My wife and I are in the same boat as you. We bought a place with 40 acres that hasnt been cared for in a while. We went with the 5140 as well. It hasnt even been delivered yet. Looking forward to beating the jungle back. Interested to see other comments on how this tractor performs.
This seems like a good time for an update. I'm about 30 engine hours in. I'm surprised how long the engine hours last me actually. I've worked with it almost every other weekend, for 2 months now. I gues they've been relatively sporadic hours though. I've had to get off and chainsaw for a while every now and then so its not constant running.
I've made my share of newby mistakes. Luckily none have been expensive.
1. First thing I did clearing trees with the bucket was a tree stalk split and went over my bucket and into the grill screen. Luckily it went back to looking brand new with pliers and some gentle hammering.
2. 2nd thing I did, was I was bushogging up and down hills going backward down them and forward up them. One of my hills is extremely steep so this is the only option. I was mowing around trees that were too large for the rotary cutter so I could go back and chainsaw the big trees later. Well two of the trees were closer together than I thought and I bent the deck on my 6" rotary cutter just enough for the blade to hit one side. I shut it off in a hurry after "BAM BAM BAM BAM". Luckily I got that one fixed with a sledge hammer and an acetylene torch and half a saturday. It was not easy work, but straight forward and it works just fine now.
3. One day I was pushing over small trees and mowing them when I lost traction (was on a slope). I made the mistake of trying to back up with a small tree bent over under the tractor and a limb grabbed my fuel line and broke a small fuel line fitting. the tractor emptied itself of gas and I had to replace the fitting ($1.50) and bleed the fuel line of air. I had never done anything like any of that before so it was a learning experience the 1st time. Wasn't too hard in restrospect, but it took me much longer to figure out than maybe it should have. I had to read up on air locks, diesel engines and all that.
4. As I was mowing one of my properties for the first time, i mowed over a sprinkler head hidden under the grass and brush (this is a huge sprinkler head. it was designed to irrigate a motocross track.) and then drove over it on another pass after my mower blade had sharpened the broken stem. It popped a huge hole in my rear tire. Luckily I got it driven to the roadside before it totally lost all air. One of my neighbors took it to get it repaired for me. Luckily they were able to boot it so it only ran me about 200 dollars.
5. last thing I did was snap one of my hazard lights off with a tree branch. when I was pushing over some 3 inch trees and rotary cutting them. Some super glue put that one back fine it seems like.
The common thread seems to be that clearing land and dealing with trees is very very tough on the tractor and extra care has to be taken. Going slow and cautiously is necessary. I've developed the practice of stopping every hour or so even when things are going well and looking under the tractor and looking at connections and fittings for problems. Good news is I'm almost done with a lot of the tree clearing I wanted to do. I have a fair bit left to do on some dirt moving, but will need to spring for some new tools like a yardbox before I can really start on that too much.
