First tractor ... confused ....advice please!

[xtal01]

I started this post under "new holland" but then realized from a post that my question may be way more basic then if a model is good or not.

After reading a post, maybe I should be asking a more basic question ... do I want a geared tractor?

Honestly ... didn't even think about this!

Having never had a tractor, I didn't even think about shifting gears!

I know I would need to do this when I use the loader but do you shift while cutting grass or just leave it in one gear and go?

I have 3 acres .... longest run is say 250 ft .... then turn ... 250 ft ... turn .....

Is it like a truck .. would I need to downshift ... turn ... up shift?

I understand that you set the engine RPM's to get the PTO to 540 for the mower then it says there ... then do you just pick a gear (say 8th to set tractor speed to ???? mph) and cut at that speed?

Maybe I should be asking can you (or is it practical) to use the same tractor for a lawn mower and a bucket / back hoe tractor?

Backstory ....

Money is tight for us. My wife was paralyzed from the shoulders down in a diving accident when she was 12. I moved from SC to VT about 10 years ago when I met her as she has a job her and her health insurance is up here. I was originally from Canada but moved to SC in the 90's when I met a woman there. She passed way after 13 years of marriage.

Housing prices are very high here in Vermont. After looking at buying an old house and modifying it (wide doors, roll in shower, ...), we decided to build and are just finishing up building an accessible house. It took me 5 years ... I did much of the work myself even building my own elevator ($40K to buy one ... I got an old electric forklift and put it together for $2K). We even lived in an old RV onsite (froze when winter temps hit -30) for three years to save from paying rent.

My wife needs care every 4 hours so I work out of the house. I am a machinist by trade. With luck by next year I will have a shop to do work out of ... already poured the pad and will build next summer (my machines .. lathe, mill, welder, etc ... are in storage in a tractor trailer next to the house). Right now I do small repair work on just about anything (last week I repaired an electric drier and a tractor) and I build electrical control panels. Here is a link to my facebook page:

Vermont Country Workshop - Home | Facebook

Anyway ... lots of work still to do ... obviously I cut grass once a week (using a 12 year, 22 hp kohler, old 54" cub cadet I bought for $800 three years ago), I have two large piles of dirt still around the house ... lots of landscaping ... I need drainage ditches put in around the workshop, driveway is rough and I want to move it over a bit, even building the workshop I would use it to stand up the walls, ....

I had been hoping to stay around the $10,000 mark. With this tractor I would be say $12,000 ... a bit more then I wanted but I could just pull it off. All the other tractors I see are around $15K ... now we are definitely out of my budget.

So do I go for a geared tractor can I not use one tractor for everything or ????

I originally posted in the new holland area because I found a 1920 in good shape (picture below) ... bucket and backhoe (would need to buy a finish mower) .... 700 hours ... 1994 ... $11,500. I also saw a chinese made Farm Pro 2425 ... 2005 ... 2K hours ... bucket and backhoe (still would need to buy a finish mower) ... $8,500.

These are both gear units.

Thanks so much !!!!!!!!!!!

Mike

 

[flusher]

Think used tractor. You could find something like a 2 or 3 year old Kubota B7510HST tractor with hydrostatic transmission, 4-ft wide FEL bucket, power steering that would cost $8-9K. Add $600 for a 4-ft brush hog rotary mower. If you're just mowing not-too-thick weeds, you can sharpen the mower blades (like you do for your riding mowers) and get a cut that makes your 3 acres look like a large lawn.

Good luck.

 

[Tractorable]

You sound like a real fighter. Welcome to the forum.

Recommend you keep the Kohller for mowing the grass and get a larger machine for everything else. I don’t know much about new holllands so some one else will have to chime in, but that size in the pic looks pretty good.

 

[greggyy]

For most things, yes, you select a gear and go.....

