Gittyup
Elite Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2007
- Messages
- 3,145
- Location
- Mid Atlantic
- Tractor
- Kioti CK25 Shuttle Shift, loaded tires, JD X739
Rimguard is fluid that is put in your tires by the dealer to add weight. It never needs replacing as long as you don't get a flat and lose it all.
With a grapple, I'd want the heft of a CUT for the loader lift capacity as well as the general weight of the tractor. The Kioti CK20 is about as small as I would go with that kind of set up. FEL lift capacity would be important metric if wanting to use a grapple. The bigger the tractor the more capacity it'll have. Many of the SCUTS are like only 600 - 800 lbs of lift. That's marginal except for light work.
Look in the "Owning/Operating" forum. There is a recent thread titled "How man TnT owners" that should give you a good idea what a hydraulic toplink/sidelink are all about. Also search for "tnt", "topntilt", "rear remotes" and so on. You'll find all the information you need about their uses.
Yes you can get a finish mower for just about any tractor. But, they cost about as much as a separate riding mower, and are less manueverable behind a bigger tractor.
Want a rider that won't give you belt fits? Look at those that have shaft drives. Probably talking used here, but a much better choice than a new cheapo belt-driven one. Some suggestions JD 400/420/425/445/455 (used ~$2000 - $5000) or even an older Gravely 800 series tractor ($400 - $600) - unstoppable, if you can find one in good shape. Older Cub Cadets are good too. Many others also make shaft driven mowers. You'll have to do your homework here. On the other end of the spectrum, my neighbor has one of those Homedepot JD riding mowers. He's had it for 4 years now and hasn't had to touch the belts....yet. Some of the Wheelhorse tractors are pretty good too, even though they do use belts.
The JD 2500 series would be a good fit for you or a bota B30xx series. In a Kioti the CK's are nice and come with lots of extras (I love my CK25). The TYM T273 is very nice. Mahindra, New Holland, and Massey Furgeson also have nice machines in this size.
You might want to think down the road where you might have to maintain the land you now lease out. That might say get more HP so you can run bigger implements. Me, I'd be looking hard at the DK35 or maybe even a DK40 (Kiotis). But these are bigger than you really need for your immediate tasks. But surely will meet your needs should your maintenance tasks grow. Buy big enough to start with and only buy once.
On the trailer. I bought one. Nice to have around. But, now wish I hadn't bought it. No more than it's needed, I say rent it, unless you plan to tow often. Otherwise, it just sits a lot, deteriorating in the weather and costing you to keep it tagged and in good running condition. And in Virginia you have to pay personal property tax on it each year to boot, and some counties/towns then will add their own local tax on top of that.
With a grapple, I'd want the heft of a CUT for the loader lift capacity as well as the general weight of the tractor. The Kioti CK20 is about as small as I would go with that kind of set up. FEL lift capacity would be important metric if wanting to use a grapple. The bigger the tractor the more capacity it'll have. Many of the SCUTS are like only 600 - 800 lbs of lift. That's marginal except for light work.
Look in the "Owning/Operating" forum. There is a recent thread titled "How man TnT owners" that should give you a good idea what a hydraulic toplink/sidelink are all about. Also search for "tnt", "topntilt", "rear remotes" and so on. You'll find all the information you need about their uses.
Yes you can get a finish mower for just about any tractor. But, they cost about as much as a separate riding mower, and are less manueverable behind a bigger tractor.
Want a rider that won't give you belt fits? Look at those that have shaft drives. Probably talking used here, but a much better choice than a new cheapo belt-driven one. Some suggestions JD 400/420/425/445/455 (used ~$2000 - $5000) or even an older Gravely 800 series tractor ($400 - $600) - unstoppable, if you can find one in good shape. Older Cub Cadets are good too. Many others also make shaft driven mowers. You'll have to do your homework here. On the other end of the spectrum, my neighbor has one of those Homedepot JD riding mowers. He's had it for 4 years now and hasn't had to touch the belts....yet. Some of the Wheelhorse tractors are pretty good too, even though they do use belts.
The JD 2500 series would be a good fit for you or a bota B30xx series. In a Kioti the CK's are nice and come with lots of extras (I love my CK25). The TYM T273 is very nice. Mahindra, New Holland, and Massey Furgeson also have nice machines in this size.
You might want to think down the road where you might have to maintain the land you now lease out. That might say get more HP so you can run bigger implements. Me, I'd be looking hard at the DK35 or maybe even a DK40 (Kiotis). But these are bigger than you really need for your immediate tasks. But surely will meet your needs should your maintenance tasks grow. Buy big enough to start with and only buy once.
On the trailer. I bought one. Nice to have around. But, now wish I hadn't bought it. No more than it's needed, I say rent it, unless you plan to tow often. Otherwise, it just sits a lot, deteriorating in the weather and costing you to keep it tagged and in good running condition. And in Virginia you have to pay personal property tax on it each year to boot, and some counties/towns then will add their own local tax on top of that.
. Filling the tire with liquid helps with traction but again increases lawn damage. Turf type are best for lawn mowing but offer the least traction for doing other work. It can very expensive especially with 4WD tractors changing from one type to another because the wheel rim sizes required change with the change in tire type. My dealer quoted roughly $2,000 to change from R1 to turf type.
