New to tractors, did a lot of reading, still need advice :)

[gladehound]

Lots of good points made here. I'll just expand on a few...

Conflicting jobs - size & weight are good for moving a lot of snow fast. Size & Weight is bad for keeping a lawn nice. You can get a used commercial mower for not much more than the price of a good deck for a CUT. Consider this alternative leaving you free to get a heavy tractor without destroying the lawn.

Hesitancy to buy used / buy once buy right mantra - No first time tractor buyer should try to buy once and done. This is because no first time tractor buyer really knows what they need and they likely have to spend a few years with something that isn't quite right to understand what it is that they do need. So rather than "buy once buy right" they should "buy used, buy cheap". If you buy used you have very little depreciation. If it isn't the right tractor for you, you can sell it for about what you paid. Not the case when you buy new.

Not sure if anyone mention this one, but right now you are limited on funds to purchase the "right" tractor. Will you always be limited on funds? If you weren't limited on funds would you be looking at different machines than you're looking at now? So why buy new/once and done now if later you will know more about what you need and may have more funds to buy something that is a better fit. So right now, just try to get close without breaking the bank.

Don't be too scared of Used. I've grew up with old used tractors. None of them ever had any problems. It's new ones you have to watch out for. They don't make them like they used to!

 

[smp22]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies everyone, I really do appreciate it. With all the tractors you guys have it's kind of amazing that you can sit inside and type responses on a keyboard when ... you could be out doing stuff with the tractor

Or maybe I'm oversimplifying it. Work is work. Work is certainly more enjoyable when you have the right tools.

And on that note, I'm not afraid of tools or buying used for that matter. Never spent more than 3k on a car Not because I'm poor, but because I'm CHEAP! I spent a whole lot more on my sailboat and it's as old as I am! So I'm certainly not afraid of old machines, if they are built well, they are built well. Lots of stuff that's made these days is made for the dump from the start, this is why I so often do buy used. Tractors on the other hand, seem to still be "built to last" and they maintain their resale so buying new isn't as bad as say, buying a new car. Which loses like 20% of it's value the moment you drive it off the lot! Also, cars these days .. so underwhelming, but that's a whole other ball of wax. I could buy a new german car and be mortgage and car payment poor like all my city brethren, but that's dumb. Hence old cars. Cars are one of those things in life that I think people spend way too much money on. We all sit in the same traffic jams.


Tinkering with cars is good and well but when I buy a used car I know exactly what I'm looking at, having driven and worked on them for years. Not so with tractors. I have never used one, much less know what to look for mechanically when buying used. I suppose there's some safety when buying used from a dealer but i tell you guys, the dealers here charge new prices for used equipment, or that's what it seems to me. There's not much money to save buying used unless you are buying something with 2000 plus hours on it. Maybe that's not a lot, I don't know. It seems like a lot?

Another consideration - standard height garage door. Not sure I'll be able to get a L series with a cab into the garage. Pickup truck with a blade and a used riding mower might be the ticket but I'm starting to run out of garage space here!

The plan is to drive one of my cars into the ground and then replace it with a new econo box for commuting. The benz wagon is my dream car and a WORKHORSE so it's staying and doing grocery duty for the wife (auto) and home depot trips for yours truly. I've loaded the back of that thing with over 1000 pounds of waste material and the self levelling suspension still does it's thing after a quarter century of service. Can't beat that.

So ok. I'm open to buying used, but what would be a good value on the used market? Any recent B series tractors sell for near new money so that doesn't seem like a good value. Two machines, one for snow and one for lawn isn't a bad idea if I can buy used machines on the cheap. I'm all ears

New, it's starting to sound like I could get away with a tractor plus blade and MMM and be done with it, for now. I know I'll find use for the loader but it's 3.5k additional cost off the bat. Maybe I'll buy a used one down the road, is that a good idea? A B2320 with blade and MMM is just under 20k which is my sort of arbitrary budget.

The house we bought needs work so I don't want to spend all of our cash on my tractor when the wife is dreaming about a new kitchen (the kitchen in this house is really bad, guys. Happy wife, happy life, right? I am dragging her away from everything she knows to live out of town, so I need to be super great to her!).

 

[RNeumann]

If the previous owner was doing a good job with the property and had a tractor.......ask them what they used!!!! You can also ask if they would go bigger, smaller or stay with the same size. They will also have ideas about what implements to use.

As far as brand, most on here will tell you the dealer is as important as brand. Check them all. From my experience JD and Kubota tend to cost a bit more. I like the universal QA on the FEL that everyone except JD seems to offer.

In my area the Mahindra made sense and it seemed the Mitsubishi based machines (15xx series) were best.

Another big learning curve is who is making what. Kioti and Kubota make their own while many others are made by someone else (e.g.- JD uses Yanmar engines in some models). Nothing to be scared of just some interesting info as you browse before the purchase.

 

[smp22]

the previous owner has a JD 2520 with MMM for the lawn. He was using a JD 345 with a blower attachment for the snow. However, he wasn't living up there full time for the past number of years.

 

[nybirdman]

I checked the average snowfall for Toronto;133cm(52inches).Really not a lot of snow,nothing like South of the lakes,I.E.Buffalo N.Y.area.
I would suggest either a Large "B" Kubota or a small "L" series+ a decent lawn mower.You can always upgrade your mower but if you purchase the right tractor it will last a life time.
I would also think you could get by with just a FEL/bucket and a rear blade.After the first couple of winters you will know if you can justify a front blade.

 

[gladehound]

I checked the average snowfall for Toronto;133cm(52inches).Really not a lot of snow,nothing like South of the lakes,I.E.Buffalo N.Y.area.
.

Great point. Might not be that much snow and might not be heavy snow. If so, a B-series could be fine. But if he's just east of one of the great lakes he could get a ton of snow!

You say your "cheap". I can relate to that! I'm very cheap! Or I could better characterize it as value oriented. I hate walking onto a car lot and having someone ask me what I can "afford". I can afford anything on the lot! But I'm unlikely to find anything that is worth the money they're asking for it!

I think I just found your perfect machine (link below), 2011 with ~400hrs, $20K, 38hp, cab, front snow blower & loader. Bobcat doesn't sell these tractors anymore but the tractor is actually made by Kioti. It's a solid machine. It is mistakenly listed as 2wd. However, these were never offered without 4wd.

TractorHouse.com | 211 BOBCAT CT335 For Sale

Here are the specs

TractorData.com Bobcat CT335 tractor information

This is a lot of tractor for the money. Not too big, not to small. With the blower could handle just about any snow fall. Do you have any Kioti dealers around? I owned my first Kioti 8 years before buying my second Kioti. Obviously I was impressed with the brand.

 

[DieselBound]

Don't know about up there, but around my neck of the woods weather conditions can vary quite a bit from one place to another: I'm in my own micro-climate- like a rain forest!

That Bobcat is a LOT of tractor! I know that Ted from Everything Attachments has/uses a Bobcat CUT (seen it in several videos) and he seems to like it.

 

[gladehound]

and the OP could probably get a 3pt finish mower (60" or 72") for that Bobcat and still squeak under the $20K arbitrary target depending on how the negotiation on the Bobcat goes.

 

[DieselBound]

On that Bobcat, keep in mind that the site is showing USD for those hitting the website from the US. It's $25k CAD. Still, if one could negotiate a deal, that's a lot of tractor even for $25k.

 

[gladehound]

Here's a comparable Kubota. A little smaller machine. Has loader, front snow blower and mower. A little pricier at $23K USD. Wasn't sure if the OP was talking in CAD or USD.

TractorHouse.com | 2 KUBOTA B3HSD For Sale