davitk said:
You mean patrick g. I agree, too. Just wanted to argue.
I know which tractor I want pulling me out of the ditch this winter.
(With apologies to Monty Python) Argument? This is abuse, argument is down the hall to the left!
A few points: I have never lived in an apartment and don't wish it on anyone, I have three pickups but the "family car" is a Prius. I'm not a minimalist nor do I assume whatever I do is right for everyone. Bigger, faster, and more powerful do not necessarily make a "best fit" for a given set of requirements.
Requirements! Requirements analysis is an important thing. You can't possibly know what the best or even a good fit is for a tool to perform a task if you can't define the task. Getting the largest most complicated Swiss Army knife or most versatile (quite heavy and cumbersome) Leatherman trying to cover every possible eventuality because you can't or won't analyze your requirements is one of the reasons people are often not satisfied with their first tractor purchase.
The original post gave little useful information with which to base an opinion. It was like an open ended question asked for purposes of psychoanalysis where the respondent injects his own bias and assumes the situation is parallel to his personal experience. When some of us asked for more details about what the tractor was for, little useful information i was forthcoming. For example, I asked about gardening and don't think I got an answer.
One of the most important pieces of information was the 5 acre size. You aren't going to be digging many ponds on a 5 acre lot and sizing the tractor to the requirement of digging a pond is inappropriate in my opinion. I have a 40HP tractor and access to several considerably larger tractors. I have 11 ponds. None were dug with a farm tractor. I built two of them, both with D6 or larger dozers. I don't know of anyone who dug a pond with a tractor anywhere around here in the last decade.
Sizing a tractor to some vague notion about maybe some day wanting to do some tough job is nonsense. Size a tractor for what you do the most of (or maybe a tad more size and HP) and be satisfied to rent a large machine every several years when you do a BIG job.
A good approach is to sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil and make a list of all the jobs you can possibly imagine ever doing on your property with a tractor. Err on the side of completeness. Include everything you could reasonably want to do.
Now for another important part: Beside every item on the list, try to write a narrative paragraph describing the conditions under which you would acltually do that task, including reasonable estimates as to how often you would do that task. Then try to estimate what implements and HP requirements would be required to do each specific task.
You might find that you have a task that really calls for 100 HP but you will only need to do it once for 4 days (dig a pond) so do you buy a tractor with dozer capability or do you hire a dozer that one time. Obvious huh? Of importance is not just the tractor needed for a job but how often do you do the job, would you be satisfied to take longer if the job doesn't take tooooo long and doesn't have to be done tooooo often?
Now consider tractor size, HP, transmission type, hydraulics, etc. If you select too small or too "stripped down" of a tractor then too many tasks on your worksheet will have to be hired done and you woiuld be better served to pay more up[ front for the tractor. If you go really big on the tractor you can do it all (almost) but maybe 99% of the time you are driving a F-650 4x4 diesel dually to run to the corner market for a quart of milk.
If you see yourself doing a lot of dirt work and or using a lot of 3PH implements then a hydraulic top and tilt setup is very nice and more important that a few more HP. Front end loaders and buckets come in various degrees of robustness. Filling a bucket with gravel for the drive and spreading it is a light duty task. Digging several yards of dirt and or digging out rocks isn't. Some loaders are easy to remove and reinstall and have safe "kickstands" while some are a hassle. I have a very safe and easy to change loader (HD for its size with HD bucket) and have taken it off and reinstalled it twice in 6 years, once with the dealer helping to show me how and once just because.
If I have to mow along a fence I can temporarily raise the bucket up out of the way.
Analysis is not easy but doing a good job will pay dividends. Ask 10 people what is the right size tractor and you will get more than 10 answers and many conflicting rationales. Every job looks like a nail to the guy whose only tool is a hammer. Conducting a pole is easy and way more fun than doing rigorous analysis but unless you supply your verified and refined requirements up front to those polled the answers you get will be like the three blind men and the elephant where each felt a different part of the elephant and couldn't agree on what it was like.
We have been asked how high is up and how long is a roll of string. We may have had different experience and backgrounds and with no guidance regarding your actual requirements what you get for answers for the most part widely varying in value depending on the accidental match with the respondents experience and knowledge.
I suggest that for a given outlay of cash you will be better served to spend some of the $ on hydraulics and accessories such as FEL (if your tasks require it), 4 wheel drive, better implements, and such, an overall increase in the quality rather than sacrificing quality and versatility at the alter of HP/size.
I further suggest you consider other than "NAME" brands if you are not going to be out on the tractor working it hard as a steady job. There are other brands besides JD, Kubota, and such. Mahindra, Montana and that genre deserve consideration.
Pat
