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.