I got my DK50SE HST yesterday!!!

MtnViewRanch · Nov 3, 2011

csholler said:
Congratulations! I know you will love your new tractor just as I have mine! The DK50se was an excellent option! I have worked mine hard for 160hrs now and I love it! Have Fun and work it hard.
P.S. I never have to run my tractor at 540rpm. I pull everything from a 7 shank chisel to a 6' shredder. No problem! All may not agree but I even pulled a 10' disk for a couple hours (just to see if it would) and never ran over 2100rpm with no over heating issues. Again Congrats and good luck!

Any chance that you would have a picture or two pulling that disk?

MossflowerWoods · Nov 4, 2011

IslandTractor said:
All the DKse tractors come with a standard pair of rear remotes. I didn't know the 50 came with two sets. I had a second set added my my dealer before delivery for $350. One set is essential, two are nice to have.

Island,

That is what happened for me as well. One set was std, I added the second set(I think I only paid $150 or $199 though).

It got slightly confusing because he bundled the remote, canopy, the tooth bar, and some other stuff into the price for the tractor on the sales order, and I can no longer fully recall what cost what!

But I love my Tractor! AWOOOOOO-OOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOooooooo!

IndyIan · Nov 4, 2011

csholler said:
Congratulations! I know you will love your new tractor just as I have mine! The DK50se was an excellent option! I have worked mine hard for 160hrs now and I love it! Have Fun and work it hard.
P.S. I never have to run my tractor at 540rpm. I pull everything from a 7 shank chisel to a 6' shredder. No problem! All may not agree but I even pulled a 10' disk for a couple hours (just to see if it would) and never ran over 2100rpm with no over heating issues. Again Congrats and good luck!

Is yours a HST or geared transmission?
My dealer asked if I was going to be doing lots of ground engaged work before he recommended the HST but with the oil cooler in front of the engine fan and 11 gallons of fluid, and basically the whole back half of the tractor being a radiator I think you could do a bit of discing before having an over heating problem?
I plan to do lots of box blading to move some dirt but if I can have the box engaged over half the time, I'll be doing well!

DK35vince · Nov 4, 2011

I usually agree with Island Tractor. But not this time on the HP topic.
The Ck 30 will run a 5' tiller and a 6' finish mower. Move the the CK 35 and it will run a 6' tiller and a 7' rear finish mower. The extra 5 HP makes a differance.
The DK 40 will run a 6' brush mower. With a DK 50 you can likely jump to an 8' twin spindle brush mower.
Thats not marketing hype, that is the extra HP and torqe making a differance.

IslandTractor · Nov 4, 2011

DK35vince said:
I usually agree with Island Tractor. But not this time on the HP topic.
The Ck 30 will run a 5' tiller and a 6' finish mower. Move the the CK 35 and it will run a 6' tiller and a 7' rear finish mower. The extra 5 HP makes a differance.
The DK 40 will run a 6' brush mower. With a DK 50 you can likely jump to an 8' twin spindle brush mower.
Thats not marketing hype, that is the extra HP and torqe making a differance.

And, I usually agree with DK35Vince.:thumbsup:

However, while the truth may reside somewhere between our impressions, I think Vince has overstated his case a bit. Obviously more pto HP will make some difference in what size implements you can run but then there are other practical issues like the cost and weight of bigger implements that trump the horsepower difference. Is there really a practical differnce between 22pto hp (ck30) and 26.5 (CK35)? For example, I wouldn't hesitate to put a 6ft tiller on a CK30. Yes, you might need to till low and slow but who tills for speed anyway? The CK35 might finish the job ten minutes per acre faster but is that really significant? Similarly, if a CK20 can run a 5ft finish mower I think someone who mowed regularly could get away with a 7footer on a CK30. One could argue that a CK35 would have trouble running a 7ft finish mower in thick high June grass so there isn't a night and day difference in capability IMO. Again, the CK35 would finish the job a little faster but in practice they'd both run the same size implements.

