55 Acres, Wooded, Hilly, and Snowy!

[FrenchyRaoul]

Have similar property always work high to low

Just to make sure I understand what you mean, you're not referring to pulling gravel, but just in general work? That is, when using a box blade, for instance, start at the top of the hill and work down?

 

[Buppies]

Yes sir that is correct

 

[jeff9366]

The Kubota L4760/L5060/L5460/L6060 are all in the same Kubota 'Grand L' family. Dimensions are the same for all these models.

There small differences in FEL capacity and Three Point Hitch size, however the main difference is in engine horsepower.

The L4060 and L4760 are naturally aspirated.

The L5060/L5460/L6060 use the same engine with the addition of a turbo-charger, producing more horsepower. If you will tractor at over 4,000' altitude consider a turbo model.

 

[Buppies]

That is great info Jeff9366

 

[crazyal]

The reason why the 6060 is kind of pricey is because it's a "deluxe" tractor. It's main advantages are the transmission (HST+). Before buying one I would test drive it and then come back and ask lots of questions. If you want a HST tractor and a Grand L is in your price range I would highly recommend getting the Grand L. Most of us who have gone with the Grand L 40 or 60 series wouldn't go back to standard HST.

As for what you want to do I think you'll be fine with the 6060. When I bought my Kubota I didn't think I would need the extra HP and have never not been able to do something I wanted to. But if I was to do it over I probably would go for more HP. The 4760 would also do what you want but going up some of the hills you will have to slow down more.

Even if the snow gets 4' deep you can still clear it with the loader. It'll be slow compared to a snow blower but you're never going to be snowed in. In the fall I'll leave the loader on and use it. I'll keep the front edge of the bucket up a little so it doesn't dig into the dirt. When things freeze up I'll switch to the blower for most tasks.

I think you'll find that a trailer with gravel isn't going to be that helpful. You can get a little more than a half yard in the loader. You can place it with great precision without ever getting out of the seat. With a trailer you'll need to disconnect it from the tractor, fill it up, reconnect it, and then figure out how to empty it once you get it to where you're going. You'll move more but I don't think you'll save much time.

I have the R1 tires and even my lawn is hard enough where they really don't dig it up. In the woods they excel at getting the traction I need to do most anything I want. The main uses for my tractor are maintaining/ clearing my driveway and ROW and dealing with trees for firewood.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

Hello,

I am looking to purchase a tractor within the next year or two, and am looking for some guidance on a few points. I’ve done some research, but am still unsure about getting the right sized machine. My use cases vary quite a bit, but I think the most restrictive uses are going to be snow clearing operations, and working on hill sides.

Use cases:

• Maintaining my gravel driveway, grading and fixing potholes, using a backhoe to re-dig out ditches when necessary. My driveway is fairly level, so this isn’t really restrictive.
• I live on a 55 acre wooded lot, with a lot of atv trails. I would like to widen these trails for the tractor, remove a lot of rutting and large boulders, and redirect water where necessary.
• A large portion of my property is hilled, and I would like to make sure I select a tractor that is large/heavy enough to be stable on these hills. I am only driving up and down the hills directly, not across. I took a few (rough) measurements today, and found the hills I care about to be about 25%/15 degree grade (~5ft drop over 20ft run). There are a few 10-15ft stretches that are probably closer to 30%/17 degrees, but it doesn’t really get much steeper than that.
• Clearing snow: I would definitely want to be using the tractor to clear snow on my driveway, but it would also be nice to clear snow on some of the sloped paths. I really am not very interested in a rear mounted snow blower. I know there are also pull behind blowers, but I worry it would be a hassle driving the tractor up a slope through deep snow with the blower behind. Of course, I could clear it incrementally, but god forbid I miss a storm.
• Other: Since I would like to use this tractor to help maintain the property, I want to eventually have a third function grapple and brush hog attachments.

My biggest concerns are the steep-ish hills and the snow blowing. It would be nice if I could pull a small dump trailer of gravel up and down this hill, but I want to make sure I’m sizing the tractor appropriately in order to do that. I know a gear driven tractor can pull much more, but I’m not interested in sacrificing the HST for this one use case. However, the larger tractors also don’t typically support a mid-pto front mount blower, so I’m trying to figure out if it’s one or the other.

Right now, I’m considering a Grand L6060, as it kind of checks all of the boxes. However, it’s certainly a pretty pricey machine. Can something the size of an L6060 pull, say, a yard (or half a yard?) of gravel up a 30% slope? Is that infeasible, or way overkill? Would I be better served with a smaller machine, say 45 horse? Any guidance on this front is greatly appreciated.

If this is your first tractor you would be better served by getting a smaller tractor and some seat time. It is really easy to kill yourself with a tractor on rough terrain, especially when carrying or towing. Any size tractor is going to be a huge improvement over no tractor and no matter how big you go a tractor isn't dozer.

 

[Jchonline]

I hope you are ok with really wide ATV trails, because you will need quite a carve out in the woods for a L series size machine. You need room to turn around ever so often and if hilly this can be dangerous. Careful with Cab in the woods...it is certainly doable but many many have knocked of mirrors, lights or worse. Visibility Just seems to get the better of you in uncharted areas of the woods. Definitely WALK the path you are heading down in the tractor before hand and cut limbs out of the way. Jeff had a great suggestion a few years ago, get a pvc pipe and make it the width of the tractor with some extra, and walk holding It horizontal everywhere you would go on your property in the machine. That doesnt cover vertical, but it is the first step.

