First timer needs help

[ESL]

I know there are a lot of threads about which tractor to get. I just read about 10 of them. My problem is what seems to be very conflicting advice from the Deere sales guy and the Kubota guy I have talked to.
My situation: I have 8 acre of which 3.5 are a field which needs to be brush cut a couple of times per year, about 1.5 acres of lawn, a horse barn and paddock to keep clear (no horses yet) and the remaining is woods to clear the underbrush and open up. So I need a machine to do the above as well as clean the yard in the fall and the 3/10ths miles driveway (dirt/gravel) in the winter.
The dilemma: The Deere guy says to go with the 2305, it can do all I need and then some.. For the drive he says a snow blower is fine (we get about 100-120 inches/year of the white stuff). The Kubota guy says I will need at least a 2630, preferably a 3030 or more to do everything and recommends a rear blade and the FEL for the snow removal. He said the BX's would be too small for my needs and take too long for the field. This seems to be quite different from the deere dude.
Neither would give me an exact price since I didn't have exact specs, just a ballpark of $16-18K for the deere and $19K for the kubota.

So, which do I need and about how much will it run me?
Thanks in advance and for all the info I have already gleaned from this site,
Eric

 

[bruceatlam]

Well, without attempting to justify my response -- I side with the Kubota sales guy. According to you, looks like it'll cost you about $19.0K

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

mowing 3.5 acres with the 2305 would be a 2 day job.
everthing I've heard about the 3030 is good.
front loader is a must if you're going to be cleaning paddocks.

OTOH, the smaller machines have a lighter footprint for mowing the yard and can fit through a 4 foot space for cleaning stalls if you have the smaller bucket on them.

 

[sandman2234]

And then of course you could do what some people do when they have a need that spreads across a broad range of uses. Consider spending part of your hard earned money on a larger used tractor. According to some of our members, older/used tractors aren't worth much, so you could pick up a 20 year old tractor for next to nothing. Get a heavy duty bush hog, not one of those lightweight ones, and you will be set to do the field in a few hours rather than a few days, and have a tractor that will thin out the brush in the woods, as long as you are allowing room between the trees for the tractor to fit. Take your time shopping on used, as you don't want a worn out piece of junk. If you aren't familar with equipment, find somebody locally that is, and get them to check out each tractor you consider.
Once you have the fields cut, the woods thinned, and find out just how far a large tractor will allow a snowblower to blow snow and how good all that weight is while traveling on snow, then buy a lawnmower with a bagger for the yard and enjoy the rest of your days, looking for a decent small tractor to handle the horse stalls that are currently without occupants. Who knows, you may decide the horsestalls would be better handled by a bobcat type of loader, as they tend to handle tighter spaces at the hands of qualified operators.
If you just want a new tractor, then I am not much help....but an old tractor with say a hundred horsepower will make short work of that field and are pretty much bullet proof for the little bit of work you are asking of it. They also don't have a huge following, and can be purchased reasonable.
David from jax

 

[LBrown59]

I know there are a lot of threads about which tractor to get. I just read about 10 of them. My problem is what seems to be very conflicting advice from the Deere sales guy and the Kubota guy I have talked to.
My situation: I have 8 acre of which 3.5 are a field which needs to be brush cut a couple of times per year, about 1.5 acres of lawn, a horse barn and paddock to keep clear (no horses yet) and the remaining is woods to clear the underbrush and open up. So I need a machine to do the above as well as clean the yard in the fall and the 3/10ths miles driveway (dirt/gravel) in the winter.
The dilemma: The Deere guy says to go with the 2305, it can do all I need and then some.. For the drive he says a snow blower is fine (we get about 100-120 inches/year of the white stuff). The Kubota guy says I will need at least a 2630, preferably a 3030 or more to do everything and recommends a rear blade and the FEL for the snow removal. He said the BX's would be too small for my needs and take too long for the field. This seems to be quite different from the deere dude.
Neither would give me an exact price since I didn't have exact specs, just a ballpark of $16-18K for the deere and $19K for the kubota.

So, which do I need and about how much will it run me?
Thanks in advance and for all the info I have already gleaned from this site,
Eric

A BX Will do every thing a JD2305 will do.

 

[newbury]

I know there are a lot of threads about which tractor to get. I just read about 10 of them. <snip>

Read and summarize every thread for every $100 you want to spend,
Then come back.
10 threads is diddly squat.

 

[LD1]

I'd reccomend a L3400 or bigger. I only have 5 acres and often think it is a little small at times.

