New CUT recomendations

[n3ra77]

Good morning: Only my second post on the board, so be gentle.... I am a first time CUT buyer. The CTO is herself very enthusiastic, so this shoudl actually be kind of fun! Sorry for the long post.

I am looking for a CUT to maintain my 5 acres (2-3 of which is wooded). Need to be able to rough cut the wooded area (mostly grasses and small saplings, nothing larger than 1") several times a year, move dirt, stone, mulch, etc, plant trees, maybe dig some small trenches, etc. I may mow with it, but we are not yet sure if we want to use a tractor or ZTR for that.

I am therefore thinking I want a FEL, BH and rough cut (maybe 5', but 4' would be ok too probably). I would like something that has a MMM option too in case we wanted to use it for that as well. I would also like to be able to pull a roller, etc. as my riding mower needs replaced as well. Hence the uncertainty on whether to use this as a mower or get a ZTR.

Here are the dealers within 30 or so miles of me.
Kioti - 0
NH - 3
Mahindra - 0
Kubota - 3
JD - 7
Cub/Yanmar - 1
MF - 3

You end up about 50 miles out to get a Kioti or Mah dealer.

One of the local JD dealers comes VERY highly reomended from 3 or 4 of the locals. The closest NH dealer (he has 2 of the 3 NH dealerships) does not. Three freinds who purchased NH CUTs said they will not purchase NH next time, primarily because of the dealer. The Kubota dealer, from what I can tell, is good.

So, I am leaning on the Kubota and JD models since having a good dealer is important to me.

We did stop and look at the Cub EX3200 a couple days ago just for yucks. I think it is probably more than we need for the ongoing work we'll be doing once we get the initial work completed. Again fwiw, the off the cuff quote was about $23 for the FEL, BH and tractor.

In looking at the JD stuff, the 2520 seems like a good fit. For kubota, the b2630 seems like a reasonable choice. Any others I should be looking at.

Anyone have any comments on these two CUT's? The good, bad, and ugly comments are welcome. ANything comparison wise I should be on the look out for? Any idea about specific BH or FEL options? Pricing?

Thanks in advance for the help!!

Scott

 

[Runner]

First, welcome to the site.

I have no experience with any of the listed machines except the 2520 and am a relative newbie at this myself. That being said, I have almost your exact same situation (6 acres) minus the trees. I finish mow 2 acres and rough cut the other 4.

I chose a 2520 because my prior experience with JD (lawn tractor) is that they are high quality and fairly bulletproof. Expensive, but worth it, in my opinion. You can review some of my prior posts to see some details of my exeriences so far.

I have a backhoe, 5 foot rotary cutter, 72 inch rear finish mower, 62D belly mower, loader and a few other attachments. My experience so far is that they are all relatively easy to install/use and work as advertised. If you have very many steep hills, the 72 inch mower is a little heavy for the machine to handle and you wind up in 4WD most of the time.

So far, I have 29 hours on my machine, mostly mowing and moving gravel and other things with the front loader, and have had no problems.

My opinion is, you can't go wrong with JD and finding a good dealer is about the biggest problem you may have.

As for pricing, one very good thing about JD is that they have a "build your own" feature on their web site, so you can see exactly what the list price of your machine and attachments will be. Then, figure a 10 to 15 percent discount and you should be in the ballpark.

Best of luck in your search.

 

[n3ra77]

THanks runner. How hard is it to change the BH for the rough cut? Do you have the iMatch? Is the BH and cutter a Deere or 3rd party? Thanks again

 

[Runner]

Yes, I have the iMatch and consider it to be critical for a couple of reasons. First, and most obvious, is that it makes life lots easier for changing between rear attachments. With it, you can just back up to mowers, blades and such, lift, snap down the arms and away you go.

The second reason I consider the iMatch critical, for the 2520 anyway, is because there is limited clearance between the three point draft arms and the rear tires. It is a pain to have to keep readjusting the sway links every time you mount a different rear attachment to keep the tires from rubbing. The iMatch solves that problem. You adjust it once, then, make sure all your stuff is iMatch compatible, and you are good to go.

