Buying Advice Looking for advice for first tractor purchase.

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

Hey - OP here - thanks again for all the comments!

A few thoughts:

My 15-20k budget would be for the tractor and loader, and I was originally only looking at used equipment. However, for some of the asking prices I'm seeing for used equipment, I should be able to by something like a Kubota L series new - so I'm going to look start shopping new dealers as well. I can add used accessories and implements when I am able to find them.

As for hiring someone to do the initial clearing - that certainly is an option and would probably make sense from a time point of view. But, then I would miss out on the pleasure and satisfaction from doing the work myself. Since my land was logged about 10 years before I bought it, I'm not really dealing with clearing any large trees for my walking trails - almost all small stuff under 6" and lots of brush and brambles. My guess is that to hire someone to cut and clear a couple miles of paths will cost almost as much as buying the tractor. I also already have 2000' of road in place to maintain.

For the chipping - probably a 6" capable machine would be fine - bigger if I can find one used for a reasonable price. I'm not going to be taking down any large trees.

Seems like my truck will be able to handle pulling the tractor on the few occasions I want to move it. I think I would rent a trailer for the few times I will need it. My Ram 1500 has the towing package with brake controller, so I should be good for that.

Anyway - appreciate everyone's input.

You'll get a lot of advice from different perspectives, some of it conflicting. You should be able to figure out what "fits" you.

I do think there's agreement here that a $20k tractor isn't going to help you that much with clearing miles of trails through 6" trees by yourself, beyond helping you drag them out. Not enough PTO to run a big enough chipper for one thing. If hiring out is expensive--and in some places it is--then renting equipment is a good option.

I'm thinking about my own 26HP tractor (a Mahindra, which definitely "fights above its weight"), and if I decided to make a new trail through my 6" poplars....well, the trees are too big for my tractor to push over, so I have to drop the tree with a chainsaw. Then I have to buck the tree. My tractor can help transport the logs to another location and that's about it. I can't run a big enough chipper on the PTO for 6" trees, nor would I want to use my tractor that way. Now you've either got to burn it, split it for firewood and stack it, or feed it into a chipper. Then you have to deal with the stump.

As for the "pleasure" of doing this yourself, I strongly recommend you grab your chainsaw and spend a few weekends taking out some trees. No one loves working in the woods more than me, and I've been doing it for 18 years, but this IMO gets old pretty fast. Alternatively, if you can route your trails around most of the 6" trees so you only need to take out smaller saplings and brush, a Scut with a grapple might do the job quite well. I will also say, a lot depends on how tall those 6" trees are (mine are 60-feet-plus tall) and the species.

 

[gladehound]

For me what you look for really depends on if you really intend to transport it yourself with current truck / trailer. If it wasn't for that limitation, you can get a lot of tractor on the used market for 20K if you don't mind gear transmissions. Go up 1 to 2 frame sizes from the ~35hp units you're looking at and trees pop out easy most of the time and it's a heck of a lot of fun! A hydraulic reverser is a nice in between from a straight mechanical tractor and HST and good size slightly used tractors with hydraulic reversers can be had within your budget. I bought new about 4 years ago and tractor / loader were under 20K for 45hp with nearly 4,000 pounds of break out and a hydraulic reverser.

Renting is a very sensible idea. I just wanted to throw out another option for consideration as I can't see mulching up all that fire wood - depends on how much of a hurry you're in.