I have a 5' hog i bought used (you can go with a 6') and it would only take me 2-2.5hrs to do 3.5acres. I also have a 61" RFM for the yard. Again you could go to 6'. It weighs 2500lbs compaired to 1800 for the 3030, but is also has larger tires that reduce ground compaction. I have ag tires and don't have a problem at all with my yard.

I wouldn't spend big money on a blower either. A 6' rear blade is very efficcient at moving snow and the loader is equally effective at stacking it.

The B3030 has more fancy features but the 3400 has more lift capacity, more HP, and is probabally a little less money.

Another consideration would be to look at getting a dedicated little mower, because you only have 1.5 acres, which isn't much. And then go even bigger, like a L4400, with a 7' blade and a 7' bushhog.

 

[flusher]

I know there are a lot of threads about which tractor to get. I just read about 10 of them. My problem is what seems to be very conflicting advice from the Deere sales guy and the Kubota guy I have talked to.
My situation: I have 8 acre of which 3.5 are a field which needs to be brush cut a couple of times per year, about 1.5 acres of lawn, a horse barn and paddock to keep clear (no horses yet) and the remaining is woods to clear the underbrush and open up. So I need a machine to do the above as well as clean the yard in the fall and the 3/10ths miles driveway (dirt/gravel) in the winter.
The dilemma: The Deere guy says to go with the 2305, it can do all I need and then some.. For the drive he says a snow blower is fine (we get about 100-120 inches/year of the white stuff). The Kubota guy says I will need at least a 2630, preferably a 3030 or more to do everything and recommends a rear blade and the FEL for the snow removal. He said the BX's would be too small for my needs and take too long for the field. This seems to be quite different from the deere dude.
Neither would give me an exact price since I didn't have exact specs, just a ballpark of $16-18K for the deere and $19K for the kubota.

So, which do I need and about how much will it run me?
Thanks in advance and for all the info I have already gleaned from this site,
Eric

I did all the jobs you listed when I moved to my 10 acre (flat pasture) parcel in late 2005, except the horse barn stuff and snow blowing (no snow here in the North Sacramento Valley), with a new 2005 Kubuta B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto, 4WD, power steering, hydrostatic tranny) with the LA302 FEL (4-ft wide bucket, 800 lb lift capacity). Cost: $12,600 plus tax. My mower was a 4-ft King Kutter brush hog.

My guess is that something like the 7510 could handle the horse stuff and the snow blowing as well.

 

[texasjohn]

You don't want a tractor.

You want attachments, and an engine/hydraulics to power them properly.

Focus on the threads that assist you in understanding what each attachment does, and the pros and cons of small versus larger attachments. ie, the time to do a job versus size.

Your needs are broad, thus you will benefit from numerous attachments.

Budget half or more for attachments.

Consider the benefits of a cab... I hate cold and enjoy sitting in the warm in the winter, and cool in summer.

See if you can't cultivate a nearby TBN member and visit them, perhaps drive numerous vehicles while using various attachments. Experience is the best way to avoid improper allocation of $$.

Fundamentally, your setup will be determined, ideally, by identifying the meanest, heaviest, longest task you will EVER ask your tractor and implements to accomplish. This is the tractor size you will need... and implements sized accordingly.

Think of what you wish to accomplish and the amount of sweat/pain you are willing to personally expend to get it done. Point is, pretty much all you want to do CAN be accomplished by hand tools. You want to move to using oil and hydraulic power to offload your body. An undersized tractor and implements still puts significant strain on your time, energy and satisfaction at getting a job done.

My personal logic goes this way...
a FEL is the most handy and frequently used attachment
I find that bucket size is very important to task completion time
I've discovered that I often operate at relief valve limits of the FEL when chaining and lifting things.
I need to lift 2800 lbs and more. This dictated, for me, the 50ish hp tractor/FEL as the minimum I can live with.
4WD is critical to have in snow, mud, FEL work, a must have.
weighted tires, extra rear weight on box blade, must haves

Reading many threads will give you the trends of TBN tractor users.
To me, they include:
bigger tractors are better
more FEL lift capacity is better
there are lots of simple attachments that are HUGELY significant..chains, grab hooks, proper tires (I like R4's)....make a list and get them to begin with.... people are regularly discovering the joy of new, simple tools and attachments.

Hope this helps.

 

[LAWALLSTRACTOR]

Most of what you want to do, can be done with small tractors, but it all depends on how much time you want to spend doing it, as the bigger tractor and attachments will do it faster. The thing I would think about is in the woods, as you need to have plenty of ground clearance if you don't want to get hung up things.