Buying Advice Kioti CK35HST vs. Kubota B3200 and L3200 types - Price and power?

[techgeekfarmer]

Hello everyone,

First of all .. i'm a newbie in the Farm world. My Wife and I just recently built a house on 10 acre lot in Northern Indiana (Middlebury), I'm looking to get a nice reliable compact tractor that will help with some of the things we do and plan to do. We have a pony that my daughter rides, we plan on eventually getting some steer and a goat. Last summer we built a chicken coop and we have 12 chickens and plan on getting a few more in a few months. We have a wood burning stove in the new house and would like to utilize the tractor to ease the workload of getting and hauling the wood we gather. My wife is big into gardening so we will have a fairly large garden as well and we plan to use the "Back to Eden" concept of cardboard/mulch etc for the garden. And lastly we plan on planting hay in about potentially 5-6 acres of the land that we have that is cleared as it was a field 15 years or so ago... so eventually I will want some kind of a smaller scale baler we can use to get our own square bales. -- We also get a fair amount of snow and i have a 150ft drive that I plan on using a back blade to plow. SO these are some of the things i'm sure a compact tractor will help us out with.

I've borrowed my father-in-law's Kubota B3200 and it was a great size tractor, seems like a decent size for most everything we'd need or want to do. After doing some research online and getting a few quotes we have a local Kubota dealer about 10 mins away that quoted us a L3200 for $14,700 and loader with bucket for 4200 ($18900), or the B3200 for $14,600 and loader with bucket for $3800 ($18400). After looking online I started seeing more and more on the Kioti Brand tractor. I personally like what I see with the Kioti a bit more, I looked up and found we have a Kioti Dealer 20 mins from us and Had them quote me on a CK35HST with the Free FEL program it came out to $19573 ... a CK30HST was $18465 with the Free FEL.

I'm not sure how these prices compare to the market but looking on paper it seems to me that the CK35HST is a far superior tractor, in weight, lift capacity and power in the models i'm looking at. And if I round them up a bit it's basically 3 trailers that are roughly $20k. It seems the smartest decision woudl be to go with the Kioti, just seems like i'd be getting much more tractor for the price. We would need to finance it to a 3-5 year deal as well.

I've visited this forum reading other posts and what not the past few days, and just hoped I could get some of this communities opinions and advice. I appreciate any help and guidance.

FYI, I do plan on getting a back blade for sure, I do not plan on mowing with this tractor so a mid-mount PTO isn't uber important to me as I have a John Deere Zero-Turn that handles the lawn (that we are still trying to establish in this awesome sand we are in.... ) I also will prob just look for a used bush hog or hay cutter not sure on that part yet.

 

[finspop]

If you're gonna be putting up any quantity of hay, I'd highly recommend the Kioti. Even a small square baler can really throw around a light tractor. You'll definitely know it's back there on the Kioti, but you'll REALLY know it's back there on the L3200. Frankly, I wouldn't even consider the B3200. Nice tractor, just far too small for what you're talking about.

 

[art]

To purchase and store hay equipment for even ten acres much less five is not the most economical move. The costs to keep it in shape and the initial purchase price to put up good quality hay would make it difficult to justify. Many people do have neighbors help them with baling when they get through with theirs although they often have trouble finding a farmer to do it on such a small scale.

Like most things the more weight you move with an engine the more it costs in fuel. How much do you really need?

 

[murphy1244]

Weight is your friend when doing work.

 

[Bluegill2]

We have a lot of property here and some good hay fields, but the price of hay equipment & upkeep is just too high for what little we need. In the past we just got a neighbor to cut our hay on halves and end up with more than we need. Best if he maintains the hay equipment.

Now for the tractors, us Kubota guys like our Kubotas. Those Kioti guys like there Kiotis. Buy which ever one you like best!

 

[aginn]

If you are going to have cattle on that small of a plot you won't have much area to hay. I think you might want to see how many bails you might get of that ground and do some math about how much per bale it would cost over say- 10 years to see what the economics would add up to. Our neighbor just contracts to a local farmer to cut and bail and they feel it is a much better solution for small plots. Not trying to be a downer but it is something to seriously think about.
I have the L3200 and it is a nice tractor and very dependable. HST is definitely a must for me though. It is a joy after having run geared tractors. The Kioti will have more weight and a lot stronger FEL if you plan on doing really heavy work with it. I have bug a half acre pond with the L3200 FEL alone. Time for a backhoe so I can add to it and have a new toy to play with. The difference in backhoes was what prompted me to get the Kubota. The Kioti seemed to be a better tractor in some ways (weight/strength of FEL) but the backhoe impressed me more on the Kubota.

 

[techgeekfarmer]

I have dug a half acre pond with the L3200 FEL alone.

Haha Nice!

Yea I will have to see what I can find for local farmers that we could work out a deal ... as I did not plan to get a baler right way or anything. I saw a JD 14T Baler for $1500 on craigslist but just looking at the options really.

 

[art]

Most haying equipment starts off at 30 PTO horsepower and of coarse that is more then you are looking at. I do have a fellow that baled a 5 acre piece with a BX-24 but I wouldn't recommend it!
To hay you would need a mower, tedder, rake, baler and at least one wagon.

 

[Hdoilcan]

I was looking at the Kubota B3200-B3300 but after being educated from this great website TBN I realized I wanted something with position control so that deleated the B3200-B3300 and so I started looking at the L3200-L3800 and then we went to look at the Kioti CK35 and decided that Kioti was the way to go because you are getting more for your money. But then we tried out the Kioti DK40 and figured for a little bit more money we would go with it. But deep down it was a little to big physically and so then we seen a Kubota L3540 cab and it seems like its between the CK35 and the DK40 in physical size. So that what we are going with.... just been sick for the last month so we put things on hold for now. I kept bumping up in size from the start as I learned more because I need something with a strong loader but as small of a foot print as possible.... and there are only a couple brands that I am interested in.
For me if it came down to the L3200 vs the CK35 I'd go with the CK35.

 

[Hdoilcan]

I received a price of $18,600+ for a CK35 HST with Loaded (rimguard) R4 tires and two rear remotes installed, delivered (2 hours from dealer) and everything for the first 50 hour service or bring it back to them and they will do it.
So make sure you negotiate!!