OK I have a few questions.
What's a remote and is that important for my needs?
What's better, a belly mower or a rear mower? (price is always a factor but I want a nice cut)
What does the quarter inching valve replace? I assume it is to set the rear attachment height right? Many reviews about the quarter inching valve are negative. Is that because it has detents for the positions and sometimes you would like one in between?
Sean
Remote is a pair of hydrailic outlets on the rear of the tractor that is controlled by a lever. It allows you to hook up hydralic devices that do work for you. Wood splitter, hyd top link, many ag machinery uses hyd cylinder to raise or lower, hyd motors can spin things, some snow blowers have hyd chute rotator, dump wagons use it, and so on.
Technically your loader will have 2 pair of hyd remotes, and the backhoe will have one pair unless you get a pto pump model. The loader ones are being used, so they are out. The backhoe remotes may also be a regular set of remotes when the backhoe is removed - but often it is a special hose without the levers and doesn't give you real remotes. Depends on how it's plumbed.
If you don't know what it is, you don't need it. Once you have one and realize what implements it allows you to have, you couldn't be without it!
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Myself, I would cut the lawn around the house with the lawn mower you have, and work down the rest of the grass 2 or 3 times a year with a brush hog rough mower. You've stumbled into a pet peeve of mine, so allow how I am just ranting & raving here & don't mind me, but what is with people buying up land & then just wasting fuel & time on making it a huge worthless lawn? I don't get that!
Out here in the country, it just doesn't make any sense. I see town folk do that, & it just puzzles me.
The belly mower will be easier to manuver around things, will end up cutting a tad better.
Rear mowers come in finishing type, which will cut about as well as the belly mower, or they come in brush hog style, which whack the grass off as well as small trees, brush, etc. Depends which you buy, you can get a smooth cut or a quicker, rougher cut. The rear mounted mower will be slightly harder to manuver around trees, fences, and so forth - turn to the left, and the rear mower will move slightly right first, so you just can't get as close.
Belly mower is typically a bigger pain to mount & remove, and is in the way for other work.
Which is better? I'd do lawn mowing with your lawn mower, and service the rest of your property with a brush hog rear mounted mower. For me that would be better, but to each their own.
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Don't know what a 1/4 inching valve is in this contrext, must be a Kubota feature. (I think Kubota is a good machine, don't take this as negative....) Because of all the tractor experience, I'd like a position control that gives smooth 3pt positioning as most good tractors these days.
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You have 5 acres. You have 1 acre of trees that you don't really want to remove, maybe clean up a little.
What in the world do you need a backhoe for??????? Here on the farm I have a 5 acre grove, wife & I just cleaned up about a 1/2 acre this spring. Used a chainsaw, landscapre rake, and brush hog. Oh, and the loader of course. We spent 4 days on it, went from fallen trees to stacked firewood & grass seed worked into the ground.
Where does a backhoe come into play? That is 4 or 5 grand, lot of money, to accomplish what that you can't do with the other tools?
Mind you, it's a cool tool, I own a 1/2 of one with a friend, if you can afford it & want it have fun; I'm just asking, is this a toy you want, or something you actually need?
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The endless batttle - I want a small tractor to mow lawn and not ever leave a wheel mark ever, and I want a big usefull beast that pulls over trees, digs to China with a backhoe, and is very stable & solid for loader work a payloader might choke on....
Ok, I'm a bit extreme.
Ag tires pull well in soft dirt. Nothing else will.
Turf tires take good care of a lawn, don't pull much at all.
Industrial tires wear well on pavement, and don't do much else at all well. They have bars so they look like ag tires, and they have a lot of flat spots on the ground so they look like they will be good on the lawn. Best of both worlds right? But.... Really they wear well on the highway, and don't do well at either task you want to do.
I think on many tractors, the rims need to be different sizes for all 3 types of tread, so you will have some expense swapping out types - you need new rims as well as tires.
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A small CUT or smaller with a loader loves to get real light in the rear end. You will need weight on the rear end to use the loader. The best route to go is fluid in the tires. But - a lot of fellas don't like that for compacting the lawn.
So, do you want to be safe with the loader, or light on the lawn? Then explain your answer to your spouse - their reaction will say a lot about how well they like you. Vs the lawn.
Just some random thoughts. I'm trying to look at this in a funny, what do you want to end up with, tone. I don't mean it in your face, as it could sound. Just a little bit different look at it maybe.
--->Paul
