Big tractor - CUT. UK differences

MetalChicken · May 13, 2005

Henro made a very valid point on a post about my IH 4230 Rebuild.
Quite correctly he mentioned that I have a big tractor for my comparatively small amount of land.
I thought that it might be of interest to describe a few differences between the UK and the US in terms of tractor ownership.

Land in the UK is generally expensive in comparison to some other places - my brother in law had to pay about $48,000 for half an acre of field next to his house which is half a mile from me! That was just just to use as lawn /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif This means that a 'big' garden over here is half an acre and therefore the biggest mower generally required is a lawn tractor. If anything bigger is needed then you are 20 x more likely to see a small agricultural tractor cutting the grass than a CUT.

There are a few reasons why I (and many others in the UK) use such tractors.
Availability
In reality compact tractors are very rare beasts here in the UK, with the ones that are around all being used commercially by market gardeners and grounds maintenance businesses. That said, many grounds maintenance businesses now use full size (100hp) ag tractors fitted with turf tyres for grass cutting now.
When CUT's do appear for sale they are very expensive compared with agricultural equiment which is much more common. I don't think I've ever seen a new CUT for sale here /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
Prices
In the UK you can buy a scruffy but decent 30-40hp ag tractor (old MF, David Brown, IH) for about $2000. Tidy it up and it will be worth $4000. Add a loader and it's worth $5000.
Any used CUT will probably cost a minimum of $7000 and will be pretty tired as it's been used on a commercial basis.
Fuel costs
Thanks to our government adding 70% tax to our petrol it costs an arm and a leg (about $6-7/gallon). Red diesel though is taxed very lightly and costs just $1.80/gallon.
Therefore there is no real financial penalty to running a bigger ag tractor - and maintenance is pretty cheap too.
Tractors that run on petrol are scrap in the UK.
I can mow my 5 acres with the 4230 much cheaper than I can mow my 1/4 acre lawn with the ride-on lawn mower /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Climate
We are certainly not blessed with the same weather that you enjoy in the US. My initial romance with open air mowing has now waned and after 3 years with an open tractor I'm now loving the peace and warmth of a modern cab /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Nor do we have the dumps of snow that some of you 'enjoy' (our traffic grinds to a halt with half an inch of snow!), so a snow blower is not considered an important piece of kit either /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

So there you go, although we have less land, less snow, less money to spend on fuel and less sun - some of us get to have big tractors.
Figure that one out
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hopefully all this talk of 'big' tractors doesn't mean I get banned from this site - it's pretty much become my homepage now and I just love reading what you guys are up to /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Indydirtfarmer · May 13, 2005

I'd try not to worry about being "too big" for this site.... I'm in much the same situation. My SMALLEST tractor is a 60 HP/7400 lbs farm tractor. (2 of those) Also, I use 100HP, 130HP, and 205HP tractors.

Everything is relative..... Compared to the 205 HP MFWD 4955 Deere, those 60 HP 2440's ARE COMPACTS... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Henro · May 13, 2005

MetalChicken,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question in that other thread and to expand on it here.

I was very surprised to see that the price you pay for the off-road red diesel is about what we pay here...

Got curious, and I just checked a receipt from a couple days ago...$1.969 per gallon for off-road here, and that is an American gallon. I believe the Brittish gallon is five american quarts, isn't it? (A Brittish pint hold 20 ounces beer by the American measure... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif ) That would make my fuel cost about 25% more than yours right now, unless you already compensated for the difference in gallon size... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Indydirtfarmer · May 13, 2005

( MetalChicken,

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question in that other thread and to expand on it here.

I was very surprised to see that the price you pay for the off-road red diesel is about what we pay here...

Got curious, and I just checked a receipt from a couple days ago...$1.969 per gallon for off-road here, and that is an American gallon. I believe the Brittish gallon is five american quarts, isn't it? (A Brittish pint hold 20 ounces beer by the American measure... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif ) That would make my fuel cost about 25% more than yours right now, unless you already compensated for the difference in gallon size... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
)

And how many beers equal one U.S. tractor??????????????

Forget the metric system.... Let's use the BEER system of measure!!!!!!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Mith · May 13, 2005

Adding to what Ted has said....

compacts are a mint around here, the cheapest i could find was for £2000, roughly $3500 (i think), and that was for a heap. a nice one not used commercially but possibly imported was £4000, and a UK spec good quality one was like gold dust. I didnt dare get new prices /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
for compacts we pay nearly in £ what you pay in $. so if you have a tractor that cost $9k, we pay around £7k for it. Few people have compacts, noticably the few UK people here...
As what Ted has said, take a look at this tractor a perfectly good AG tractor for about $ 2000

the compact market has treated me well, i now do garden tractors for my mowing jobs, in my opinion these work out cheaper, but i do smaller areas.

( Let's use the BEER system of measure )
does that mean youre pints are bigger, im on my way......

btw, nice job on the tractor, looks like it worked all to plan and now youve got a rather fine tractor /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

aloha · May 14, 2005

( $1.969 per gallon for off-road here )

Off-road diesel in this part of the world was $2.4398 on April 21. Part of the price of paradise.

KiotiJohn · May 14, 2005

Thanks for this very informative post. You've done a great job of educating us on the differences, and costs, of owning a tractor in the UK. As fuel prices continue to increase in the country, I'm sure it won't be long before much of what you say will be true here as well.
With the increasing costs of fuel, all other things will follow, so we'll be seeing even higher prices for compacts and utility tractors over the next several years.
Thanks again for a great post.
John

EastTexFrank · May 14, 2005

( does that mean youre pints are bigger, im on my way...... )

Save the plane fare Mith, they're smaller. I can't remember exactly but I think there are 1.2 U.S. gallons to an Imperial (U.K.) gallon so our gallons are smaller but we still have 8 pints so we get less beer per buck. Just got to drink more of it to keep up with you Limeys.

To Metalchicken, what does on-road diesel cost over there now? It was always less expensive than regular gasoline whereas here it's about the same if not more expensive than premium grade.

MetalChicken · May 15, 2005

Hi guys,

on road diesel is now about £3.80/gallon. It's more expensive than petrol - how stupid is that /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

At least I can run my big tractor on cheap fuel /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif