Buying Advice I am looking for the "most" stable CUT for my hillside avocado orchard

[TheMadOne]

Sensible suggestion: Get a track loader with enough hydraulic flow to run your chipper off a hydraulic motor, and a trailer.

Novel suggestion: Find an old Oliver Cletrac(or equivalent) for sale. And a trailer.

Cray Cray suggestion: If your roads are wide enough, an old Case articulating tractor on duals. This negates the trailer, but they're not exactly nimble beasts. 9170, 9210, something like that.

Not sure of the current going rate for a Cletrac, but both the loader and the 9210 can fit in under your 20K budget.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Articulated machines are not great on slopes in my experiance. Tracked loaders are up there in price, even used ones. Many don't ride very nice and I would not want to go any kind of distance in them. A friend has a Terex, with only one speed. We used it for something a few miles away and it took forever to get there.

 

[MossRoad]

Articulated machines are not great on slopes in my experiance. Tracked loaders are up there in price, even used ones. Many don't ride very nice and I would not want to go any kind of distance in them. A friend has a Terex, with only one speed. We used it for something a few miles away and it took forever to get there.

Power Trac slope mower is good for 45 degrees.... that's a 100% grade. It's articulated.

 

[ericm979]

My property is steep. When I bought my Branson I had the dealer put on slightly smaller wheels and tires, to lower the center of gravity. And they added 2" spacers on the rear wheels for a wider track, and filled the rear wheels with Rimguard. It's far more stable on slopes than my old Kubota B7100 was.

R4s are wider, have stiffer sidewalls than R1a and have a square edge on the tread. All help on side hills.

I don't know of any CUT with limited slip front diff or locking front diff. So far three wheel drive (with the rear diff locked) has been sufficient.

I have a Woodmaxx 8" PTO chipper. It'll chip stuff up to it's capacity but I have to set the feed as slow as it'll go, and sometimes turn off the feed for a moment to let the tractor pull the flywheel back up to speed. If you'll be chipping material that large often you may want more than my 32 pto HP.

There's not many Branson dealers in CA. I went to Red Bluff. The dealer there (Dave's Tractor) is excellent though, and they're used to customers who're a long ways away. When I was there test driving they were prepping some tractors to ship to Hawaii.

 

[Jim Nelson]

I think you are looking for a unicorn. I live in avocado country and everyone that I know moves the wood that needs to be chipped to an area where they can safely set up their chipper. I have a B7800 Kubota with loader and it works fine for this. A grapple would be nice but I'm at an age where I'm pretty well done with that sort of work.
Several of the local avocado people are giving up on them because of the water situation etc. and have crews come in and cut down the trees and drag to the chipper. Lots of man power but no one seems to have a better way.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Sure the Steiner is articulated too. But you would not want to take my wheel loader on a slope. Everything you do puts you in possible peril, turning the machine, raising the loader or repositioning the hoe, can all lead to upset. Many such machines are very narrow.

 

[MossRoad]

No, I wouldn't take your wheel loader on a slope. But I'd take a Power Trac on a slope all day long. Mowing, brush cutting, FEL, forks, pretty much everything the OP is wanting to do and more. A PT1445, for example, is good for a 30 degree slope and has 1800# of lift.

On slopes, they are better machines than tractors.

 

[Jchonline]

I agree with Moss. Based on what you described a powertrac seems like a great option. Made in USA, direct mfg support.

 

[flusher]

Since you're looking for a used tractor for orchard use, here's my 1964 MF-135 diesel tractor that the previous owner had modified to work in his olive orchard. He replaced the usual tall rear wheels with wide wheels 18" diameter tread on 16" diameter rims and shortened the front axle spindles to keep the tractor level. Wheels this size are typically found on larger ag equipment like combines and bank out trucks. Those trees in the background in the first two photos are the remnants of an old almond orchard on my place.



What's nice about the 135 is that it's a straddle tractor. The transmission is between your legs so you're center of gravity is lower than that in a platform tractor where your boots are on the floor that's attached to the top of the transmission. Most modern tractors are platform tractors.

There are plenty of 135s around for less that $3K that can be easily modified for working safely on your hillsides. Almost any tractor can be modified for low center of gravity. My Mahindra dealer has modified some of his smaller CUTs in the 30-40 hp range to work in orchards.

Good luck

 

[Industrial Toys]

THAT is a REAL tractor. No Frippery! I have never seen one with those BIG tires. A tractor with tiny wheels is just a toy!