Overwhelmed with Choices

[vanskills]

Close dealer on something you like would be a safe bet

 

[edgarrian]

What is your experience level running equipment (tractor FEL, excavator, PTO driven implements).

If you have experience then you are further ahead than most. If I had a lot of work to do on my property as I have in the past. Id rent an excavator for a week. Cat 315 with a blade did wonders for me. I cleared an acre of trees by myself in 4 days. That was with me de limbing the trees and then cutting them into 10 foot sections b/c I burn for heat. Plus I made trails. Now i maintain everything with my tractor including mowing. Once every few years Ill rent an excavator to take care of some tasks but only for a day.

If you have a lot do and have the ability to run a machine id rent an excavator.

As for tractors and all the brands. JD, kubota are the most expensive (popular)
Massey, LS and all the others are good. Ive had my MF for 9 years no issues to report. I do all my own maitnence

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

OP: how big a hurry are you for the tractor purchase? given so many big investments coming up for you, yes wise to post here for ideas. personally, i'd look at the options, step back, & make the informed decision later on. all too often, myself included, we get the purchasing fever, & sometimes make compulsive mistakes.

in addition, all too often on this site i see "wish i had gone bigger..." remember also that a spin around the dealer's lot is a poor simulation of your working field conditions. tractors have a habit sometimes of suddenly shrinking the moment they are delivered to your farm.... best of luck, regards
& welcome to this forum

Excellent piece of advice poster. Couldn't have said it any better myself. If there is one piece of advice I would give to the up and comers in this generation it would be to slow down and delay your decision making. Can't tell you how many times doing that brought clarity to me about situations that I couldn't see the light of day at the time and saved me from making the worse mistakes of my life.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

What is your experience level running equipment (tractor FEL, excavator, PTO driven implements).

If you have experience then you are further ahead than most. If I had a lot of work to do on my property as I have in the past. Id rent an excavator for a week. Cat 315 with a blade did wonders for me. I cleared an acre of trees by myself in 4 days. That was with me de limbing the trees and then cutting them into 10 foot sections b/c I burn for heat. Plus I made trails. Now i maintain everything with my tractor including mowing. Once every few years Ill rent an excavator to take care of some tasks but only for a day.

If you have a lot do and have the ability to run a machine id rent an excavator.

As for tractors and all the brands. JD, kubota are the most expensive (popular)
Massey, LS and all the others are good. Ive had my MF for 9 years no issues to report. I do all my own maitnence

I 100% agree with your recommendation here. That's what I would do if I was in the OP's shoes.

 

[mike69440]

EddieWalker is spot on with his point of not buying too small and you should be looking in the 50+ hp range given your stated projects and objectives. I personally started with a 60 hp machine, the used low hour Kubota M59 TLB with 230 hours, and later bought a 24 hp Mahindra Max 24 for the really really light duty stuff for a 13 acre hilly property with 3/8 mile long gravel driveway. Over time the M59 has proved too small for the bigger projects so recently added the 20K pound KX 80 to the lineup as the property expanded to 70 acres and lots more work.

Bottom line: Buy a used, as large as possible, good condition low hour TLB. Doesn't matter where you buy the TLB, just be sure you have a local reliable service point for service and parts. I bought the M59 from PA and had it delivered to NC.

You will find the TLB is about half of the total expense as the implements actually make the tractor useful. Ive added a root grapple for tree work and ground cleanup, a 9 foot box blade for driveway management, a SSQA hydraulic for post work, a SSQA set of 4K pound 48 inch forks, and 3 pt power rake for lawn landscape management.

About 2 years ago upgraded the pin on backhoe bucket to a quick attach mount that was huge improvement because I now can mount any of plentiful low cost used attachments available to the Kubota mini excavators up to the KX 40 size instead of relying on the proprietary M59 quick attach.

Hope this helps.

Your machinery is very similar to our equipment.