rScotty
Super Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2001
- Messages
- 9,517
- Location
- Rural mountains - Colorado
- Tractor
- Kubota M59, JD530, JD310SG. Restoring Yanmar YM165D
We have less than 20 acres and only about 5 are even remotely tractorable. We went with the M59 Kubota TLB because we had a lot of work to be done in the creek and building rock walls. It had the needed ground clearance and reach. As far as power, the B26 with a hydraulic thumb on the hoe would have been just as useful. More so sometimes because of the size.
Downside is my wife doesn't feel as comfortable on the M59 as she did on our little compact tractor. We are working on it, but don't know if it will ever really change. Upside is the Kubot TLB series are seriously tough.
The backhoe is rarely used for digging - although it digs just fine. What it is really handy for is picking something up and holding & placing it. Anything from rocks to holding logs at waist level to chainsaws into rounds - and then stacking the heavy unsplit firewood rounds so they can dry. W've used it to lift shed walls into position and to put up beams for the barn.
The backhoe/thumb combo is our handiman. The loader is our power wheelbarrow. The whole contraption is our pusher, smoother, and sometimes dozer. It could mow if we wanted, but we prefer to mow with a Honda self-propelled type.
rScotty
Downside is my wife doesn't feel as comfortable on the M59 as she did on our little compact tractor. We are working on it, but don't know if it will ever really change. Upside is the Kubot TLB series are seriously tough.
The backhoe is rarely used for digging - although it digs just fine. What it is really handy for is picking something up and holding & placing it. Anything from rocks to holding logs at waist level to chainsaws into rounds - and then stacking the heavy unsplit firewood rounds so they can dry. W've used it to lift shed walls into position and to put up beams for the barn.
The backhoe/thumb combo is our handiman. The loader is our power wheelbarrow. The whole contraption is our pusher, smoother, and sometimes dozer. It could mow if we wanted, but we prefer to mow with a Honda self-propelled type.
rScotty