate it. I bought a b3030 hsdc for the cab and the front mount blower mostly...but I must say I am impressed with how it cuts grass. The tractor is narrow so a 60 inch mower works very well. It has a great bucket and hydraulics so moving wood will be no problem. You might miss having a fel in the winter though. Good luck in your quest for the right compromise machine.

rpraymond · May 26, 2009

I live on top of a hill in CNY and we get snow, but we also get wind. Years ago my first tractor was without a cab for the first driveway clearing. One pass, and a frozen face was all it took. I fitted a cab before going out again! You will also be impressed with the pulling, loading, hauling power of the B series tractors. Yes you can clear snow without the cab and if you plan ahead not get too much in the face but IMO, you would like heat blowing in your face much better.

devildog1 · May 26, 2009

I live in Montgomery County, It's farm country with open fields on three sides of my land. We do get dumped on quite a bit when it snows here we also have strong winds which product quite the drifts. I have had tractors with rear mounted blowers and they are almost un-stoppable if you can get used to going in reverse all the time. I had a Kubota BX23 TLB with the front blower, a BX2750 and I do have to say I was totally impressed on how much easier and how much farther it threw the snow. My driveway is 200' long with a large RV turn around, it was a breeze to do. As Munchie said you will miss the fel some time, but with the Kubota It's an easy change over.Good luck with your choise.
DevilDog

MW66 · May 26, 2009

Thanks for the info. About how much do the cabs cost? Ideally, I'd like to get the FEL, MMM 72", snowblower, and cab, but I'm guessing that it is going to be cost prohibitive?

Will_C · May 26, 2009

A B3030 with the attachments you mentioned-FEL, 72"MMM, front snowblower, and cab- would soak up most of 30K, but what a great machine for you!! That Buffalo winter-a cab and heater would be great.
Will