DanielDD
Bronze Member
We purchased a 90 acre property with a beautiful home. Rolling hills and some flat areas here in southern Tennessee. Half the property is suitable for hay cutting, so it gets cut at least twice a year by someone else (back to this issue in a moment). I bought an L3901 4WD/geared tractor and a 6 foot brush cutter in late June. I have approximately 80 hours on the tractor as of late.
I like for the property to look nice and them cutting for hay only twice a year is not enough for me. Maybe this is something I just need to get over with...
Just found out the hay cutter will not be doing a 3rd cut this year, although I think it needs it. It is possible he may cut the lower hay field (20 acres), but that is yet to be determined. I am cutting all the other areas myself. I cut for 17 hours this week and I am probably half done, so I've got another 17-20 hours of cutting to do. At that point I don't expect to be on the tractor until next spring.
Bush hogging with a 6 foot cutter seems to take forever. I've looked into a Rhino TS10 flex cutter. My tractor will pull it according to the specs on it. List price is about $10K for the cutter. A 10 foot cut would be much preferred over a 6 foot cutter and would reduce my cutting time.
I like the L3901, it is agile, gets into tight places and is easy to drive - but it has one serious flaw. The ingress/egress of the tractor is a real pain. You can forget about getting off this tractor quickly. The gear shift is in your way. Additionally, I wish I had gotten the HST as a lot of back and forth cutting under trees leaves my knee hurting due to the significant clutch action.
So, I made a mistake in my tractor selection. I should have gotten a bigger tractor to accommodate a larger cutter and more operator room. I was overwhelmed with the newly purchased property and didn't know squat about what I really needed. I thought I was only going to have to cut the areas the hay cutter didn't cut, like under the tree line and in the woods, but it now evident to me more frequent cutting needs to be done.
I like the MX5400/6000 and I may opt for a cab model. I am seriously thinking about trading it in, but I don't know if they will give me a good trade in offer or not. I do own the tractor outright and will be paying for the upgrade out of pocket, so there will be no financing. Should have made the right decision the 1st time, but it seems I have learned a valuable, if not expensive lesson...
I like for the property to look nice and them cutting for hay only twice a year is not enough for me. Maybe this is something I just need to get over with...
Just found out the hay cutter will not be doing a 3rd cut this year, although I think it needs it. It is possible he may cut the lower hay field (20 acres), but that is yet to be determined. I am cutting all the other areas myself. I cut for 17 hours this week and I am probably half done, so I've got another 17-20 hours of cutting to do. At that point I don't expect to be on the tractor until next spring.
Bush hogging with a 6 foot cutter seems to take forever. I've looked into a Rhino TS10 flex cutter. My tractor will pull it according to the specs on it. List price is about $10K for the cutter. A 10 foot cut would be much preferred over a 6 foot cutter and would reduce my cutting time.
I like the L3901, it is agile, gets into tight places and is easy to drive - but it has one serious flaw. The ingress/egress of the tractor is a real pain. You can forget about getting off this tractor quickly. The gear shift is in your way. Additionally, I wish I had gotten the HST as a lot of back and forth cutting under trees leaves my knee hurting due to the significant clutch action.
So, I made a mistake in my tractor selection. I should have gotten a bigger tractor to accommodate a larger cutter and more operator room. I was overwhelmed with the newly purchased property and didn't know squat about what I really needed. I thought I was only going to have to cut the areas the hay cutter didn't cut, like under the tree line and in the woods, but it now evident to me more frequent cutting needs to be done.
I like the MX5400/6000 and I may opt for a cab model. I am seriously thinking about trading it in, but I don't know if they will give me a good trade in offer or not. I do own the tractor outright and will be paying for the upgrade out of pocket, so there will be no financing. Should have made the right decision the 1st time, but it seems I have learned a valuable, if not expensive lesson...
