In General Attachments - What to rent vs. buy and New vs Used?

[dmay]

Sometimes it is better to hire then rent or buy. I find the cost to hire someone with the right equipment, knowledge and experience is often a better choice then renting. Often the cost is not much more then the total costs involved in renting the same equipment. Drive to the rental shop. Pick up the equipment. You only need it for one hour but have to pay for a full days rental. Drive home. Use the equipment for one hour. Clean the equipment. Drive back. In this case it might be better to hire someone for one hour to get the job done for you.

As for buying new vs used. I tend to look for used first. If I find a great deal I buy used. If not I buy new.

 

[dmay]

I'm buying a tractor, I just don't yet know which one...

I have ~42 acres of Timber to manage, I plan 5+ acres of horse pasture, I have 3 acres of yard, I have extensive fire road (horse/bike/hunting) trails, deer food plots, ponds, creeks, extensive gravel drive, hills, etc...

That said, I know I need a bush hog (looking for a 6'). I just got offeres a decent used PHD for $500 (is that good?). The dealer suggested I get pallet forks instead of a grapple for moving logs, posts, etc. (made sense to me).

So the gist of my question is WHAT attachments MUST I buy, and what can I just rent when needed? A sub question is, when buying, what MUST be NEW vs. used?

Thanks in advance, all o y'all TBN folk have been giving me an AMAZING edjamacshun to this newbie farmer wannabe...:thumbsup:

You really should figure out which tractor (or at least size of tractor) you are going to buy first before you start buying attachments.

 

[nybirdman]

If you buy any PTO driven implements used:service the slip clutch if it has one or replace any shear pins....make sure you buy "shears" and not graded bolts.
My order of most used(snow-belt area)
1.Bush-Hog
2.Rear finish blade(snow mostly)
3.Front snow plow
4.box-blade(great for roads)
5.roto-tiller(food plots and garden)
6.two bottom plows
7.cultivator
Wouldn't own a post hole digger..look like a accident waiting to happen.
I also have a tooth-bar on the bucket and a Green's Machine thumb,great for brush piles or logs.Tooth-bar makes for much easier digging.
All of these used on a L4240 Kubota.

 

[MossflowerWoods]

Roy Jackson, cowski, Dmay,

I am looking at 50hp (~40hp PTO) tractors right now.

I have another thread about being a newbie and what tractor to buy. It is a popular one lately and I'm learning bucketfulls hourly...

I think I am close to buyiung the tractor, I wanted to start a thread about what attachments I should get right away, etc.

Thank You!
David

 

[sweep]

Sometimes it is better to hire then rent or buy. I find the cost to hire someone with the right equipment, knowledge and experience is often a better choice then renting. .

That is what we found out when putting in our fence. We priced out renting a post hole digger and buying the post and having them delieverd when the guy we hired who put in the post supplied his own for not that much more money and his were instaled perfectly. As you said some things are not just worth your time and money to do yourself.

 

[teg]

For me (used price first / about new price est.)

1. Tooth-bar 100/350
2. WR Long Grapple 350/1200??
3. LandPride 5' Shredder 260/1100+?
4. 6' Rear Blade 30/450?
5. Chipper / shredder 1500/3500
6. 6' Box-Blade 260/700??
7. 5' KKII Roto-Tiller 900/1800?
8. Carry All 0*/150
9. Bush-Hog Finish Mower 750/1800?
10. PHD 200/450

* home built

So save some tractor money for implements!!!

 

[IslandTractor]

For me (used price first / about new price est.)

1. Tooth-bar 100/350
2. WR Long Grapple 350/1200??
3. LandPride 5' Shredder 260/1100+?
4. 6' Rear Blade 30/450?
5. Chipper / shredder 1500/3500
6. 6' Box-Blade 260/700??
7. 5' KKII Roto-Tiller 900/1800?
8. Carry All 0*/150
9. Bush-Hog Finish Mower 750/1800?
10. PHD 200/450

* home built

So save some tractor money for implements!!!

I'm guessing you own all new implements if those are your price cutoffs for used. With the exception of the chipper and tiller, I've not seen prices of good brand good condition implements for even double your cutoff figures.

