Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments

   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments #91  
I have an LS 357, hydro top link, grapple, land plane. I use the 3rd hydro outlet for my third function on the loader, no big deal if you get used to it. The $1500 kit would be more convenient, but $1500 buys a land plane to maintain the access road. As stated a back blade makes better ditches. But you can never have too many attachments. LS is a great tractor, if you have a good dealer close it is an even better tractor.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#92  
Agree w/dodge man... You have an awful lot of details covered for a newbie. I would suggest looking around at used equipment for many of your needs. Your dollars will go further and many of the items mentioned are not a lot better new than used. At this point you probably need time and experience more than you need advice from us. I have to assume that you are relatively young since this sounds like a 10 year + project and you want to come out the other end able to enjoy it all. This discussion will go on forever but Good Luck to ya !
thanks.
You're right about it being a 10 yera project. It's more a lifelong working property, which I think is what most people that are in communities like this forum end up with, more because of personality and what they enjoy... I doubt many people here ever find themselves "finished" with their land....

I grew up in a rural area and in my experience, farming and landwork is like crack, just more addictive.


The land is really pretty ready to use once I get the dozer work done so I can get campers in, and clear a couple places for the campsites. Everything after that is just doing improvements and fulfilling the dream.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#93  
I'm not so sure about renting. I think the central approach needs to be getting started and gaining experience without 20 commitments at once. You will know 10X as much about what you need after a month or two of work. In other words go as slow as you can, other factors considered, and incrementally build up to what all you need. I'm not a fan of renting in your situation but other than that Scotty is certainly offering good advice.
You've pretty much summed up what here what I am now planning. Renting is still not a great option for me, but I am thinking that I need to reduce my comitments as much as possible until I start doing the work and seeing what it is really like. That may or may not include some borrowing/renting, but at least until I get a dozer guy out there and get his work finished. This conversation has changed my perspective and now I think the dozer may be able to get 99% of all the real necessary work done for me.
Once I see what he was able to accomplish I'll have a better idea of what I really need.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#95  
Those FECON are incredible machines. If I lived in the eastern half of the country I'd own one.
But it just isn't appropriate for the type of woodland we have here.

The west is high desert. No humidity. It's dry, cold, sometimes windy, brilliantly sunny, and the soil runs to sand and gravel instead of clay. We just don't have underbrush and small trees to deal with. You can see - and drive a jeep on old dirt horse trails though the mountains that haven't been improved in 100 years. Trees get big, but are widely spaced or else stunted - or at the edges of woodlands. Wet areas grow aspen, but aspen don't have much for roots. Besides, we like our aspens. Open areas have sagebrush and bunch grass and you can see a hundred miles.. It just is completely different from the eastern woodlands.

Snow we get, and it gets deep..... but it's also different - it's a dry powdery snow.

Rocks we do have. If the FECON will eat rocks and spit gravel then I'm interested.

rScotty
this is a 100% accurate description of my land...

And for the earth work, I guess that people in other areas might be picturing something different that we have here.
85% of the moisture we get is from snow pack. So the top few feet of ground where I'll be digging are generally pretty easy to loosen up and very light on water content comparatively. especially since I am a little higher up on a slope in a large drainage area. The biggest things I am concerned about in earth moving are rocks. I would have been more worried about stumps but I am now thinking that the dozer will take care of the vast majority of the necessary tree work. Anything that should be left for me later would be choice and preference tree work.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#96  
I have an LS 357, hydro top link, grapple, land plane. I use the 3rd hydro outlet for my third function on the loader, no big deal if you get used to it. The $1500 kit would be more convenient, but $1500 buys a land plane to maintain the access road. As stated a back blade makes better ditches. But you can never have too many attachments. LS is a great tractor, if you have a good dealer close it is an even better tractor.
somebody mentioned a couple pages back that I could have the dozer build the initial ditches and major drainage. How does a dozer do drainage??
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#97  
Agree. I forgot to say that. Unless you expect to be up in there during winter months with snow and cold, delete the cab ! You save enough money by doing that to buy the transport trailer.
I would like to go no-cab, just for the cost savings, but the dust is dry and super fine in some of the area where I will be doing dirt work for many years. And I really am not planning to do too much work deep into the trees. Most of the areas I am planning to take it are pretty clear of large trees, or are already cleared for the most part.
I feel pretty comfortable with the decision to do a cab.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#98  
this thinking is how I ended up looking at the LS I am planning on.

I started thinking 1800 series Massey or Dk kioti in 40+hp. Then did a bunch of research and learned that I probably wanted a heavier frame so I moved to the 2800 series Massey or NX Kioti, with preference for 45+hp and started looking at all brands that matched their frame size and weight. That led me to the LS which is comparable size but a lot cheaper than I could get either of those other two for in my area.

For your use save your money for at least a 50 plus hp. Look at New Holland Workmaster 50 and buy similar specs. in any brand you like. This tractor will handle an 8 foot box blade and has the extra weight to offset your fork load.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#99  
You can rent on of these and clear a great deal of land and then just rent
smaller equipment and accomplish things much more efficiently.

Using one of these with proper instruction from the FECON dealer will reap you
massive dividends as you are trying to accomplish with machinery that you have
no idea how to operate and with machinery that was never ment for land clearing.

I cannot link the youtube videos here, so you need to go to www.youtube.com and
type in FECON forestry mulcher.
Looks really good for land clearing, but clearing land of growth is a relatively small part of the the work I need done. The biggest work that absolutely has to be done is driving a good road in and through the property. Everyone here has pretty universally supported the plan to hire a dozer to do that work (or to do it myself with a dozer, but regardless, the dozer is the tool to use). I only have a relatively small area that really needs to be cleared and I think I can get it done with the original dozer work.

The next most critical work is maintaining the road that I have built and my earthwork within the property;
  • The road maintenance sounds like it can be done with a few different tools, and that a compact tractor would be just fine in doing that work. I just want to find the most optimal attachments for that work.
  • The ongoing earth work is the part I'm most concerned about as I understand that a TLB is much more suited to this work, even in lighter soil like we have out here. I still think it is doable with a compact tractor, but per the comments here, it sounds like a TLB would be a much better option that would make the work quicker and reduce the possibility of abusing and breaking the equipment.

And since renting equipment really isn't a great option, that last part brings me back to the conundrum of potentially waiting for and taking a chance on used equipment that comes up for sale, or deciding that the LS would work for the type of work I would need it for.
 
   / Newb looking for advice and info on a new compact tractor and attachments
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#100  
Congratulations on your land purchase. You have obviously given a lot of thought to the tractor. And you are dead on regarding the HST. In the woods a gear drive tractor can get you killed. You want something that stops as soon as you let off the pedal. You also need 4WD. I am not familiar with the LS, but based on width, it sounds about right. I have a Mahindra 5035 HST, which seems a little bigger. I do suggest beet juice in the tires, especially if you are doing loader work. I ended up buying a 4-way bucket for mine. But I wish I had a grapple bucket; it would be better at handling logs and brush. For a box blade, I have used one from TSC. It has held up well. If you want a cheap way to drag logs, get a quick hitch and put a drawbar on the bottom. You can use the drawbar to pull heavy logs from a distance. When you can back the tractor up to them, you can use the top hook to lift one end of the log off the ground. But don't drag the logs with the top hook until you can lift the end of the log off the ground, or the front end of the tractor may come up. (I have not had that problem, possibly due to my very heavy 4-way bucket providing a lot of front ballast, but it is possible.) Good luck with your purchase!
good info. Thank you!
 
 
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