Closing on 16 acres, help with tractor choice

[WranglerX]

What is your terrain... Is it flat ground or have steep slopes.... Tractors and sloping ground are not a good combination.... I bought a SCUT (MF CG 1715) with intention of getting a 48 or 54 inch mower for behind, and after a few trips up and down some of my property, I think I was not quite intelligent in my decision to buy tractor and "brush hog" type mower when my JD riding mower feels a lot more stable on slopes.... Your terrain will have a lot to do on how successful you can mow... Any slopes need to be accessed in up and down manner not across the slope where the is a tipping situation due to tractors high center of gravity....

Kubota B265 with Land Pride FDR2572 in steep slope. - YouTube

The Danger of Tractors on Hills - YouTube


Dale

 

[Atchuuu]

Friends,

I need a little help / advice. We're closing on 16 acres this month and I believe I'll need a tractor to run a bush hog to keep the place up. It was selectively logged about 5-6 years ago and would be considered "raw land". Not much terrain / hills but lots of low lying brush and some large trees. Here's where I'm at:

Looks like slopes isn't an issue

 

[bruceha2000]

Good point on the test drive. On paper the machine I bought and another were very similar but when I sat in both I figured out that the "legroom" to the pedals on the cheaper tractor would have meant I would have to hold my foot up all the time to maintain pressure on the accelerator. And the "legroom" on the backhoe was similarly short.

 

[jpover]

Friends,

Lots of great advice and points of discussion; many thanks to all! I'm still learning quite a bit and have read through this thread many, many times. Here are a few updates on what I'm looking at doing:

1) having a local surveyor to mark the property boundaries with engineer tape. This land has not been subdivided before now and I can't afford any questions on property lines (the 4 corners are clearly marked already).
2) contracting a bulldozer for clearing the property lines. I'm still waiting on a call from my neighbor to the South who is presently in the middle of building their home.
3) contracting to have 5 or 6 strand barbed wire fence installed around the S, E, and N boundaries. We'll have pipe fencing across the front (west property boundary) by the road.
4) mowing / brush hogging as shown below in green and keeping a good bit of the property as a mix of wooded and pasture. In my original post I should have mentioned that I'm not going to try to make it all pasture and then mow it. The sketch below shows my current plan on how much I "think" I need to mow.

 

[Imold]

I have 12.7 acres of wood and field now.

 

[Imold]

I just bought a GC1705 with a FEL and 60” MMM to mow this, it’s about 6 acres and this pic shows about half of what I mow every Thursday. Right now for last three years I have been using my Cub Cadet 54 inch RZTL and about 5 hours. It used to be all hay land and it is ruff going, I’m disabled so it takes me longer to mow, less then 2 acres a hour due to slow speed because of all the bouncing around.
View attachment 615366

 

[jpover]

I just bought a GC1705 with a FEL and 60” MMM to mow this, it’s about 6 acres and this pic shows about half of what I mow every Thursday. Right now for last three years I have been using my Cub Cadet 54 inch RZTL and about 5 hours. It used to be all hay land and it is ruff going, I’m disabled so it takes me longer to mow, less then 2 acres a hour due to slow speed because of all the bouncing around.
View attachment 615366

Thanks for the suggestion; congrats on the GC1705!