Grapples and toothbars are rare on CL at least in sizes that work with CUTs. Never seen any grapple on CL for less than $1200 or so (skidsteer size). I see good condition known manufacturer box blades, bush hogs, finish mowers and landscape rakes sell for 50-60% of new regularly in my part of the country. Maybe in the off season you'd do better.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Buying used has netted me some outstanding bargains over the years. But there's a catch.... You have to wait for the opportunity to buy a nice piece at a nice price. It's not as simple as just deciding what you want and spending a day finding it. And you have to be somewhat flexible regarding brands, models, options, ect.

If you want "Brand A", "model XX", with purple paint and mauve decals, you might want to skip the used search and go look at new.....OR....Be willing to wait until "A", "XX" purple and mauve shows up on Craigslist/ect.

I made a living buying used equipment, some with issues, repairing what needed fixing, using what suited my needs, and selling the rest at a fair profit. For that you'll need a working knowledge of equipment, and a bit of mechanical aptitude.

And....I've found some FANTASTIC buys on "gentley used" equipment here lately. The economy being in the toilet has a lot of almost new stuff hitting the market.

New is a last resort from my point of view....Not many BIG bargains there, just the occasional "below sticker price" kinda deals...

And the best part about buying good used equipment....THE THRILL OF THE HUNT!

 

[foggy1111]

I like bargain implements as much as the next guy. I've found a few good used ones including a like-new Box Blade, Landscape Rake, Cultipacker, Lime Spreader, Post Hole Digger, Tandem trailer. I like stuff that is dependable and works correctly. No junk for me.

Seems hard to find late-model PTO driven stuff that is the right size and that I want to buy....and has a fair price. My needs are infrequent use......so I've found many of the good quality, but light-duty implements serve me fine: RC, Tiller, 3 Point Spreader. And....I've always gotten a discount or bought out of season, etc.

As posted by FWJ....sometimes you just want the right piece and must pay a fair price to get it. I wanted the right disc, the right grapple, and the right stump grinder. Still I think I got good values on these implements.....and I may sell or trade em if I no longer need em (stump grinder at some point) or they no longer meet my needs. I doubt I will lose much money given my use outta them. Some will be with me a looong time.

A tractor without implements can do very little. It's nice having the right tools for the job. :thumbsup:

OH....I have mixed feelings on rented stuff. I got some good service out of a rented stump grinder.....but then I had a few break-downs and they gave me machines with dull teeth....yadda yadda. I like knowing what I got. Still.....renting a low-use machine is the ticket many times. I plan to rent a track-hoe for some digging instead of investing in a back-hoe (for example).

 

[dstig1]

The dealer suggested I get pallet forks instead of a grapple for moving logs, posts, etc. (made sense to me).

When I picked up my tractor (used - long story) the dealer I was working with told me the same thing - forks work great for hauling brush and logs. So I bought forks when I got the tractor. I have the QA on the loader, so that worked well. He was smart enough to make sure I didn't get forks that were too heavy for a CUT.

However, the reality is much different. You cannot scoop up brush with forks. Everything ends up falling off one side or the other. What I ended up having to do was to attempt to scoop, get almost nothing, then drop the forks down and get off and load them up by hand. It worked, but is painfully slow. This was last spring (2010). By last fall I had got a grapple and added a diverter to run it myself. NIGHT AND DAY. There is NOTHING better than a grapple for dealing with brush, logs, firewood, etc - basically anything in the woods. All summer I was swapping between bucket and forks all the time - forks for brush or some logs (they tend to fall off real easy too), bucket for hauling blocks of wood (I was clearing land). When I got the grapple, I almost never took it off unless I needed the bucket for scooping dirt or something.

I am also fortunate enough to have an old skidding winch that a friend has loaned to me. The combination of grapple and winch is a land clearin' firewoodin' monster. The only negative is that the winch really isn't heavy enough to provide enough counterweight for the grapple, and it is easy to lift too much log with the grapple and get unbalanced up front.

I don't regret the forks as I would have gotten them someday in any case, but I sure wish I had got a grapple up front.

For what it sounds like you will be doing, I think the same combo would help you a ton. Grapple and skidding winch. I would get the grapple first, if you can't swing both.