Hello from Minnesota!

[Imold]

Howdy, names Jim and I知 new to the sub/compact tractor seen and have been lurking in this forum for awhile now and decided to join.
Now about me. I live on a lake but decided to purchase 12.7 acres away from the lake for a retirement home, the land was all hay area and woods, in the last 3 years I致e successfully have mowed a open area of about 7.4 acres with a cub cadet 54 zero turn, not the best mower for this type of property but I got it done, although it is mostly flat with a 320 foot driveway, and 600 feet running along a county hwy, ditch痴 are mowable(word of the day)with the zero turn.
Now my situation has got me to the point where I知 looking for a sub/compact tractor with at least a 60 belly mower or a 3pt finishing mower and a FEL to start with, my needs besides mowing every Thursday consist of keeping the driveway bladed and moving dirt and lots of class 5 gravel for road upkeep and other projects, right now the tractor I have my thoughts on is a MF GC1723e or 1725m but I知 still open to suggestions, I can drive a GC1723e off my local MF dealers lot for 18,500 no money down this includes FEL and MF2326 60 belly mower, I致e looked at Kabota and the JD but the MF seems to be the best priced for what I知 getting, now you know where I知 at in this world of sub/compact tractors.


Jim F.

 

[oosik]

Good Morning Jim. Welcome to TBN and the forum.

 

[Thomas]

:welcome: to TBN Jim...enjoy.

 

[ArlyA]

Nice to have you here with us Jim! My spouse is from Ely.

 

[Wagtail]

G'day Mate and welcome to TBN from Downunder.

Enjoy the site.

 

[TBN Support]

:welcome:

Thanks for joining!

I'm going to move this thread over to our buying, pricing, and comparisons section.
You should get some help deciding over there

 

[nards444]

Question what do you plan on doing with this property long term? Living there, just hunting, investment, etc? Next what do you need to do on the land, then next what do you want to do don the land? Needs items should purchase, want items maybe kick it down the road or rent, borrow, steal etc.

When buying a tractor brand new getting the loader makes sense. Implements depending on pricing some of it might be worthwhile buying used units.


If it were me and I was living there I wouldnt sign up to mow 7 acres on a weekly basis, way to much work. Most I would like to mow is maybe 3-4. In that case I would get a mowing set up to mow that 3-4 acres and then maybe buy a brush hog to do the rest a few times through out the year to keep it tamed. Got a neighbor that mowes like 10 acres and he sits out there 2-3 nights a week doing it, no thanks.

 

[searcyfarms]

welcome aboard, and congrats on the new land purchase next up............TRACTOR!!!!s

 

[Imold]

Thanks for The Welcomes.
Back to land, I bought 12.7 acres of a mix woods and open hay land a few years ago and have mowed the open land to the point it looks like a huge yard with a long 330ft driveway off of the highway, at a easy/medium mowing speed it takes about 5 hours to mow with a 54” Cub Cadet zero turn.
I will be putting a 30ft x 68ft home, 30ft x 30ft garage and a 30ft x 48ft shop on the property in about 3 years, selling lake home and retiring on the 12.7 acres, I have no plans on removing any trees being they run mostly around the outside of the property so my main use of the tractor will be mowing, road upkeep, garden and moving class 5 gravel for building foundations and black dirt so what I have in mind is for attachments is as follows, 60” MMM, FEL, 60” back blade, 48” tiller and possibly a front mount snowblower down the road, this is going to be a one time purchase for me being I’m close to 60 years old and disabled, I can get on and off a tractor and should be able to attach smaller equipment as long as I don’t have to lift to much.

I have narrowed my search down to a MF 1723e or a 1725m, I like the 84 month loan you can get with MF, a 1723e with a FEL and 60” MMM will run me 18,500 out the door tax included with zero down low rate and the with Finance rate it would be 16,200 out the door so I have a couple options, I did look at the JD and Kabota of comparable size but they are about 2-4K more and could use that money to buy extras, I was even thinking of going with a 60” 3pt finish mower instead of the MMM, 2500.00 I could use to buy the finishing mower and back blade with.

