whatsgnu said:
Hi,
I'm looking to buy and these 3 tractors seem to be in the range of what I'm looking for. I'll be using it with a FEL to clear land, move rocks, clear snow, maintain some wood roads etc... My land is very hilly, about 60 acres of mostly woods.
Let's explore your uses a bit more. What do you mean by "clear land"? Removing trees that are a decent height? Overgrown brush? Rocks? None of those tractors will make easy work of what I typically think of as landclearing. Oh, they can do some of it with time, but it depends a lot on what you mean by clearing.
Moving rocks.... done with FEL for rocks up to about 1/2 to 2/3 the FEL's maximum weight (which often is at or above the limit of what will fit in the bucket - or you can get forks to mount on the FEL, which is probably a better approach but a lot of extra $$). All depends on the size of rocks you have to move.
Maintaining woods roads - I can make some guesses here, and that size of tractor is quite reasonable for typical road maintenance. You are probably looking at a box scraper, landscape rake, or roadgrader?
Clearing snow - again, that size tractor should be plenty, unless you get 10' in a single snowfall (that's feet, not inches). May want to consider a snowblower if you get tons of snow, otherwise a blade and FEL should work well. I use just a blade and FEL, but I rarely have more than 12" to move at a time.
Very hilly - seriously consider HST. It's not only a convenience, but in very hilly conditions it is a safety feature too. That would knock out all three tractors you mentioned, though there are some very similar tractors in the same size and price range with HST, and supposedly Kubota will be making an
L4400 with HST soon. Also, consider R1 tires for hilly conditions, you don't want to be sliding downhill with tires locked up.
So - it really depends on your "land clearing" and rock moving tasks. A tractor in the 35-40hp range will power a decent brushhog (5 or 6') and if you need one, a PTO
chipper. It will not tear out or push over trees of any significant size, say 4" or larger trunk. If you are going to cut down trees with a chainsaw and just need to either move the logs or mulch them, those tractors would work. If you want to get rid of lots of full grown trees with the tractor itself, you would need to look far larger - unrealistically large, I think.
All three tractors are good. The Kioti does have a few more features, but I don't agree that it is overwhelmingly better. That Kioti is more of a full-featured tractor while the
L4400 and JD990 are more basic tractors, so it's not a really fair comparison. As Wallace said that Kioti would be a bit more - when I priced the DK45S and the
L4400, it was $23k for a DK45 and $19.5k for an
L4400. Also, I think you should consider HST. That would mean looking at:
Kioti DK45SE HST (despite same numbers, it's a different frame tractor than the gear DK45, though it is roughly the same size and hp)
JD 4105 or 4120 or 3720
Kubota Lxx40 series, or if you can wait, that
L4400 with HST when it comes out
New Holland TC40 and 45DA
Various options from Massey-Ferguson and AGCO
