Greetings!
A year ago my wife & I bought 30 acres w/ house in VA and absolutely LOVE living here.
The house sits in a "bowl" (taller terrain to east/north/west and has 3 spring fed ponds. Aside from about 10% field grass around the ponds, the balance is moderately wooded and
VERY hilly... very little "flat"/level ground. There are old logging roads around the north/west perimeters that access the woods.
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A good friend was going to loan me his "spare"
L2900 (no FEL) for general use, which I've run for years bush hogging/wood harvesting his 50 acres.
However, once it turned spring, I bought a zero-turn for mowing and discounted the need for a tractor (I also have a 1-ton 4x4 dually flatbed and an old Jeep)...
That was until the recent snow of 14" w/ temps that hovered at/below freezing for a week

and other proposed uses/conditions (which I'll attempt to list)
- Our shared private road is exactly 1/2 mile from the asphalt to the house. It's currently maintained by a non-resident "neighbor" every 2-3 weeks w\
L2501 & a "ground plane", which works very well, but... he's only available on the weekends and has his property on the market. I'd thought about purchasing his
L2501 w/ FEL, but suspect being 2-3 years old will be way over my budget & he'll want to package deal with all attachments (I don't foresee needing or want to deal with selling off).
- Reached out to my friend to see if he would still loan me his
L2900 but haven't heard back yet. He knows I'll care for it just like my own, maintain it better than he does, and would purchase/install a FEL (which I need) to repay his generosity.
Again, it's hilly country where 4x4 (MFWD), a wide(r) stance, & ballast appears to be a necessity(?)... so that's where I'm focusing right now, a CUT in the 25-30HP range. I've spent a few 100 hours on an
L4850, don't like the bulk and appears would be a detriment in the woods?
Uses:
- Snow removal from 1/2 mile of gravel road... most recommend a simple angled scrape blade, but an FEL may come in handy for some of it?
- Potentially sharing maintenance, should current neighbor sell
- Gardening... due to stupid amounts of rock/packed red clay, we're going No-Till (back to Eden) so need a means to prep (tons of compost & wood chips to spread) and maintain (more wood chips)
- We plan to make this a "gentleman farm" (farm that doesn't doesn't require 2-5 more full-time commitments) and since this will be our retirement location... also planning for chickens, a few goats, and possibly sheep.
- Other general uses would be gathering wood for outdoor fire ring (enough downed timber to last my lifetime w/o cutting anything down)
I'm not brand loyal (literally grew up in an IH tractor dealership and have enjoyed the Kubota's), but like everyone else, want the best bang for the buck. Would like to stay under $10k for tractor/FEL and will add scrape blade, & possible auger.
Everything I read says "factory"/branded FEL is preferred, but it also appears the price of tractors w/o FELs ($6-7k) can be had for nearly 1/2 of those with FELs ($12-14k).
So, is adding one (used/aftermarket) to a base CUT really going to cost the $5-6k difference?