beating the dead horse home owner big projects.

jrpelec · May 30, 2014

Hello I am sure this is beating a dead horse but I have not seen anybody in my exact situation.
I own 1/2 acre lol yes that is .5 so there is the deal. I will be possably buying an additional .5-2 acres over the next year or two. Now for the projects I have. I will be adding a 32x32 garage and a small addition plus level my land plus odds and ends I need around my house. Also I will be building a house in maine over the next 10 years and want to do my own site work as it will be how I want it to be.

Other projects I will do around my house are remove about 50*100*4 feet of dirt and relocate the dirt to the new land I will be buying. And the normal yard stuff.

Now other things the tractor will be used for fixing and. Repairing my parents 8 acres of land. The guy that did the site work left it in terrable shape and needs a lot of TLC. There will other odds and ends as I will be the only one in my family that has a tbl .

Now I will use this tractor on accasion for my business witch would require digging trenchs and filling them in.

So now here is the requirments I am looking for.
Close to or under 20k
Full size 3pt for ease of implaments
Able to lift 1,000 pounds

I was thinking max 28 would be a good size but the price seems a bit high at est 23-24k
Then I saw LS and thought they where better priced at 19-20
I think the kabota bx25 might be to small but I have no clue and it has a limited cat 1 hitch
I saw the emax tractors but they have the same conserns ad the kabota .

I plan on keeping this tractor for my life time and I am only 27 years old so I will keep it forever and give it to my son. I was thinking Deere but alitle to expensive

And to keep this post confusing and jumping around I will be building a house someday when the kids move out and will use my tractor to assist in fine tuneing my yard and doing all the dressing of the yard.

If you can follow this post and supply me with a opinion or suggestion that can alter my thinking or push me to this tractor or that one. I am really leaning towards the max but I don't want to over look anything as this is a large decision because I will have it a long time..

kcflhrc · May 30, 2014

Do some shopping around, there are some deals to be had. I bought my JD 3032E in January with loader, 5' brush hog. 6' rear blade, loaded tires and I-match for under $19k. I'm quite pleased with this tractor. I have 10 acres to maintain and it will do everything I need it to. The LS is a good value too but the JD deal was too good to pass up.

jenkinsph · May 31, 2014

Sounds like you are an electrical contractor with great expectations for the future. Without a crystal ball it is difficult to know what the future holds and that makes it difficult to say which tractor will last you a lifetime. If it were me I would get the land purchased first and then buy the tractor sized according to the property and job requirements afterwards. I would also say that thinking of the tractor purchase as a lifetime purchase is a little overwhelming and just adds stress and hesitation to the initial purchase, don't beat yourself up unnecessarily with that. I think having future plans is a good thing just don't let it be too confining.

My thoughts on sizing is that if you are going to be moving much dirt then a 40+ hp tlb is the way to go. In general I would say if you can do 80% of your work with your tractor (whatever you pick) you may be better to hire the rest out.

s219 · May 31, 2014

For the stuff you describe and the size of the land, I think you need to be looking at compacts at least one or two sizes up from the sub-compacts you mentioned. That dirt you described is over 700 yards worth. A subcompact is lucky to fit 1/8 of a yard per bucket. That's about 6000 buckets worth. Unless you plan to pass the job along to the next generation along with the tractor, go bigger!!

YardBikeBob · May 31, 2014

Wow, that is a wide ranging list of requirements! If you really have a business use, and already have the means to tow it around, then a Kubota B26 TLB would be a great tractor for you right now. And assume it is only your first tractor as you'll buy a larger one as your land grows.

I'm saying the B26 TLB as it will either last forever or maintain its resale whatever way you go.

It'll bust the budget, of course. . .

Bob

jrpelec · May 31, 2014

So after really thinking about it and getting my head wrapped around the first post on this forum and the accual work I need done I think what I will do is stick to the compact tractor size as rent/ sub out the rest.

My old boss had a kabota 30hp that did everything he needed it to. I think it was a L35. I liked it a lot but I refuse to pay 25k for a machine with 500 hours.

My land size estamates where/are pretty spot on. IfI am not able to buy the .5 acres from my neighbor I will buy the 2.4 lot he is selling.. I already own the land in Maine and my parents own their 8 acres ..

The dirt I want to move from one side of my house to my new land is .... A lot. Lol maybe renting a full size tractor for the day might be the best answer. Then again if I buy 2+ acres of land what do I car if my side yard is not level. With my back yard.

Any opinions on if a a tractor in lets say max28 size will meet my needs? I believe it would be but I have no real experience with tractors and proper sizing .