Which leads me to the answer to your second question. If you buy JD or Frontier attachments, most of them are already iMatch compatible, or at least have a kit available right out of the box. If you get other brands, it is hit or miss on the compatibility.

Therefore, I went with Frontier stuff for most of my attachments, except for a landscape rake and carryall, for which I had to make an adapter to use on the iMatch.

Another thing about getting JD or Frontier attachments with the tractor is that you can sometimes get better pricing on a "package deal" if you get it all at once though the dealer.

 

[Gittyup]

It's a personal value thing. But, you might save some money by considering those dealers 50 miles out. Is 40 round trip miles every once in a seldom while worth it to save money and/or get more tractor? I would suggest that you at least go look at the other brands before making your choice. They may or may not be considerably cheaper or "more" tractor. But, at least you'll know first-hand.

I have a JD dealer less than a mile from me. I own a tractor from them, and they are a very good dealer. But, when I was looking for a bigger tractor, $4K more for the JD just wasn't worth it to me (Kubota is 10 miles away and $2500 more). But, I'm one who doesn't think the closeness of the dealer is really a major determining factor in today's shrinking world. I go the the JD dealer once per year to buy maintenance parts, but could just as easily buy them through the internet. I've been to them for repair one time in 15 years (which says a lot for their quality).

My bigger tractor is a Kioti and was purchased from a dealer over 200 miles away. I've had one issue with it and the dealer came to me and only charged me for fuel costs. If the quality of my Kioti is as good as it appears to be, and I do my own maintenance, then (hopefully) I won't need to visit a dealer also but once every 15 years or so. Even so, one or two long trips to save thousands is worth it to me. Maybe not to you. However, no matter how close or far away, I'd still only buy from a dealer I feel comfortable doing business with.

Of course, if gas prices keep rising it might cost thousands just to get it to a far away dealer. But 40 miles isn't very far considering how seldom you'll need to drive it.

 

[Runner]

Scott,

Sorry, I didn't answer your question about changing between the backhoe and mower. Don't know if it's any easier on any other brands, but it's no big deal at all on the 2520. You have to take off the top link and draft arms, then, just back over the subframe to line up the hooks. From there, you hook up the hydraulic lines and adjust the location of the backhoe subframe with the backhoe hydraulics until the front pins line up with the front frame mounts. Takes about 10 minutes to hookup.

May be slightly longer process if you have the independent mid-mount mower lift system because you also have to remove some parts of that system.

Hope this helps.

 

[Nuru]

You have a lot of JD Dealers in the area which means that you can probably get a good deal on a new or slightly used unit. Also it would be worth your while to get quotes on paper from any dealer you visit or you can get to send you via email. So you can make the pricing go way down. I did that however, my local dealer could not get close enough to match. I was hoping they would but they did not.

Oh well they got me for parts, service, and attachments - I gotta get the front blade so they got me for that probably - unless the difference in going back to the dealer that sold me the tractor is far cheaper - not likely thoug as the attachments do not have as much room on them as the tractor does.

 

[MDM]

The Kubota B2620 compares well to the Deere 2520. You can probably get a B2920 for less than the Deere 2520, and you will get 3 ranges instead of two. Both are nice machines though.

 

[stimpee]

I just went through some of this, and was considering the Deere 2305, 2320 and 2520. I was also looking at the Kubota BX2350, BX24 (Backhoe's are very cool!), the new 2320-2620-2920 series in parallel.

I very quickly made my decision toward Kubota. The Deere's were nice tractors, and in some cases had some very nice features. The deal killers were the 2 range trans, and that they were consistently 1-2k more for a similar package.

I ended up continuing to "upsize" myself, and bought a Kubota B3030. I never really went back to the Deere dealer to see what was equivalent in the price/capability range of the B3030 to compare at that point though...

I went with the B3030 over the B2920 (which I had actually inked a deal on previously) for some of the added features (position control, independent PTOs, highly adjustable 3point linkage) as well as the capability to accept a 72" mowing deck, which has probably already paid for itself in time savings for me!

Steve

 

[Nuru]

" I ended up continuing to "upsize" myself, and bought a Kubota B3030"

Yes a lot of us would like to "upsize"

 

[Egon]

Welcome n3ra77 !

