Buying Advice It keeps getting bigger and more expensive...help!

Dan62 · Jul 10, 2013

All good advice. Ok, there's no Deere dealer in Livingston, but I'm going to expand my search by visiting a dealer near Houston.

I qualified for pretty much anything I want to buy from Kubota and did not hear from local Kubota dealer on price and avail of L60's today after a short email yesterday and call today inquiring. A car dealer would have put me in a head lock. I like the laid back sales in tractors but hope they don't slip into a coma while I slip away.

I see your point on the box blade and will take that advice.

I thought Deeres were more expensive for similar machines. I was told they are assembled in Mexico. I have not fact checked.

I'm not in any big hurry, plus it's hot here in Texas.

I took my dear ole dad to dinner tonight and gave him the tractor low down. He laughed and reminded me that my family operated a feed mill in Ireland without a tractor for many years. The mill had plenty of trucks and tractors when I last saw it.

Learning tons on YouTube about safety and tractor stuff.

Thanks again.

Dan62 · Jul 10, 2013

All good advice. Ok, there's no Deere dealer in Livingston, but I'm going to expand my search by visiting a dealer near Houston.

I qualified for pretty much anything I want to buy from Kubota and did not hear from local Kubota dealer on price and avail of L60's today after a short email yesterday and call today inquiring. A car dealer would have put me in a head lock. I like the laid back sales in tractors but hope they don't slip into a coma while I slip away.

I see your point on the box blade and will take that advice.

I thought Deeres were more expensive for similar machines. I was told they are assembled in Mexico. I have not fact checked.

I'm not in any big hurry, plus it's hot here in Texas.

I took my dear ole dad to dinner tonight and gave him the tractor low down. He laughed and reminded me that my family operated a feed mill in Ireland without a tractor for many years. The mill had plenty of trucks and tractors when I last saw it.

Learning tons on YouTube about safety and tractor stuff.

Thanks again.

jenkinsph · Jul 10, 2013

Dan,
You should check out what some of the materials weigh before you go too small. A typical pallet of paver stones from Lowes or Home Depot weights 3500 lbs. So for this size of pallet you would need to break it down, 1/2 to 2/3 of a full pallet. A pallet of sackcrete is 2800+ lbs. and this is being increased to 3400+lbs in my locale now. I mention this because it was a requirement when you started this thread. If the selected tractor can only lift a half a pallet of materials you will be loading/unloading and restacking which I find a pita.

dstacy · Jul 11, 2013

Dan give Kevin at Fish & Still in Crockett a call. He'll sell you a Deere. They have 0% financing going on right now. Oh, my 5093 was assembled in Augusta Georgia, not Mexico. (besides where do you think Kubota comes from?)
Will a Deere cost you more? Yep. Cheaper doesn't equal value and only you can decide where that line is. You could get a 5000 series open station tractor with a loader that would do everything you want to do around the price range you mentioned. If you want to get serious and spoil yourself at the same time you could get a 5100 cab'd tractor like mine for the low 50's. And remember it doesn't matter what they cost if they last 30 years. Frankly I think you need to figure out what size tractor you need then go look at a few manufacturers and compare quality, build, and value. Price is the last thing you should be looking at right now.

dstacy · Jul 11, 2013

Oh and by the way Dan, don't bother with Brookside Equipment in Houston. They are the worst John Deere dealer I've ever seen. Every time I've priced them they were at least 10 to 15% higher than everyone else and they never have stock on hand.

WilliamBos · Jul 11, 2013

Dr_Zinj said:
Get rid of most of the lawn.
If you can't mow it with a push mower in 2 hours or less, you have too much lawn.
NOTE: If you have your own private putting green, then that's just too evil!

LOL.. It takes me 8-9 hours to do all the trimming, if by myself, and a few hours to cut the grass with a 60" RFM.

Nothing like having a nice sized lawn, or two.

Dan62 · Jul 11, 2013

I really want to have a local dealer. I bought my yard stuff based on service reviews of locals. I skipped Gravely and bought Exmark based on that rational and do not regret. I have a good connection to the El Campo JD dealer if I go that route and pretty sure I can get in-law deal there but really prefer local. I know that Kubota is made in Japan but so is Lexis. I drive a Ford everyday but love my German toyz. I reward quality with my business. I think the standards for manufacturing in Korea, China and lastly Thailand are not at the levels in the US or Japan. Still have not heard from our Local dealer.

GManBart · Jul 11, 2013

Dan62 said:
I think the standards for manufacturing in Korea, China and lastly Thailand are not at the levels in the US or Japan. Still have not heard from our Local dealer.

I don't think you can lump Korea in with China and Thailand...the Korean car companies have pretty much proven they're close to parity with Japanese manufacturing, and better than the U.S.

Still, I'm not aware of a single U.S. tractor brand that makes anything in the U.S. under maybe 80-90hp. Korea, Italy, India, Poland, Mexico, etc, are where they're actually made.

Dan62 · Jul 11, 2013

Let me apologize to my Korea. They have come a long way. I thought JD was made in Georgia. Reading online brochures now. They have more lift capacity over Kubota on comparable models.