So am I on the right track here or is this Greenhorn missing something. I want new being this will be a one time buy and I should add that all these dealers are 26 to 38 miles away from my home, nothing closer.

Jim.

 

[Imold]

I should add that the land is all flat except for the ditch along the highway which is about 680 feet long and then the two 330 ft ditches along the driveway, I can mow those with the zero turn.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

My only thoughts are, I would want (and have) a heated cab for snow work in winter. Especially with a snow blower, but even without one. It makes the difference between comfortably moving/throwing snow, and a a survival test of endurance. Or, actually enjoying the work you're doing, vs. can't wait to get done (and get off the cool new toy you bought) and get inside and get warm again.

I also have an engine block heater (which I'm sure you will have), an oil pan sump heater (stick-on), and a hydro sump heater (stick on). With those 3 heaters plugged into an outside outlet timer, I have no problem starting up my tractor and taking off right away to clear snow. I don't have to wait for anything to "warm up" before I can begin.

Second, for a tiller, I'd want one that was at least as wide as the outside of my rear tires.

Everything else sounds like you should be good to go.

 

[finn1]

Heated cab and front mounted snowblower, depending on where you are in Minnesota, would be my recommendation.

Also, mid mounted mowers don’t make sense to me. A 3 pt finish mower can be wider and will reduce your weekly seat time. Keep the Cub for trim work.

 

[ArlyA]

Nice to have you here with us Jim. I'll agree with Finn, get a belly PTO for a front blower. Why not a compact? As apposed to a sub.

 

[Imold]

Ok let痴 see, salesmen said it will have a block heater put in as part of the sale and I will ask about the cab or if ones available, I need to add that I do have a Polaris Full size Ranger with a heated cab and plow that I use now at my home in the winter for moving snow and have used it on the long driveway at the property but the snow wasn稚 to deep only a few inches and it seemed to do ok but a pto snowblower would be better, my craftsman 42 blower on my other mower seems a bit small although I also put it through the challenge at the property and it was a workout for it, deeper or packed snow would be a no go but fresh fall snow seems to be ok as long as it痴 not to deep, I did do some heavy snow removal with it and snapped the shear pins twice so I did use it hard.

Compact vs Sub. I just don稚 think I need a bigger size tractor for what my needs are, it would be nice but just don稚 think I need to go bigger but it痴 up for debate I guess, I would need a bigger trailer if I went bigger then sub being I only have a 14ft steel trailer and that would work for now with the 1723e I think, I still need to check it out.

Ok I was talking with my wife/financial adviser and I知 thinking of going with the 1723e with the FEL and instead of a MMM I知 gonna go with a 48 brush hog tiller instead, I致e found a 60 finishing mower and a 60 back blade locally on CG and can get both for 1000.00 bucks, on a side note I could just get the MMM and Tiller all as part of the tractor sale and just put 2k down and be done with it except for the back blade and I could just go buy that.
He doesn稚 have a 1725m on the lot but would that make more sense then the 23e, 2hp on motor and 1.5 difference on pto hp, is that enough difference or is the 23e good enough? If I went with a front mount snowblower later on would I wish I would of got the 25M instead?

Jim.

 

[Imold]

I’m going back Monday to talk with the salesman about all this and could end up signing papers if it all looks good.

 

[Imold]

Is 5 hp per foot a basic rule of thumb when it comes to equipment on pto and 3pt. A 60” MMM, blade and rake should be fine on the 1723e but as far as a tiller, box blade and hedge hog go they should be no more then 48” from what I read, I do have some property I could open up if I had a hedge hog to go over it with or back into it with, could be close to another acre.

It seems like the MF 1723e is bordering being able to use all 60 inch attachments on pto and 3pt hitch, a tiller is pretty straight forward as being only a 48 inch on the 1723e which is ok with me.

 

[Imold]

This pic is about half of my mowed property.