You have an interesting problem in choices. All would seem good to me. Ride around on some of them and find out what fits.

Dealer support is important if you wish fast service and parts supply.

Last Thursday I broke one of the three point lift arms on my tractor due to operator incompetence. Phoned in for the parts and had them in hand the following day.

 

[Raptor53]

Go with Deere. They are the most established tractor company in the United States, and are known for being the highest quality tractors. Yes, they may cost more, but it's definitely worth it. Go look at the tractors, take a test drive, and compare build quality, weight, standard equipment, and you will most likely see that Deere comes out on top.

I was originally price shopping for a tractor, but I eventually came to the conclusion that when it comes to tractors, you get what you pay for.

 

[JDCOMPACTMAN]

Really need to demo each brand. One may feel better to you than the other.

 

[AchingBack]

I wouldn't spend any money on a ZTR mower. Put that money into a mower for the tractor. Unless you have some fairly smooth areas to mow, a ZTR, and you will take a beating.

 

[EdC]

I don't use my 2320 for mowing and there is no backhoe in the mix but my 2320 does all that we have asked of it. All of the tractors you mentioned will. Ergonomics is important to me so I pad attention to that and the 2320 fit me the best. Try the same things, operate each of these tractors and see how the fit you.

As far as distance and price I went to the farthest of three JD dealers; about 60 miles away one way. That was because the salesman spent hours with us answering questions and going over our needs. Of course it also helped that they were willing to negotiate. The Kubota dealer was not. The Massey dealer was more of an agricultural center and only had 2 CUTs that were way up there in price. The new Holland dealer did not have a salesman available. The first time I said oh well, the second time we had agreed on a time and they still did not have a sales person there.

 

[greggh]

Welcome to TBN... You are in the fun stage of tractor ownership. Going to all of the dealers in your area, sitting in the seats, driving them around to see which one fits you personally. Price is important, but it should be behind the quality of the tractor and the quality of the dealer.

Enjoy this stage, during the search phase you can learn a lot about tractors. Most dealers will give you answers to any of your questions. You may not like some of the answers but this is a learning experience. You have to take the difference answers about their tractor as compared to another brand with a grain of salt. Of course their tractor is a better tractor than the other brands.

Find the tractor that fits you personally and that you feel is the best quality and the dealer you feel that you can trust the most and buy that tractor. You will be happier in the long run and have a great tractor buying experience. Don't rush the process and enjoy the ride.

One you have made your choice and have purchased your tractor, remember to post pictures. We like pictures...

 

[n3ra77]

Thanks everyone for all the advice so far. TBN is a really tremendous resource.

Did visit the Kubota dealer over hte weekend a couple of times. THey had a B3030 (with cab) on the lot as well as a B26 and a BX24. If nothing else, we've confirmed the general size were are interested in.

Need to go back to the JD and Kubota dealers and spend some quality time in the seat.

We've basically dismissed the ZTR talk completely. We'd rather concentrate on the tractor first.

I've heard that Deere has a huge lead time for some of the Ag tractors. If we ended up with JD, I hope that isn't the case for the CUT's.

Any additional comments on 2 range compared to 3 range HST?

Thanks again. Looking forward to having pictures to post.

 

[MDM]

As far as 2 vs 3 range. Put the JD in High range and try pulling a hill and see how it responds. You will likely see the need for the extra range. Most tasks can be accomplished in Low and Medium and High is reserved for transport on flat ground.

 

[Egon]

More gears never hurts!

 

[IXLR8]

As others have said, you need to try each tractor, and dealer. All machines that you have listed are good tractors. Don't pass on the ones that are 40 miles out, there are some good value machines there. You need to find which tractor fits you best, which one is most comfortable, you will be spending lots of time in the seat. Are the controls comfortable to reach, is the platform large enough for you, is it too large? Do you like a flat or angled platform? How easy do you want your attachment hook up to be? It is very tough to beat how easy the JD Imatch system works.. but it comes at a price. It is also very important to buy from a good dealer, one that you can work with, one that will work with you. This is a long term investment/relationship so the dealer is important. Dealer is less important if you can do all your own maintenance, but needs to be taken into account.
Have fun in your shoping.