toolz_not_toyz
Gold Member
Hey thanks for your replies guys. I'm sure I'll become a PT owner some day (hopefully next year). I've just been working on a 1000ft long split rail fence and I've been digging all of the post holes by hand or with a single-man auger (which means I've been digging by hand half the time thanks to the Virginia clay...or is that concret?). Naturally, I've been thinking about the PT 425 and the auger attachment all along!
As for fears about using the PT (even on a hill) I don't really have any. My concerns stem mostly from a design and engineering perspective in that I'm very picky about what I consider good design. No matter what, these little green (and red) machines are way more flexible than any CUT and since I like to do things myself (meaning by "myself" as in "just me") the PT is a much better fit. I find the CUT owners around here like to hire their tougher (or bigger) projects out and then just look cool driving around on their tractors. Meanwhile, I work my tools to death cuz I actually use them all the time.
Answer to MR: I plan on doing maintenance myself just as I do it now on my lawn tractor, '78 Pickup, etc. My pointing out the lack of service centers for PT was more a point about how having conveniently located service centers adds value to the other brands and that must be considered when comparing pricing. That is, if one could compare a PT 425 with a particular CUT, the PT would either have to be less expensive because of the lack of brand recognition and service centers (vs. a Kubota or JD) or it would have to offer that much more functionality to make up the difference. There are certainly lots of things that make up the price of products like these beyond their actual raw cost, PT can only go on word of mouth since they don't have a particularly strong brand and certainly can't offer after-sale confidence of any level since if the thing breaks you either fix it on your own or ship it back--neither of these options are very compelling for a majority of the people out there buying tractors.
As for fears about using the PT (even on a hill) I don't really have any. My concerns stem mostly from a design and engineering perspective in that I'm very picky about what I consider good design. No matter what, these little green (and red) machines are way more flexible than any CUT and since I like to do things myself (meaning by "myself" as in "just me") the PT is a much better fit. I find the CUT owners around here like to hire their tougher (or bigger) projects out and then just look cool driving around on their tractors. Meanwhile, I work my tools to death cuz I actually use them all the time.
Answer to MR: I plan on doing maintenance myself just as I do it now on my lawn tractor, '78 Pickup, etc. My pointing out the lack of service centers for PT was more a point about how having conveniently located service centers adds value to the other brands and that must be considered when comparing pricing. That is, if one could compare a PT 425 with a particular CUT, the PT would either have to be less expensive because of the lack of brand recognition and service centers (vs. a Kubota or JD) or it would have to offer that much more functionality to make up the difference. There are certainly lots of things that make up the price of products like these beyond their actual raw cost, PT can only go on word of mouth since they don't have a particularly strong brand and certainly can't offer after-sale confidence of any level since if the thing breaks you either fix it on your own or ship it back--neither of these options are very compelling for a majority of the people out there buying tractors.
