I got an LS XR3135H last month. I own 13 acres of barely cleared land (about 3 was cleared to figure out where we wanted our house). My needs include:
- Leveling the ground
- Running some shallow trenches for downspouts to drain away from the house
- Eventually putting in and maintaining a berm for target shooting
- Handling scores of downed trees for property clearing
- Handling firewood (house heat is an outdoor wood boiler)
- Rotary cutting existing land
- Clearing additional overgrown land to access the 25+ apple trees on the property
- Snow removal of about a 1000' driveway (cement and gravel)
- Eventually putting in lawn
- Making a walking path through the wooded area of the property
- All other odd jobs that come up
My area had Massey Ferguson (expensive and dealer was far away), Deere (expensive!), and LS dealership nearby. After comparing these tractors (25 PTO HP was my threshold), the MF was just too darn expensive, the Deere and LS were close in price once incentives were taken into account, but the Deere was a 2000 series while the LS was the equivalent of a Deere 3000 series. So, LS had far more tractor for the money.
Deciding factors included:
- Reliability. I noticed a distinct lack of complaints and gripes about LS when compared to others. It just had the reputation of being a no-nonsense, reliable tractor.
- Cost was very competitive. This was the best *value* machine of the 3 looked at.
- Implement costs were reasonable. This was partially financed so implement cost was important. While this is not a pure LS vs other comparison, it was a factor in my decision.
- Skid-steer compatible front end loader. I wanted a bucket and pallet forks, and might want a grapple soon. Having an industry-consensus front connection was important.
- Controls were intuitive. They were intuitive on all 3, actually, but everything worked as expected.
- HUGE: The back of the XR series has 3pt hitch controls, hydraulic ports, and extendable 3pt hitch arms that make hooking up attachments far easier.
As of now, I have about 25 hours of seat time on it. I have cleared paths through overgrown areas, cleared overgrowth from the sides of the driveway, uprooted tons (literally) of grapevine and Asian Bittersweet vine that was swamping the apple trees, picked up and moved very large rocks (one was about 1200 pounds, estimate), moved very thick logs (3' diameter) of oak for firewood, box scraped and landscape raked about 2 acres of (eventual) yard to even it out, and started pulling apart a massive pile of old trees that were stacked when the property was cleared.
The LS XR3135H has performed all these tasks as I have asked it to (I am still learning how to do them all). I have had no issues so far, and some of these tasks were very demanding.
Hope this helps. Not sure if you've owned tractors before, but getting one has enhanced my sense of ability and accomplishment. Tasks that were 'a huge undertaking' immediately shifted to 'gimme 5 minutes'. The added capability of one of these machines is exactly what is needed for more self sufficiency and large-lot maintenance.
:thumbsup:
