How Many Uses for a Compact Tractor

[rancar]

As I'm new to this Board, I'd like to thank everyone for all the posts on numerous topics. I've learned greatly from everyone's willingness to share their knowledge. Now I need your assistance with the following and at the end of this post I'll tell you why.

I'll be purchasing a new JD 4700 or 4710 this Spring. I initially am justifying this purchase based on 2 reasons --bush hogging and snow plowing. Muhammad says in his book (page 39) that "Many owners who buy compact tractors wind up using them a lot more than they had originally planned or expected to. New projects, chores, activities, and uses are thought of, and more and more work is accomplished, in addition to your regular chores like mowing or grading."

Based on this premise, the following is NOW my current list of things I'll be doing.

1. Bush hogging 10-15 acres my tenant farmer doesn't already farm;
2. Snow plowing in severe New England winters;
3. Removing humps in my dirt driveway between wheel tracks that now are scraping undercarriage of our cars;
4. Grading for installation of new drive;
5. Distribute gravel I'll have delivered that'll form new base for new drive;
6. Clearing hedgerows;
7. Removing stumps (or as many as I can) from cleared hedgerows;
8. Remove field stone from cleared hedgerows;
9. Move cleared fieldstone to new locations around property for construction of new fieldstone walls;
10. Clean up old logging trails (about 2-3 miles) on newly acquired wood lot adjoining our main property;
11. Grade old logging trails for conversion to hiking and cross country ski trails;
12. Create new hiking/cross country ski trails;
13. Assist in harvesting firewood for cold New England winters;
14. Clean old creek bed of debris material to ensure continued water flow;
15. Assist my wife in building/creating new raised flower beds;
16. Remove stone foundation of old hog barn that's no longer standing;
17. Assist 91-year old neighbor with bush hogging his expansive back yard that he has not been able to keep up with;
18. Assist same 91-year old neighbor with filling up old tire ruts and snowplowing;
19. Assist another neighbor with reclaiming old property (now overgrown by saplings);
20. Assist same neighbor with razing old cottage and site clearing on old property. Cottage will be razed by tow chaining corner supporting posts and using FEL as battering ram. Welded steel battering box ram will be made up as an attachment to 460FEL.

OK. This is just for starters. I'd now like to know out of curiosity your uses for your compact tractors. This will help to convince my better half that spending $30K is not a foolish purchase but a wise investment that will likely double the purchase price in improved property values as well as generating some good will with our friends and neighbors.

 

[PaulinSD]

Welcome to the forums. Take a look back through the archives, there are numerious threads on the topic you asked about. There are other ways to get the work done without spending $30K. There are a lot of good, used tractors out there. You know your situation better than any of us, you will have to decide what works for you and you better half.

Paul

 

[Thomas]

Here a couple..trans planting trees,cleaning out ditches,flower graden work,towing other equipment etc...
The list could be endless depending on the person use. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[njrqs]

I strap my 18 month old son to the seat while I potter about in my shed. He just sits there and makes all sorts of tractor ?? noises while I get some other work done.

A great baby sitter !!!

Cheers

 

[Anonymous Poster]

It's probably not typical but I've used a logging winch to pull a dump truck up a hillside when the dirt road was just too slick. Over the weekend, I used the same attachment to start removing a large sycamore out of the creek were it fell.

I'm using a trencher attachment as weather permits to run a 2" water line 1000' to the house. Later, I'll run water to all the pastures. I've used a pto powered chipper to shred a huge pile of cedar bark and all the miscellaneous limbs that end up in the yard. With the forks attached to the FEL I can hook up a special built rack that allows me to move 20 or more hay bales at one time. I've used the forks to move everything from other implements to 55 gal barrels of diesel fuel to bundles of roofing metal to complete truck engines.

When it warms up, I'll be using an 3 pt aerator to prep the ground before applying lime with a pto driven spreader.

You'll find more uses for your tractor as time goes on.

 

[Alan L.]

Whew! I'm wore out just reading your list.

 

[rancar]

Sorry, Alan. This list keeps on growing longer with each passing day.

 

[frank_f15]

u can always add one more to your list. what ever u can think of to do with your tractor, u can add one, for no matter how many are on your lisy u will always come up with something new, it is like an infite no.. u can give me any number and i can increase it by ONE./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. GET MY DRIFT?

 

[rancar]

Yep, I know what you mean.