First time buyer. Help. Have questions about Scut/Cut.

[rbstern]

I maintain a 600' driveway, moderate slope on half of it, with my Yanmar 2210 and a 5' box blade. My rear tires are not weighted. With the box blade, I'm probably at 2100 to 2200lbs. When the driveway gets rutted, a typical maintenance session lasts about 2 hours. I only lose traction if the box blade fills up more than about 50%. This is in hard GA clay with a mix of #57 gravel and crusher run.

The bottom line is, you can do the work with a smaller machine. It just takes longer. You develop working techniques to offset the lack of traction and power. For example, downhill passes allow moving more material at a time, when gravity is giving a free assist.

I agree with the many posters here who suggest going bigger if you can, but it is not the only choice. With any good, working tractor and a box blade, you can get the work done. You might even consider looking for a well used "starter" tractor that represents a very low investment, so you can learn by hands-on, and save the bulk of your money for the long-term purchase a year or two out from now. You'll learn a lot more by running a tractor than reading about tractors.

 

[jeff9366]

Do dealers discount prices in the fall or when the new year comes out like autos?

VIDEO: HOW HIGH WILL PRICES CLIMB? - TMT - YouTube

 

[ThirdMan]

Thanks for all the advice. I知 not getting a scut. I知 definitely gonna go big. Don稚 know how big. Y誕ll know a million times better than me about tractors and their advantages and limitations when it comes to size.
? Do dealers discount prices in the fall or when the new year comes out like autos.

Agree with others. I love my SCUT, but your description of tasks indicates a larger machine. I am going to have to start doing just about 100 feet of gravel driveway maintenance soon, but have not had to yet. Whatever machine you are looking at for box blade work I have read you might want rear remotes to control a tilt upper link.

 

[searcyfarms]

also I wait until I get a little bit of rain to soften things up just right and then blade/grade it works so much better in gravel with moisture

 

[majorwager]

Jeffy,

Most economic forecasts are NOT generated by a You tube video, at least those w/ any realistic validity.
And to quote a source of similar status, Chicken Little, appearing in a sky is falling production, the manufacturing community is well aware that 100 percent of nothing is always zero.

If the cost of tractors exceeds the ability of the populace to purchase, what is the result?

Believe innovation, production efficiencies, slightly modified profit expectations, and perhaps factors not yet realized or revealed, will continue to produce a steady stream of affordable tractors, as well as washing machines, et el. Can't say the same for wine prices!

 

[searcyfarms]

agreed, everyone gets caught up in google/youtube hype and what ifs................so many variables around all of this stuff just like hydrogen powered tractors, and compress natural gas tractors and electric/diesel tractors, time will tell which way the consumers decide to go with things, do we go beta, or 8mm or vhs or now blue ray.................consumers do have some say in what happens look where beer is going!!!! so many micro breweries - much like wine - as long as it takes for things to transpire and stabilize or go a new direction Im 52 I will be dead n gone before much of this has much effect on me and most of us here. I say.................plow on until the horse dies then get another horse.

 

[shooterdon]

I maintain a 600' driveway, moderate slope on half of it, with my Yanmar 2210 and a 5' box blade. My rear tires are not weighted. With the box blade, I'm probably at 2100 to 2200lbs. When the driveway gets rutted, a typical maintenance session lasts about 2 hours. I only lose traction if the box blade fills up more than about 50%. This is in hard GA clay with a mix of #57 gravel and crusher run.

The bottom line is, you can do the work with a smaller machine. It just takes longer. You develop working techniques to offset the lack of traction and power. For example, downhill passes allow moving more material at a time, when gravity is giving a free assist.

I agree with the many posters here who suggest going bigger if you can, but it is not the only choice. With any good, working tractor and a box blade, you can get the work done. You might even consider looking for a well used "starter" tractor that represents a very low investment, so you can learn by hands-on, and save the bulk of your money for the long-term purchase a year or two out from now. You'll learn a lot more by running a tractor than reading about tractors.

