Here's My Dilemma

[mouse2146]

I am not mechanically inclined. I have 25 acres to maintain. At this time, only 5 acres are cleared to mow. The rest is small saplings and larger trees that over time will be cleared out. The future plans include horses and a house on the property. No hay baling, just keeping up horses.

I would like to purchase a tractor in the neighborhood of 40 HP. My local dealers include New Holland, Kubota, Case, and next town over- John Deere and Farm Trac. At this time, I really have no preference which brand of tractor I purchase. I do know that I want a front end loader on the tractor.

Will a 40 hp tractor be sufficient to do what I want? If I buy used, what should I look out for, symptoms, specific brands.

I have been pouring over the forums since I found them, but there is a lot of information here.

Anyway, Thanks in advance for your time in reading and hopefully your time in answering.

 

[RobS]

Sounds fun, you are on the right track. As you admit you are not mechanically inclined, I'd shop for dealer first then the tractor. Find the dealer who will take care of you. Good service, take the time to show you how to operate the machine, how to change implements and such. The brands are all first rate (farm trac may fall out in the dealer shopping). For only the 5 acres and horses, 40 may be overkill but it will depend on what you intend to do with the remaining 20 acres. I don't know much about horses, but I wouldn't think bigger is necessarily better inside a horse barn.

Also, where are you located? Snow removal a concern at all? Driveway/access roads? Those things may play into your decision as well.

 

[ToadHill]

40 hp should be more than enough. I have 86 hilly acres and a 35 hp 4wd is more than enough for me. A old farmer down the road gave me some very sound advice years ago. He said "buy a tractor thats big enough to do what you need to do but not one that's big enough to do everything you'd ever want to do because you don't need to feed 3 horses when you only ride one."

I took his advice and in the last 25 years I've only had to hire out work to a bigger machine on 3 occasions. It was a lot less expensive than feeding those extra horses for all these years.

Also remember if you get a 4wd it will do more work than a 2 wd tractorwith the samr horsepower..

 

[mouse2146]

I needed to add that the remaining land that hasn't been cleared eventually will be and will need to be mowed.

No snow as I live in East Texas. I didn't think about the road/driveway, but yes it will need to be maintained.

What about the 2wd/4wd debate.

I rented a New Holland TC40 the other day and mowed. Was very impressed with the capability of the tractor. I think it was a 4WD but I couldn't tell you if I had it in 2wd or 4wd.

Thanks

 

[john_bud]

On the 2 vs 4 wd. It is really only needed for down hill braking (you don't care as long as you don't run down the overpass), when tilling land (pulling a ground engaging implement or using a Front End Loader.

The biggest gain is when using a FEL. Why? Glad you asked. The bucket is in front of the front axle about the same distance as the wheel base. So, every pound you lift with the bucket removes a pound of weight from the rear wheels. (It's a teeter totter thing). When using a 2wd tractor and you pick up a heavy load, you may loose nearly all of your traction as the rear end will get rear light. In 4wd, that does not happen due to the front wheels driving.

It's hard to say for sure what the impact is, but it feels like its a 2x+ gain in productivity.


I would say you can get by with a 30 hp tractor, would do well with a 40 hp, but will probably want to be higher than that when you eventually start mowing all the land. Attached is a little excel file (zipped to allow upload). It will give you an idea of HP needed vs mower size and mow time. It's for 11 acres now, just modify it as needed.

jb

 

[Jimmyp5]

Dealer, dealer, dealer! I agree with the other post! Most of the machines will do what you want, but will the dealer? I know my dealer, has customer service along the lines of my Harley and Caddie dealer. Heck they even wash the tractor before returning it after a service. Build that relationship and it will pay off bit time in return. I make wine and make sure the folks at the dealer have some around the holiday season, when I call and ask something I get and answer.

One point my dealer, would not let deliver the tractor until he and his staff had given me a "class" about 4 hours of stuff on putting on implements, 3 point, FEL, back hoe. Made me put them on, take them off, showed me how it all worked, showed me the rental line of other stuff and TOLD me not to buy implements unless I reach a price break (they even did the math for me, lol).

 

[EddieWalker]

I agree with the others about the dealer being the biggest factor in your decision. Where are you in East Texas? I'm in the Tyler area and we have several dealers here that are both good and iffy.

