Buying Advice First time on 5 acres - tractor selection?

[Imold]

Very nice. Are you not able to use the hook on the quick attach for the upper point or is it a preference not to? I am still on the fence on getting a quick hitch.

The hook does not work with the Walco box or back blade I have, not enough room for the hook to catch the pin, if the bolt holding the 4 straps together under the top pin was a inch lower the hook would work fine. If I had a hydraulic top link I could probably angle the hook enough to grab, the adapter works fine for now.



Jim.

 

[Imold]

I really thought of adding about three inches of flat iron to the top of each implement then re drilling the top link hole and then the hook would work fine but was kinda keeping that to myself until I did it, I need to get a friend of mine to do the welding due to my pacemaker, the extended iron would consist of a 3.5 inch piece of flat iron and a 3 inch piece on both sides to make it strong, something like this.



Jim.

 

[mtconnol]

Thanks for the detailed responses, everyone. I took a trip to the Kubota dealer and put the same basic 'what size class' question to them - they came back in the same ballpark as this thread (B2601, B2650 or L2501), which was good to see. Of the three, the L2501 seemed like the best deal - the beefiness and weight was appealing for the earth-moving tasks we are contemplating.

I do have some concern about running a 60" rotary cutter - the forums point to 5 PTO hp / foot for a bush hog, which would mean I wanted 25 HP at the PTO for the 5'. Am I going to be short at 19 PTO HP with the L2501?

On the ever-contentious backhoe discussion- good points all around. I am currently trying to price out the cost of rental which would need to include delivery for me, and estimate the number of projects over the years to come.

Final question that is also probably religious: grading scraper or box blade for the driveway and other grading tasks? Can I spread gravel easily with the grading scraper? Is it worth 2x the box blade cost?

Thanks again for everybody's help. I walked in pretty well informed thanks to this forum.

FWIW they are quoting 19,880 for the L2501 HST, $500 for quick-attach loader option, $500 for R4 tires upgrade (a smart idea?), $705 for pallet forks, $1480 for a 60" land pride rotary mower. Grapple was $3100 + $1200 third function install. Seemed pretty high to me, I am hoping we could get by with the pallet forks and a ratchet rake for brush clearing.

 

[goeduck]

^^^ Grapple is too much and forks are too much. You can get both for a lot less. Mower a little high as well.

 

[ovrszd]

Jeez, I just read this entire thread. There are many exhausting posts.

My only question, what temp should I set my thermostat on?

 

[cathy liebchen]

Thanks for the detailed responses, everyone. I took a trip to the Kubota dealer and put the same basic 'what size class' question to them - they came back in the same ballpark as this thread (B2601, B2650 or L2501), which was good to see. Of the three, the L2501 seemed like the best deal - the beefiness and weight was appealing for the earth-moving tasks we are contemplating.

I do have some concern about running a 60" rotary cutter - the forums point to 5 PTO hp / foot for a bush hog, which would mean I wanted 25 HP at the PTO for the 5'. Am I going to be short at 19 PTO HP with the L2501?

On the ever-contentious backhoe discussion- good points all around. I am currently trying to price out the cost of rental which would need to include delivery for me, and estimate the number of projects over the years to come.

Final question that is also probably religious: grading scraper or box blade for the driveway and other grading tasks? Can I spread gravel easily with the grading scraper? Is it worth 2x the box blade cost?

Thanks again for everybody's help. I walked in pretty well informed thanks to this forum.

FWIW they are quoting 19,880 for the L2501 HST, $500 for quick-attach loader option, $500 for R4 tires upgrade (a smart idea?), $705 for pallet forks, $1480 for a 60" land pride rotary mower. Grapple was $3100 + $1200 third function install. Seemed pretty high to me, I am hoping we could get by with the pallet forks and a ratchet rake for brush clearing.

Tractor price is high. Around here L2501 HST with R 4 loaded tires and SSQA about $18,000 cash. Pallet fork price is fine for the Land Pride 3500 pound forks, and that mower price is ok for an LP 1860.

Hard to get a decent set of 48" forks for under $600. Grapple and third function is expensive, you can do a lot with the forks and a Piranha tooth bar. Depends on what you do. If I had a pecan orchard with a lot of dropping limbs I would have a grapple on a much larger tractor than an L2501

Land plane grading scraper best for driveway work. We have Dirt Dogs

Consider moving up to the L3901 and you won't have any horsepower issues. We started with an L2501 and sold it for an L3901 pretty quickly due to the brush hog limits of the lower HP

 

[mtconnol]

Consider moving up to the L3901 and you won't have any horsepower issues. We started with an L2501 and sold it for an L3901 pretty quickly due to the brush hog limits of the lower HP

I've been trying to figure out if this is a concern for me or not. When did you run up against the L2501 limits while brush hogging?

 

[Tractorable]

I don’t believe the hp should be a concern for you. I borrowed my neighbors L2501 to mow my 8 acres of thick pasture here in Virginia and it did great. And if you have HST you can go as slow as you need to mow through anything.

I believe in your case, on 5 acres, the benefit of having a large displacement diesel tractor without emissions equipment far outweighs the mild concern for lack of horsepower. If you wanted to run a 6ft mower I’d say buy more horsepower, but a 5ft on 5 acres the L2501 will treat you well. It has plenty of torque. Here are some pics of what I mowed with it.

 

[countrybumpkin]

The hook does not work with the Walco box or back blade I have, not enough room for the hook to catch the pin, if the bolt holding the 4 straps together under the top pin was a inch lower the hook would work fine. If I had a hydraulic top link I could probably angle the hook enough to grab, the adapter works fine for now.
View attachment 620647


Jim.

You do realize you would hook the top hook on the bolt, and not the top pin.

 

[Junguda]

I’ll apologize in advance if it’s already been written... but I just couldn’t read all the post.... Drive around your area on a weekend and take note of equipment in use by your new neighbors... you might notice some patterns... size... brand... attachments... if someone waves... stop (get out of your vehicle) and watch them work... they might drive over to talk... ask them how they like their tractor.... and what most folks in the area are using... and why.... TBN is great for getting excellent information... but some boots on the ground reconnaissance... can provide confirmation of TBN... and you might get a friend out of the exercise.... Good luck with your research...