I am in the process of doing this. Just could not justify spending over $20k on what I thought I might need with the total of my experience being spending about 8 hours on my neighbors tractor. So I waited for a used machine to come up and recently purchased an old JD 855 with FEL, MMM, blade, rake, boom, brush hog, and rototiller for $3500 and I have about $2300 into repairs for it. It only has 1200 hrs on it but it was abused. It may be all the machine I need but if not I will learn a lot by spending time in the seat and getting experience. If I decide I need to upgrade, it will likely not lose a penny on trading up.

There are people who buy too small and trade up but, in my experience, the price of used machines at dealers can be crazy. I was lucky and purchased mine from an estate of someone I knew. There are decent deals out there if you are patient. But it is difficult to be patient when there are tasks that need/should be done. I was able to borrow my neighbors machine when I really needed to use it but not everyone is that fortunate.

 

[rbstern]

So I waited for a used machine to come up and recently purchased an old JD 855 with FEL, MMM, blade, rake, boom, brush hog, and rototiller for $3500 and I have about $2300 into repairs for it. It only has 1200 hrs on it but it was abused. It may be all the machine I need but if not I will learn a lot by spending time in the seat and getting experience.

That's a lot of capability for a $5800 investment. You did well.

 

[Threepoint]

[snip]
If the cost of tractors exceeds the ability of the populace to purchase, what is the result?

Believe innovation, production efficiencies, slightly modified profit expectations, and perhaps factors not yet realized or revealed, will continue to produce a steady stream of affordable tractors, as well as washing machines, et el. Can't say the same for wine prices!

Yep, quite so, in the long. But as one of my economic professors many years ago was fond of saying: "We'll all be dead in the long run."

Every roller-coaster trip starts out upright and level, and finishes the same way. It's those short-term swings between market re-adjustments and corrections that make the ride exciting. If we need to make our buying decisions now we need short-term predictions. That Messicks video from January 2018 is already out of date, if it told us much of anything in the first place.

 

[searcyfarms]

sounds like a great deal shooterdon - i too first time got a used deere - put 2600 in it at deere and now an upgrading - i did not have a great experience going that route - have had it 3 summers and it breaks all the time - its a 2006/had 800 hours on it when i purchased it, now has 919 - so not overused by any means - the drive shaft has gone out, the mower deck lift arm on one side broke, two new idlers on deck, 2 new deck rollers, new belt, the power steering was what the big expense was to begin with, blew 3 of those out at about 10 hours each to the tune of 1900 each thankfully deere covered them under wty - deere finally decided some pressure regulator in the HST was sticking and causing the issues, it was intermittent so hard to find and never conclusive just guessing - mid pto seal replaced also leaking, the drive shaft would have been horribly expensive to repair the d/s alone was over 500 w/tax. sooooooooooooo i tore into it, OMGosh.....whatta p poor design - you have to take EVERYTHING off the top of the tractor to get to it including the floor pan/ROPS/fenders/wiring over 20 hours labor for us. Maybe deer could do it in 10. - THEN - it is a SOLID drive shaft again what a p poor design, you have to remove engine or trannie to get it out or maybe deere has some special tool to remove the u joints - i have a wonderful neighbor that helped me fabricate a way to separate the ujoint to remove the d/s. I had a replacement d/s fabricated - i had it fabricated with an extendable shaft as well as grease zerks that are accessible BARELY due to the p poor design and access to them. So in 119 hours i have had over 4 months of down time,over a month a year not to mention the continued costs of repairs and the frustrations of not being able to mow and do what i need to get done. I hope you have better luck than i have. I am honestly so apprehensive to use it I cringe every time i sit on the seat. My wife/daughter refuse to do anything with it - so..........i am dumping and running - going new w/wty - i hope and pray you don't have the experience that i have had with my machine. due to the costs of repairs and dumping more money into something i might not be able to get my money back out of - well - my wife and I tackled the d/s repairs, she took pix/documented wiring, parts/bolts/piles of things - knowing my luck, the thing will never break again in the next 10 yrs now that things are fixed and gone over but ugh..........my perception and attitude are scorned and i literally hate looking at the thing - bad memories - i did the upfront research and EVERYONE i talked to had nothing but good things to say about the 2210 - i think i got unlucky and just got one that was a challenge - we all know those are out there no matter the brand/model car/tractor/toaster - time to move on