I have a 35hp 4wd tractor that I use to pull a 6ft rotary cutter and a 7ft finish mower. I'm at the very limit of what I'm using it for and would love to have bigger implements and more HP, but the budget is what it is. I can mow quite a bit of grass with what I have, so I'm not complaining.

I've found that the clay in my area pretty much requires 4wd if you want to run your tractor after it rains. I the warmer months, it's dry enough to work in a day or so, but right now, it takes a few days to dry out enough to run my 2wd tractor. I literally cannot operate my 2wd tractor in this mud. The tires spin, I sink into a hole and it's impossible to turn the tires if I do have enough traction to go forward. Then after createing the mess, I have to wait a few days to undo all the damage that I've done. I learned this lesson the hard way, and repeatedly. I can take my 4wd tractor with R1's out in the rain without getting stuck. I use it to pull cars out of the mud that decide they can drive off my road and through the mud (don't ask) when they get stuck.

The only drawback to 4wd is that when you get stuck, you are really stuck. Of course, if you only have 2wd, you are just as stuck when you bury yourself in the mud, but maybe not as bad.

Be sure to include your impliments in your purchase if you can. The dealers are usually more willing to give you a better price when you are buying the tractor, then if you come back a year later after already buying the tractor.

Eddie

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

case & NH - the main difference between them is color. (much like chevy and GM) Both make good tractors.
Kubota & JD also have good reputations.
I have no knowledge of Farm-Trac, so won't comment on them.

all things considered, if you're like me, price was a killer, more than dealer support - but then I also wasn't impressed with any of the dealers within 50 miles of me.

with that in mind, all 4 of the ones I'm talking about will be very similar in price for tractors with similar features. IMHO, with JD you tend to pay a couple grand more for the nameplate than the features.

I've got 35 acres of rough pasture, some trees & scrub, little of it "flat" other than the actual hayfield, so size was also a big factor. my tractor is 5' wide at the back wheels so it fits between a lot off things it wouldn't have if i had gone up one frame size. (was still VERY tempted to go with a 40HP Challenger, but missed out on it - Challenger and Massey are AGCO products and also very well built)

MFWD or 4 wheel drive is a very good thing for loader work and mowing on rough ground. so is a olocking rear differential. (mine has a pedal to do that)

for mowing, figure out how much you'll be doing and how much time you want to invest in it. mostly I mow fire breaks, so i only spend a couple of hours a month doing that with mine. the figure I heard was 1' of mower for each 5 PTO HP for rough stuff.

get a box blade and make sure it's at least as wide as your back tires. 6' is good for most tractors in the 30-40HP range. Depending on how heavy your ground is and what all you intend to do with it will depend on how heavy duty of one you will need, I have a light duty one and use it to move gravel, grade the drive, and recondition the neighbor's dry lot, so it does what I need. lots of folks on this forum use heavier duty ones and can give good reasons why.

good luck!

 

[john_bud]

I use it to pull cars out of the mud that decide they can drive off my road and through the mud (don't ask) when they get stuck.


Eddie

Sounds like the 2 clowns that were doing burn-outs in my front lawn when they hit traction and rocketed across the road and went head first to the bottom of a fresh gravel shoulder - about a 4' drop. At 03:30 AM we were awakened to hear them gunning the engine and rocking it forward and backward.

20 year olds, lots of alcohol, no jobs and a Friday night. Oh and a Saturday/Sunday behind bars!

jb

 

[AndyMA]

i disagree swlightly with the need for 4wd. On my property, 20 acre fields and 55 woods/swamp, I need 4wd quite a bit when mowing uneven ground. In many cases, the tractor will stop moving in 2wd when I hit an uphill section. If I had all flat fields, 2wd would be fine. When you clear the remaining acreage you will definately need 4wd and a backhoe. Better yet get someone with an excavator to help. Land clearing other than a small area at a time is petty much beyond the capabilities of that size tractor. On my property, North East Conn, there are many bolders that I can't move with my 2120 43 hp Ford, which is quite a bit more capabel than a TC40/45 class tractor. Overall I think 40 hp class machine will do fine for you . Good luck in your search.

Andy