As previously mentioned, hills and tractors dont mix well. Straight up and down is fine in most cases. Turning is bad news. Hills and snow.... well its all good until you loose traction. Then you have a 5000lb hockey puck. Hills, tractors and ice much worse. Chains solve most of this (if you get the right type) but can also tear up ground easier.

Tractors are a Swiss Army knife. Good at lots of things, but not really great at anything except straight field work (pulling stuff in a field). Tractors are amazing machines, but you do need to really get one to start to understand what they are capable of on your property.

A front mounted mid PTO snow blower on an L series will set you back some serious cash...like 10-20k depending on the setup. You will not want to take it off and put it on that often (takes hours). I would only consider a front blower if I was doing it for a living, and it would probably never come off that machine. A hydraulic on the front will be garbage without a power pack (supplemental hydraulic pump on the 3 PT), because they are made for skid steers. Anyone that wants to sell you a hydraulic front on a tractor in the range you are looking at...walk away.


Questions:


You mentioned clearing snow on the paths....what will be going on said paths when their is snow on them? Cars? ATVs? People?

How long is your driveway?

 

[FrenchyRaoul]

I hope you are ok with really wide ATV trails, because you will need quite a carve out in the woods for a L series size machine. You need room to turn around ever so often and if hilly this can be dangerous. Careful with Cab in the woods...it is certainly doable but many many have knocked of mirrors, lights or worse. Visibility Just seems to get the better of you in uncharted areas of the woods. Definitely WALK the path you are heading down in the tractor before hand and cut limbs out of the way. Jeff had a great suggestion a few years ago, get a pvc pipe and make it the width of the tractor with some extra, and walk holding It horizontal everywhere you would go on your property in the machine. That doesnt cover vertical, but it is the first step.

I'm definitely going without the cab. Quite frankly, I don't find it that appealing to begin with. I like the wind in my face, and feeling *slightly* more in tune with whats around me. That said, one of those fiberglass canopies could be nice to have. This is not a machine I'm using for my livelihood, so if its a downpour outside, most of the time I can just wait for it to stop. As for width of the trails, most of my trails were actually roughed in by loggers using skidders in the past, so many of them really won't take much work by me. If I have to widen them, thats find. I like that tip with the pvc pipe, I think I'll take you up on that!

A front mounted mid PTO snow blower on an L series will set you back some serious cash...like 10-20k depending on the setup.

To be honest, I'm not buying it right away, probably not for several years. My plan is the go at it with the loader for as long as I can. If it works, then I'm happy. I mainly wanted a machine that left me with the option of a front mount later down the line if I wanted it. It looks like the Grand L series runs about 10k for the manual bracket and blower itself, so its on the cheaper end of front blowers as far as I can tell.

You mentioned clearing snow on the paths....what will be going on said paths when their is snow on them? Cars? ATVs? People?

How long is your driveway?

The path I mentioned clearing that is on an incline is a soon-to-be road to my cabin/outbuilding. This road is *not* at 25% grade from the OP, it is probably half that. The flat areas I need to clear are about 500 ft. The inclined portion is also about 500ft. So in total, about 1000ft of clearing, of which cars, atvs, and people will all be using.

 

[FrenchyRaoul]

If this is your first tractor you would be better served by getting a smaller tractor and some seat time. It is really easy to kill yourself with a tractor on rough terrain, especially when carrying or towing. Any size tractor is going to be a huge improvement over no tractor and no matter how big you go a tractor isn't dozer.

I appreciate the concern, I truly do. I plan to keep the tractor on level ground for a long time before I tackle any of the harder projects. Hopefully this doesn't sound too arrogant, but I'm familiar with the process of learning a new piece of machinery/tool/vehicle, and I know it takes quite a bit of time to get a deep understanding of how they behave in different conditions/learning to 'feel' the weight shifting, feeling if you have leverage (and the loss thereof).

Things like "pulling gravel up steep hills" is more of a dream; one day when I'm comfortable and understand the machine better, I might want to do more interesting projects. And I want to make sure I have a machine that can do what I want it to do. Until then, I'll be safely digging holes in my lawn and pushing gravel back and forth

 

[mx1alex]

I have 65 acres of hilly terrain of which 45 or so is timber. The ridge tops are open and I plant food plots and mow them.

I used to have a cabbed L3940 great little tractor just wasn't quite big enough for some of my food plotting activities. Sold it and went with an MX5400. The MX allowed me to gain a fair bit in HP without having to get much larger in width/height tractor. Being small in physical size is important to me for being able to get down some of my trails. That said I really don't go down them with the tractor all that much. I have a side by side for and the trail has to be in really rough shape if the sxs can't make it. I used to have a really small 4x4 yanmar 18 hp tractor with a 4' rotary cutter that I never should have sold. It could go almost anywhere and was perfect for keeping trails mowed and then I really wouldn't need to get the MX in the woods at all.