Need Advice have 5 acres (Looking for first tractor)

[patrick_g]

Wastefull? Wow.. that's a pretty high tower you are on judging all of us!

Sound Guy, you quoted this--> Originally Posted by MossRoad
I tend to agree with IslandTractor on this. Buying a huge tractor just because you can when a smaller one will do just fine seems wastefull.

Let me stress this part -->"{...when a smaller one will do just fine..."

Lets not pass that by so fast as to miss the point. If the smallest tractor in your circumstances that would "do just fine" was the Binford 3X Belchfire 500 Tim Taylor signature model then you did exactly what MossRoad suggested. You got the least tractor that meets your requirements.

Your requirements are, well, your requirements. Not everyone has your unique set of requirements and tradeoffs and pots of $. Now it would seem that a reasonable question to ask you would be if you had 5 acres that was not in BAD shape and mostly needed some weed/brush control and mowing of lawn type grass would you have selected the same 3X tractor or perhaps a little less? Your answer is in no way guidance for the newby with 5 acres unless he has similar requirements to yours which he clearly doesn't due to the variation in lot sizes.

You said, "For me it was the right choice, based on my circumstances." That in no way is in conflict with MossRoad's comment. I for one just don't get the tall tower thing. You must be reading something into his post that I don't see.

You said, "I'm sure.. i could cut it with a push lawnmower and just have never stopped mowing... you know.. start back at the front at the end of the month when i finished the back.. but hey.. that's just me...."

Most of us would agree that the push mower with you behind it is undersized, at least a little and does not meet MossRoads criterion of doing just fine.

I have yet to see a list of requirements posted by the newby so I'm not sure what criteria are being used to determine his needs beyond a PROJECTION OF OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL CIRCUMSTANCES cloaked as advice, meant to fit his circumstances. Since we don't know his circumstances how do we give specific advice? Well, we can't actually which is why I keep beating the drum for some validated requirements. But that is just me with my tainted warped sense of how to proceed based on years of "contamination" by structured engineering approaches and the scientific method. I submit that on a good day I can surpass the results achieved by the average user of the famed OUIJA board.

Pat

 

[davitk]

I may be a minority voice crying in the wilderness but I think unless you are doing a lot of HD terraforming you are wasting money to go over 25HP with 5 acres. Pat

Soundguy - I do believe patrick g would like all the credit for calling out the wastrels.

 

[gemini5362]

Wastefull? Wow.. that's a pretty high tower you are on judging all of us!

You have to go case by case.. can't paint with a roller brush on this one with any accuracy.

For many of us.. bigger was a much better choice than smaller.

My 95 hp tractor is deffinately 'WAY' bigger than i needed for my paltry 13.1 ac.. especially when i used to mow it with a 33hp/5' mower setup.. However.. now that I work 6 days a week.. and thus only have 4 days a month off... it kinda made sense that instead of sacrificing 25% of my free time per you to mowing.. I could instead buy a 3X size tractor and instead mow my place in 1hr and 45 miutes.. vs 6.5 hours. and only 'miss' breakfast.. rather than more or less shooting the bulk of the day.

For me it was the right choice, based on my circumstances.

I'm sure.. i could cut it with a push lawnmower and just have never stopped mowing... you know.. start back at the front at the end of the month when i finished the back.. but hey.. that's just me....

Soundguy

95 horsepower on 13.1 acres. Wow. Do you have those roundtable thingies like they use on railroad trains to turn around or does your tractor just have super steer ?

 

[Riddler]

Roy must be wondering what he did to start the food fight??!! Can we right the ship and help him with his questions??

I haven't owned a orange B series machine, but is there some real differences in size and weight between those and the blue tractors you're considering Roy? I ask because recently I was comparing the size and weight of a used TC18 and a used B3000. If recollection serves me, the TC18 was slightly wider and heavier. A TC29 or 31 is a significant step up in size and weight from a TC18. I am not familiar with JD 3000.

At the risk of churning the waters again, I would suggest that you think about size and weight as a feature that has value. I believe you said that your place is flat, so stability isn't much of a concern, but you might own a place someday with sloped ground. Also, so much of what a tractor can do though its attachments and implements is tied to size and weight. When we shop for cars, we don't often look at size and weight as a "feature." For that reason, our experience shopping for cars doesn't serves us all that well when we shop for the first time for a tractor.

Also, are we to understand that you're interested in fitting your new tractor with top and tilt? If so, what job(s) are you're looking to do? I have that functionality on my tractor, so I can share my experiences with it, if you want.

