Just discovered Power Trac and have a couple questions

[GregS]

Every Spring I start looking at tractors and COVID-19 hasn't changed that. I was briefly looking at the tractors available and looked at some info about Steiner and Ventrac tractors. In looking there, I stumbled upon Power Trac. Eventually I'll make a tractor purchase, but the prices are the hard sell for convincing my wife of the need.

About 3 years ago, my zero turn went bad. I was 1 signature away from a John Deere 1025R, but since I was shopping for a mower, I couldn't get past the idea that I was buying a $20k lawn mower. Of course it would have been a lot more than that, but that was stuck in my head.

I have a bit over 2.5 acres. All of it requires mowing. I'm not sure of the slope of the hill I'm on, I'd guess 10-15%. The driveway is 100' inside the fence, then the shared driveway is roughly 500', my neighbor plows it now. If I bought a PT, I'd get both buckets, the forks, a snow blade or snow thrower and probably a tiller. I'd do some snow plowing and typical landscaping. But the vast majority of it would be mowing. I'm currently using a Craftsman garden tractor with a 54" deck. I see that the pt180 and pt422 both list a 48" mowing deck. Currently it takes about 2.5-3 hours to mow. All the videos I see of the pt180 and pt422 mowing are showing the maneuverability of the tractor. But if I'm decreasing the size of my mower deck, I certainly can't decrease the speed that I can mow. So what kind of speed can one of the "home owner" models mow?

Also, is the $2500 difference in price between the pt180 and pt422 worth it? I see there's just a couple of pt180 owners on the board, I'm wondering if those owners regret not moving up in size to the pt422. I can't justify the extra $4200 price between the pt422 and pt425, so that's not an option.

Thanks for any information.

 

[MossRoad]

If your main task is mowing, and only mowing, you'd be better off with a dedicated mower.

You can get a 50" 24hp Cub Cadet for $1999 or a 48" 22hp John Deer for $2099 at Home Depot. Either will last 10 years.

You can get a 42" snow blower for the Cub for $1400.

So for about $3500 that covers your mowing and snow blowing needs.

Now let's compare the 180 mower with the 422 mower.

180 - 45" single blade, $950
422 - 48" three blade, $1400

A single blade that wide is gonna cause scalping and is easier to damage VS a 3 blade with much shorter blades. Look at replacement costs of the blades as well as availability.

3" difference in width isn't gonna be that much on 2 acres.

What's wrong with the current 54" mower you're using?

 

[MossRoad]

Forgot, welcome to TBN! :thumbsup:

 

[GregS]

Forgot, welcome to TBN! :thumbsup:

Yeah, I saw that this is my "first" post. But I joined back in 2016. I thought for sure that I had posted back then, that's when I was looking at that JD.

You can get a 42" snow blower for the Cub for $1400.

What's wrong with the current 54" mower you're using?

Yeah, I don't want to do about 600' of snow blowing with a 42" snow blower. It would be fine for inside my fence line, but my neighbor is getting older and won't be plowing that 500' forever.

Nothing currently wrong with the mower and it's been doing great. But I don't want to get in the same situation as I was 3 or 4 years ago where I'm shopping for a $20k mower again.

If I'm going to go with a tractor, I want to make sure I'm not going to need to upgrade in a year or 2. I tend to over research everything prior to buying anything.

While the majority of the time will be for mowing, it would be used for a bunch more stuff. Lots of land scaping stuff, lots of hauling downed wood. I forgot that I'm going to be working on clearing the tree line, so I'd add a stump grinder to that list as well.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've come to the conclusion that like my neighbor, I'm getting older too. My back doesn't like me the next day when I do what needs done.


P.S. checked out your PT425 page. good stuff.

 

[MossRoad]

For stump grinding and mowing, I'd get the highest HP unit you can afford.

When I was shopping, I wanted the 60" mower. PT stressed that they' would not recommend the 422 with the 60" mower. It needs the HP to spin the blades and keep them spinning. They'd only recommend the 48" mower with the 422. They also said the brush cutter would work a lot better with the 425 as well, VS the 422, and like the mowers, the 180 gets a 45" brush cutter.

However, if you look at the PT specs, it shows the 180 and 422 both having 8GPM, but the 180 is listed at 2500PSI and the 422 is listed at 2000PSI. I'd want to talk to Terry at PT and ask why?

 

[MossRoad]

...Over the past couple of weeks, I've come to the conclusion that like my neighbor, I'm getting older too. My back doesn't like me the next day when I do what needs done.

...

While it's nice to have the PT do do the heavy lifting, I'm still reasonably healthy at 59. I had lots of back trouble as a kid and have done lots of physical therapy over the decades. I'm pretty good about doing my back exercises and doing my proper lifting techniques. I did about 50 bags of 60# cement in 2 hours this weekend on my garage addition project. I threw them in the PT bucket, and used the PT to get them to my mixer height. So I didn't have to bend with them too much, only at the trailer loading them. I did shovel out the mixer into the holes. I really thought I'd be sore the next day, but nothing. Felt good. :thumbsup:

These little PT's are super handy around the home, landscaping chores, mulch, rock, mowing, brush cutting, snow removal, etc... small enough to fit through gates, or back up into a full-size pickup bed between the wheel wells with an implement for travel. I'm still super happy with my purchase 19.5 years ago. :thumbsup:

 

[GregS]

I just wish that I could get it across to the wife that a lot more would get done if I didn't have to do everything by hand. It's not like I get much help with any of it. The big issue is that she works around the house and doesn't get to other parts of the yard. She does not see what needs done.

And of course when she does see it, she says something along the lines of "we need to do..." I know that we = me

 

[GregS]

I like the idea of the 425, but I balk at the price. It's $13,200 + the bucket. I know that I can get the Massey Ferguson 1526 with a higher lift height and weight for $16,900, plus it's a diesel. With the MF, I'm not tied to the PT implements, it works with any of the right sized 3-point attachments. I really worry about being tied to just the implements that Power-Trac makes.

I know that with the PT, it would fit my property better. It would fit through the 56" gate to the garden easily. The articulated steering would make it much easier to get into the various nooks and crannies of my property. Especially into the corners of the vegetable garden and around the carport.

 

[Marks481]

is the $2500 difference in price between the pt180 and pt422 worth it?

Absolutely. You will be disappointed in the mowing performance of the PT180. And there is a significant difference in other capabilities (such as lift capacity and height).

And if you need to do rough field mowing, the PT422 will barely cut it.

In terms of speed, unless you are on slopes, the PT isn't going to come close to matching the speed (and cut quality) of a zero turn mower. The PT is a swiss army knife. It does a lot of the things, just not all of them well.

she says something along the lines of "we need to do..." I know that we = me

Reminds me when I bought this house in WA while we lived in VA. I told my wife that I would fly out and spent a week Waiting the inside before we moved in (airless sprayer + empty house = quick work). "No, I want to help" she said. I should have realized that her version of "help" was picking out the color card at Lowes. Which she could have done back in VA. So I ended up painting one room at a time after we moved, and shuffling furniture around, each time.

 

[MossRoad]

Careful what you wish for. I've told this story many times.

Convinced the wife we needed the PT425 and a trailer. So we went to the credit union. Sat down with the loan officer about a home equity loan line of credit. Loan officer asks how much we need. I look at my wife and say something like, well, the tractor is X$, the implements are X$, the trailer will be X$, so I guess we need to borrow about $14,000 (this is 2001). She says OK, turns to the loan officer and says we need to borrow $28,000 because we're getting her a new car, too.

I got my tractor, she got her car. :laughing: