Bullwinkle123
Platinum Member
My thought process on the same questions recently, FWIW:
Re: Rear remotes. I would have liked that, as I need to do a lot of blade work. Certainly there are a _lot_ of people who say "get TnT". But the dealer said it would run something like an extra $2k for the remotes (can't remember if that was 2 rear SCV's or 3, and note that I also have a third function already installed for the front grapple, don't know if that affects the price), plus another $1k for all the TnT stuff, so ~$3k for a dealer installed fully enabled set of hydraulics that would control the blade. It was just one jump too many for me (what with the tractor and all the attachments I was buying).
On the one hand, taking delivery without the remotes was my biggest "hmmm, should I have done that while still at the dealer?" thing.
On the other hand, there were other people who said they do just fine without all the blade hydraulics, and I'm two years away from considering a rear snow blower.
In the end money ran out and me and my bad back will just have to try it and make do for now. Hopefully I can be smart about my driveway passes and avoid too may adjustments with planning, just like planning your day arond what attachments you're using to minimize changes. Not that I know, I haven't done the driveway work yet.
On the wood chipper thing, I want one, bad
And I want it to have hydraulic rollers. However there are chippers with self contained hydraulics. I'm looking at the Woodmaxx 8H. It had great reviews on this forum, good price (under $3k?) and doesn't need tractor hydraulics. Like other things I'm deferring that for a year too, while I assimilate my new purchases, but the lack of tractor hydraulics doesn't look like a problem for the chipper, for me at least. If I was going to get a Wallenstein model, I think those aren't self contained hydraulics (I'm not sure), and even if the tractor supplies hydraulics, Wallenstein R models with hydraulics are _really_ expensive. Re: Buckets and blades
I did spring for the upgrade to the heavier blade, as all advice says the heaver the blade, the better, and many people still add additional weights to the blade.
I also sprang for a heavy duty L2296 bucket, because I knew I was going to abuse the bucket a bit with a bucket spade (Tractor and Skidsteer bucket spade shovel), and my neighbor's sad crumpled bucket (even without a bucket spade) seemed like a cautionary tale, though I'm guessing that was more a case of "young operator abuse", and it's a much lighter tractor/bucket (and not a Kubota). I figured paying for a heavier bucket and bucket spade was still a lot cheaper than a backhoe for the light tree planting/transplanting duties I have. Won't replace a mini-ex if I need to add those new drainage ditches though.
re: trailering around
Yeah, good that you're considering transport in advance. I concluded my existing Ford F150 vehicle cannot _safely_ transport the MX5400 with loaded rears, much less with attachments, and it's rated for 9000-ish pounds. So if I'm going to move the tractor regularly by trailer, I'm going to need a bigger truck.