The practical reality is that there are not such fine gradations in implement size. A six or seven foot finish mower is affordable. An eight footer and above are not. That means any tractor that can run the seven footer can get the job done and having more power just makes things go a tad faster but not by a quantum leap. Similarly, I would not think that many DK50 owners are going to purchase more than a six foot bush hog. There are several reasons. First, the cost of anything above six feet skyrockets as does the weight. Neither tractor could effectively run a heavy duty 8ft brush hog. A dual spindle light duty eight foot mower (eg Bush Hog) is not really the same type of tough go anywhere mower as a 6ft generic brush hog. The eight footer is really more for pasture maintenance not heavy brush clearing and I would imagine that both the 40 and 50 could run it for pasture cutting. In lush spring grass I don't doubt the 50 would go faster but the 40 would run it just fine. Recall that the difference in PTO HP between the 40 (32.5) and 50 (37.5) is only 5hp. Using the 5hp/ft rule of thumb would actually tend to overestimate what the 50 could run and underestimate what the 40 could do. In reality though most owners are going to purchase the same size implements because it is just uneconomical to buy brush hogs over six feet, tillers over six feet, rakes over seven feet, boxblades over six, rear blades over 8 etc etc. The price point deflection for implement size becomes the determining factor, not the horsepower of the tractor at least in the 40-50hp range. To make a meaningful difference mowing for example, you'd really be talking about a batwing of 12 or 15 feet. That takes a solid 60-65 to run at least based on what I've learned from Soundguy. I don't see a lot of DK50 owners talking about running 8 foot implements and another perfectly good reason is that those things are huge and unwieldy. Six/seven feet is a very practical limit that few exceed so why have more HP than you need to run them? Again, for ground engaging tasks there are benefits to more HP and a 50 probably can pull a three gang plow while a 40 is limited to two but there aren't many examples like that in implements that CUT owners are really likely to use. Obviously the loaders are the same and the BH size is the same too so there is no difference there either.

MtnViewRanch · Nov 4, 2011

If a person doesn't mind paying the extra $2000 for the 5 more PTO HP, why would you think that they would mind paying the added $$$$ for larger implements?

I think that we are at an impasse in our discussion.

Some of us can't quite get what or why the other person would or would not spend a certain amount of $$$$. Sort of like "Why would a person do that?" Different ways of looking at stuff, sort of helps the world go around.

Good luck to everyone no mater what size machine you may have.

IslandTractor · Nov 4, 2011

MtnViewRanch said:
If a person doesn't mind paying the extra $2000 for the 5 more PTO HP, why would you think that they would mind paying the added $$$$ for larger implements?

I think that we are at an impasse in our discussion. Some of us can't quite get what or why the other person would or would not spend a certain amount of $$$$. Sort of like "Why would a person do that?" Different ways of looking at stuff, sort of helps the world go around.

Good luck to everyone no mater what size machine you may have.

I agree. My point is to show that you get the most bang for the buck when you balance tractor size and implements. You can boost performance in a given size tractor but at a significant cost per extra unit of work done. For someone who wants the max possible get the 50. You'll pay a premium but you'll sleep soundly if you would otherwise worry about not having enough power. For someone who wants bang for the buck to sleep well then the 40 makes more sense.

csholler · Nov 6, 2011

No I dont have any pics pulling the JD 10' tandem disk. It is my neighbors and it really was just to see if I could. I couldn't even untrack it in 2wd, but it really pulled well in 4wd. (2100rpm in low w pedal on the floor) My tractor is a HST! I normally pull a 6 1/2' disk with it.(I use 4 100# 4020 weights on top of the 6 1/2' disk.) I also have the 7 shank Hamey chisel that I pull. The chisel pulls harder than the 10' disk and is a little to much for the tractor but I am still very impressed with how the tractor handles it.

csholler · Nov 6, 2011

Oh yea, my neighbor pulls the 10' disk with a new 2wd 65hp Mahindra w/ag tires(nice tractor). It has a much bigger frame and stance than my dk50. When i got done plowing he said, "Darn, that little tractor is stout. I think it pulls it better than mine does!"