Compact tractor choice?

[PaulB46]

I am going to buy a compact tractor for personal use and am really not sure of how much tractor to buy.

We have 10 acres of which 1/4 is home, outbuildings and lawn. The remaining acreage is flat, relatively hard sandy soil, with hardwoods and no brush to speak of. My main intent is blowing Northern Michigan snow, 2 paved 150' driveways and a couple hundred feet of 2-track driveway back to my workshop. I would also like the option of a FEL for general property maintenace and vegetable gardening, the lawn care is not a consideration. I have been leaning towards a mid-90's, 16 HP, Diesel Kubota B7100 with a B2650 snow blower which is driven by the mid-PTO and elevated by the Rear-PTO. This seems to be a lot of linkage and I am not sure if there is not a better way to go or that it's not worth considering as a potential problem. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

My budget is around $8K maximum and being a former city slicker I want a machine that is operator friendly and requires minimal mechanical maintenance.

I am new to tractorbynet and was impressed with feedback in the forum section, it was nice to hear opinions from those without a sales person's agenda.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( mid-90's, 16 HP, Diesel Kubota B7100 )</font>

I bought a new 1995 B7100 with a B1630C front end loader. They're nice reliable little machines and I got a lot done with it, but the front end loader was not a quick attach, so it was never taken off and the tractor did not have power steering. Naturally, in Texas, I had no snowblower or use for one. I did use a tiller, box blade, and brush hog on mine. I think you'd be happier with just a little bit bigger machine, but I understand about budgets, too, and it'll certainly do the job; just take a little longer and a little more muscle to steer.

 

[rosey]

You might consider one of the sub-compact's which are very rugged, multi-task machines and "user friendly" for a novice. I have a Kubota BX series S-CUT and have found it to be the perfect tractor for my needs. Perhaps you could find a used one within your price range????.......welcome to the forum.

 

[RoyJackson]

"My budget is around $8K maximum and being a former city slicker I want a machine that is operator friendly and requires minimal mechanical maintenance."

Unless you're really into Kubota, you might look into a late 80's to mid-90's Deere 670, 770, 755 or 855. These machines are rock solid and very dependable. They do have the a quick attach loader. The x70 machines are gear, the x55 machines are hydro. You should be able to find any of them for $8K, but that's the low end of the price range for used 855's.

Unless you find one of them with a front blower as part of the deal...that might be a tricky thing to locate. Of course, you could go for a rear blower.