I am pretty new to using tractors, but have an older 50s era and a later 80s era, both manual, but only one has syncro that allows shifting on the fly, the other may allow it, but the only time I shift, is when moving a long distance & where I need to start very slow, otherwise I would just select top gear, or, on the one I can shift on the fly, when going up hill often you need too shift, the older one even though similar HP has miles more grunt and no shifting required....it tends to want to lift the front instead of slowing down

I do not cut hay or grass, but it would be similar to ground engaged implements, where you select gear, set revs and go.

I think a manual box is prob better for hard work, like ripping or ploughing ground etc, but even though I have not done or used a FEL tractor, if you were shifting and moving dirt or gravel etc from one spot to another a lot, I think a Hydro type would be better.....one pedal for forward and a quick change to other pedal to go back....

Pretty soon you will realise there is no one tracctor for all situations, but seeing how many old manual shift units are still active and probably outlive many of us, you could hardly go wrong with one for general all round duties.

 

[greggyy]

PS I would stick too International, Ford, JD and the like or Japs like Kubota, Iseki, Yanmar etc...or even Korean.....over almost all Chinese jelopies for a number of reasons, but at this point, no way they going to be around and easy to get parts for like my old Inter.....but there are other reasons too.

 

[xtal01]

The lawn tractor I have it just a bit too small. It takes me 5 hours to cut the lawn (then an hour to trim). I was hoping for say a 72" cut (or ????).

I also wanted a backhoe for things like drainage ditches (I dug 100 ft by hand before the neighbor lent me a tow behind unit ... just too light ... almost the same speed by hand).

Is 21 hp big enough for a backhoe unit?

And maybe I am looking at this the wrong way ... do I get a "cheap" chinese unit with a bucket and backhoe and a better lawn mower or go with the 32 hp new holland and learn to live with gears or ????

Thanks ... Mike

 

[CobyRupert]

I mowed (and snowblowed) with a gear (garden) tractor for years. (A Cub Cadet 582)

It can be done. But it sucks! But you won't know that it sucks until you convert to hydro later, so don't worry about it. Ignorance is bliss.

That said, I later bought a geared utility tractor for "tractor work" and a hydrostatic lawn tractor for mowing/snowblowing.
I'd estimate that mowing (and snowblowing) with a hydrostatic (with a 2" smaller mower deck!) is 2- 3 times faster.

Yes, with a gear, people typically set engine rpms so pto is 540rpm and then have to shift to change speed, but there's nothing magical about 540 rpm pto (usually), you CAN let off the throttle to slow down and make turns, etc..

People love the hydros for their efficiency with bucket work too.

Having one tractor do everything is possible, but usually a compromise. (Like an "all-season" tire in VT winters) It may be either too big or too small, or both at the same time.

 

[Jchonline]

Hello and welcome to the forums!

The backhoe is handy, but driving up the cost of the used machine significantly. Based on what you said you have to do it might be cheaper to just rent a mini-excavator for any serious digging (which you didn't list any I saw anyway). I recommend finding a tractor with no backhoe. Have you looked at Tractorhouse.com? You can even search in your area for used machines. For those ditches, you can use a rear blade and make them much more consistent.

With regards to gears....if you are doing dirt work or using the FEL (Front End Loader) much, I recommend a Hydrostatic (HST) transmission or a Shuttle Shift geared machine. The shuttle shift has a lever usually where the blinker is on our cars that lets you shift from forward to backward on the fly with no clutch....even in a geared machine.

Now if all you are doing is mowing or grading roads or haying...then a standard geared transmission is fine. You pick one and hit the throttle. However if you need to change speeds or directions often it gets old fast. For your budget I bet you can find a decent shuttle shift. They will be cheaper than the HSTs, and still have lots of utility.

 

[dodge man]

Don't get a geared tractor, get a used sub compact tractor, like a Kubota BX, if you shop carefully, you can get an end loader and either a 54" or 60" deck within your budget. Lots of other makers of similar tractors also. Most of these will be HST tractors.

 

[alflen52]

I also think a used sub-compact utility tractor with loader and mower would do all you want except for backhoe type work,for that it would be better to rent or have done.