The Case was actually cheaper than the Deere 2305 by almost $2000 and cheaper than the Kubota 2350 by around $1000. I got the Tractor, Loader, and MMM for $13,050 delivered to my door. (60 miles from the dealer). I also got 48 months at 0% interest, which pretty much sealed the deal. Now I can let the money I was going to drop sit in the bank and gather interest...
Other than the headlights, it is pretty much identical to the NH, but the NH dealer only had the 22 horse version, and they were within $400 of the Case. If the NH salesperson had been a little friendlier, I probably would have bought it instead. (I think the headlights are ugly, but that probably wasn't a deal breaker) The NH dealer is only 5 miles from my work. Fortunately, they sell a lot of 3 point implements, so I may give them another try later this year. If nothing else, they sell most of the same brands as the Case dealer, so I can look there and price both.
Put in another hour of seat time today between rains, and got to push the loader a little. It pulled up a dead fruit tree with very little difficulty, and I was able to clean up some cement that had been dumped after my house was built. I was surprised it did as well as it did with the cement, as I guessed that thing was at least 500 lbs and buried deep in the dirt. Once I got under it, I was rolling it down the hill. I did have a little problem digging up the roots from an old hedge tree stump, but I guess I should have gotten a backhoe for that. I think I'll take another stab at it tomorrow after work to see what I can get done.
All in all, this little Case IH Farmall is a blast.
Two of my neighbors already stopped me to ask about how I like it...
