Buying a tractor - too many choices! Please point me in the right direction

[tractorslinger]

Shane here with Mutton Power.
On the John Deere side, the 3E series would suite all your needs. It is a dedicated loader/3pt hitch tractor. Doesn't have all the bells on it, but great tractor for the price.

 

[Jarrod32]

Chipper wasn't suggesting gear drive was better than HST, he clearly stated that money could be saved during purchase and put to a different use. I agree with all he said.

Agreed. I know you said you wanted HST, but money can be saved if you go with gear drive. Depends on your uses. There is a lot of good advice here...plenty for you to think about. And it sounds like you are doing, and have done, your homework.

And while the Deere 3e series is a nice fit for your needs, if you are willing to go to a gear-drive and two-wheel drive (you didn't list a preference for 2WD vs 4WD), the Deere 5D series gives you a lot of bang for the buck. It could be a good fit for you, given your identified uses.

 

[Jarrod32]

I'll say this from practical experience. And I'm not yelling at you, just want you to get the importance of this point..... GET POSITION CONTROL 3PT, DON'T CARE WHAT IT COSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this ^^^^ is truth.

 

[motownbrowne]

Agreed. I know you said you wanted HST, but money can be saved if you go with gear drive. Depends on your uses. There is a lot of good advice here...plenty for you to think about. And it sounds like you are doing, and have done, your homework.

And while the Deere 3e series is a nice fit for your needs, if you are willing to go to a gear-drive and two-wheel drive (you didn't list a preference for 2WD vs 4WD), the Deere 5D series gives you a lot of bang for the buck. It could be a good fit for you, given your identified uses.

While this is true, if I was going to pursue this option, personally I would buy a used tractor. There's lots of nice older International and Deere machines with loaders in the 40-60hp range. You could buy something like that for 5-7k and then buy another smaller 4wd machine with the rest of your budget, or spend half of it on implements and put the rest into the bank.

 

[ovrszd]

While this is true, if I was going to pursue this option, personally I would buy a used tractor. There's lots of nice older International and Deere machines with loaders in the 40-60hp range. You could buy something like that for 5-7k and then buy another smaller 4wd machine with the rest of your budget, or spend half of it on implements and put the rest into the bank.

I see this often on TBN. I think it's usually driven by financing. I just bought a 47HP FWD 30 year old tractor for $8500. It will more than likely outlive my 2012 Kubota that I paid $43K for.

 

[Jarrod32]

While this is true, if I was going to pursue this option, personally I would buy a used tractor. There's lots of nice older International and Deere machines with loaders in the 40-60hp range. You could buy something like that for 5-7k and then buy another smaller 4wd machine with the rest of your budget, or spend half of it on implements and put the rest into the bank.

That is a very good point. And honestly, I would probably go the used route as well. Quite a few Ford tractors out there that fit this bill, as well. Though the point about financing that ovrszd made is well taken...easier and cheaper to finance a new tractor.

 

[TSO]

Well we haven't heard from the OP in awhile...

Any updates Noose?

 

[TJP89]

Well we haven't heard from the OP in awhile...

Any updates Noose?

We may have scared him off with the push for spending more money (bigger tractor).

 

[TJP89]

Well we haven't heard from the OP in awhile...

Any updates Noose?

We may have scared him off with the push for spending more money (bigger tractor).

 

[noose]

We may have scared him off with the push for spending more money (bigger tractor).

Hey Guys! Sorry, I was preparing for a 2 week training session starting tomorrow and with the holidays, all the local tractor shops were on limited hours and finding a place A)open and B)with the one I want to look at in stock has proven difficult. Maybe after the new year sets in, stock will arrive again after "close out frenzy".

I appreciate again all the responses. I've been researching more and realize what I really *want* is about 80HP... I went back out to the property Friday and walked every acre of it as well as the adjacent land I'm looking to buy from the owners (which would take me to about 80 acres total). There's a lot more mesquite than I originally thought and a lot of it is 4-6 inch trunks at this point. I suspect my only option with that is remedy/diesel after cutting them to the ground and then try to dig out the root ball the next year in hopes it's dead. There isn't an FEL tractor (even used) big enough to pull live mesquite that size as I'll need a track hoe for that as even a skid with a grubber isn't going to pop a 6" trunk mesquite. I'll use my tractor for the little hatchlings in/around the area where I will have a house, but I'll have to go plan B on the rest. ****, I hate mesquite and there's a LOT of it.

Several have mentioned the used route. I am thinking this might be a better bet. If I end up getting the adjacent properties, I'm going to be about 80 total and there's no way a little 30 will handle that. There aren't many used 30-35 HST tractors around me used and the few that are available and are in good condition aren't that much cheaper than new. One major repair bill and new LS with a 5-year warranty would be a better buy. Used in BIGGER seems to be a bit more abundant. The 45-50 HP sized tractors seem to be more available but along with a bigger tractor comes bigger repair bills if something breaks.

The short story is I need to go UP in size. The long story is I have to figure out how important to me it is to go big. There's always the option to just go ahead and get smaller (as mentioned in the link posted in this thread) and take good care of it. Maybe then I would just hire out or rent for the really big stuff for a while and see where that takes me. I still haven't decided just yet even though I was ready to pull the trigger on an XR3037HST... Again, thanks for all the input.