 

[gemini5362]

Interesting posts. I have a 15 horsepower kubota that is a 4 wheel drive and one step above a riding lawnmower in size. If it had a front end loader on it I could not imagine anything I would want to do on 5 acres that it would not do. I have a box blade so I can dig with it. It has a mower deck but will handle a 4 foot rotary mower. I have used it with my post hole digger and it digs post holes just fine in the rocky soil where I live. When I have to go do work at one of my rental houses it is a lot easier to load and tie down than my 49 horse montana. It also runs a very very long time on 5 gallons of diesel. The first year I had it I replaced my riding lawn mower with it and did not have my montana so it was all I used for everything and I belive I wound up using 10 gallons of diesel that whole year. To me anything bigger than 25 horse on 5 acres is overkill. Yes you can do the job with a bigger tractor but that is purely personal preference. To me justification for buying anything is that I want it and I can afford it. That should be enough justification. We have seen on here that in reality size does not matter all that much to a point. Pat g has a 39 horse tractor I have a 49 horse tractor Pat is very happy with his tractor and it does everything he needs it to do. I am very happy with mine and it does what I need it to do. Pat g has the smaller tractor yet he has 6 times the acreage I do. What people tend to forget on here is that newbies do not come on here asking for justification they ask for advice. The think that because there are hundreds and thousands of years of cumulative experience on this forum they can benefit from that experience. Telling a newbie with 5 acres to buy a tractor that would handle 105 acres with out any problems is in my opinion not giving the guy good advice. Soundguy having 95 hp for 13.1 is great and if that is what you want it is good you have the means to do it, most of us do not have the kind of disposable income that warrants that kind of extravagance. My serious advice to the newbie is to go and rent a tractor from a rental place. I am sure that he can probably find one in the 20 to 25 horse bracket to rent. Spend 8 hours on it and see what you like and dont like about it. Rent the implements to do one or two of the jobs you think you need a tractor for. After 8 hours you can have an inkling of whether it is too big, too small, or just right. In my area you can rent a tractor like that for around 175.00 with the rotary mower and the trailer to haul it on. If you can get that kind of rental rate it is a cheap price to pay for some first hand information when you are talking about spending thousands of dollars.

 

[Riddler]

Also, if you're all but committed to working with a particular dealer, they might be willing to drop off a machine to demo for a day, no charge. My dealer has always done that with me.

 

[jand38]

I have 6 ac and my 30HP is to small at times and to big at other times but over all it has been great. I should have went with a"Hydro. trans."This was my first tractor I wanted a 18HP salesman got me to try the 30 HP after the demo I bought it. You will find yourself buying ( Toys ) ever chance you get. MD

 

[patrick_g]

Roy must be wondering what he did to start the food fight??!! Can we right the ship and help him with his questions??


Also, are we to understand that you're interested in fitting your new tractor with top and tilt? If so, what job(s) are you're looking to do?

Riddler, Be careful, you're coming awfully close to asking Roy to list his requirements. That is dangerous thinking, trying to define the problem prior to issuing the solution.

It is good to compare apples to apples, i.e. compare features of like sized, powered and accessorized machines but it would be even better to decide what the machine was expected to do before picking the level of size, power, and accessories to compare.

Pat

 

[MossRoad]

Wastefull? Wow.. that's a pretty high tower you are on judging all of us!

You have to go case by case.. can't paint with a roller brush on this one with any accuracy.

For many of us.. bigger was a much better choice than smaller.

My 95 hp tractor is deffinately 'WAY' bigger than i needed for my paltry 13.1 ac.. especially when i used to mow it with a 33hp/5' mower setup.. However.. now that I work 6 days a week.. and thus only have 4 days a month off... it kinda made sense that instead of sacrificing 25% of my free time per you to mowing.. I could instead buy a 3X size tractor and instead mow my place in 1hr and 45 miutes.. vs 6.5 hours. and only 'miss' breakfast.. rather than more or less shooting the bulk of the day.

For me it was the right choice, based on my circumstances.

I'm sure.. i could cut it with a push lawnmower and just have never stopped mowing... you know.. start back at the front at the end of the month when i finished the back.. but hey.. that's just me....

Soundguy

From up here on my high tower I can see pretty clearly.

You collect and restore tractors and are not the typical example of a homeowner with 5 acres to tend to and one tractor to do it with as the original poster seems to be.

 

[VRF201]

Well it's good to have a heathy debate.

I could go with a BX2350/BX24 (My neighbor has a BX2350 - does everthing he asks it to do on his 5 acres).

Yea, I know 25 - 30 hp may be over kill but I'm looking at a tractor that has to last me a long time! Plus I love HP!


Question: Riddler? What do you mean by top (I understand tilt)?

Thanks!


VRF201(Roy)