Buying Advice On the Hunt

[JK22]

See, that is what I thought too. But the sales manager at my local Kubota dealership said that turf tires were going to be a "must have" for snow. And honestly, snow work is only sporadic, I plow my driveway with my pickup.

I think I'm going to stick with the R4's, add chains down the road if needed.

I’ve consistently heard turf ties were better for snow. However, I’ve been plenty happy with my R4s.

 

[BigNuge]

I’ve consistently heard turf ties were better for snow. However, I’ve been plenty happy with my R4s.

Do you run chains?

 

[Bfgloki74]

BigNuge: I settled on my tractor...the Yanmar yt235. If comfort and loader ease is paramount and there is a dealer nearby, go check them out. I will say the finish in the Yanmar was nice. The LS came in close for me and the pricing was within 1500 with all the options/attachments. I went Yanmar due to front Snowblower, backhoe and PTO power and dual PTO based. Kioti made me pause as well but the Cab was not as finished. But dang good machine.

 

[BigNuge]

Just got back from looking at the Mahindra and an LS (turns out there is a small LS dealership close).

Takeaways:

Mahindra 1626: I like the machine, seat is super comfortable, driver station and position of controls is nice, loader control is plenty close for it to be comfortable to operate for long periods, not a fan of the forward/reverse peddle (caught the heel of my shoe every time I went from forward to reverse), I actually like the multi-piece hood/cowling setup for ease of access, I like the 6 year warranty combined with the best dealer around for support.

LS: Nice machine, I’m a fan of yanmar engines so that’s a plus, machine is completely electronic for engine management with an automotive style ECU (not sore how I feel about that with regard to a budget machine), loader control stick is long which makes operating it less comfortable (lots of arm movement to operate the loader), digital tach sucks and is very difficult to see in the bright sunlight, 6 year warranty as well but the dealership is very small and not very professional (nice enough people, but it’s kind of a put off to see nothing but 2 filthy guys in a filthy shop working on a couple of utility trailers.

The LS guy is going to send me a quote over email.


At this point it’s between the Mahindra and the Bobcat, favoring the Mahindra for the warranty and awesome dealership.

Thoughts..?

 

[Thomas]

Guys, I meant to ask about tires earlier in the thread. I was going to go with R4’s until I spoke with the Kubota dealer. He said that if I plan on doing snow removal work with the machine then R4’s were not the way to go. He said turn tires were best for a machine that will see snow work, and will be plenty capable in the dirt for what I’m doing.

Any fellow snow belt folks care to comment on tire selection?

Had R4's on our L2800HST they work great if snow was dry,but heavy wet snow or icy ground on even slight slope darn good thing to have rear chains.
If you go with R4's ask if you need rear spacers if using tire chains on that model.

 

[BigNuge]

Well, decision made guys....the Mahindra 1626 HST, R4’s, box blade, forks.

Machine is getting tires loaded next week, prepped, and delivered.

I’ll post up pictures when it arrives!

My first tractor, I’m pumped to get this home!

 

[Jstpssng]

Well, decision made guys....the Mahindra 1626 HST, R4’s, box blade, forks.

Machine is getting tires loaded next week, prepped, and delivered.

I’ll post up pictures when it arrives!

My first tractor, I’m pumped to get this home!

Good choice!!! I just checked the specs out on Tractordata.com... that will be a good size for what you want.

 

[BigNuge]

Good choice!!! I just checked the specs out on Tractordata.com... that will be a good size for what you want.

I wanted to avoid all the DPF BS, plus the ~25HP power range is plenty enough for what I’ll be doing.

 

[Thomas]

:thumbsup:

 

[Jstpssng]

I wanted to avoid all the DPF BS, plus the ~25HP power range is plenty enough for what I’ll be doing.

I seriously considered a geared 1626 when I was tractor shopping 3 years ago, it's a good size for a lot of applications.
My previous tractor was a similar sized geared Kubota. It was getting old when I bought it and pretty tired when I sold it, yet in a lot of ways it was more tractor than my current 3301.