MetalChicken
Bronze Member
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
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
