OP
mikeslavis
Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2001
- Messages
- 31
Tom/WNY, Thanks for the info. At this point it looks like I'm ordering a tractor, and I did get three remotes for it, so hopefully I'll be OK once I've added a loader and possibly rear-mounted snow thrower. I also can add a fourth remote later, if need be. I'm a big believer in getting the most of everything you can because you never know what you're going to need (especially if you're as ignorant as I am about tractors - but I'm getting there).
gordon, I listened to your advice, and bought the largest tractor I could afford. However, it didn't leave me with any $$$ for the FEL. My wife and I figure we'll manually shovel the drive this year and then, in spring after our tax rebate, we'll look into getting the FEL. On the trees - there are only 2 that I'm worried about not making it in our Zone 5/6 climate here in Rochester, Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia. The others should be able to make it. We've bought a couple of seedlings of both Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia, which are container potted right now. We're going to keep them that way for another year or so and then plant them when they're larger. If they make it, we'll know enough to give it a shot. For us, this is a big experiment and we wanted to have some fun with it. Most of our investment will be in NY native trees, but we wanted to throw some fun ones in there as well, just to see. Thanks for the links. I've also been looking at:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/privland/nursery/species.html
http://itascagreenhouse.com/page3.html
and, for seeds:
http://www.treeshrubseeds.com/
http://carterseeds.com/
Bird, Thanks, that's what I thought, I just wanted to make sure.
cowboydoc, Thanks again, I went with a good size utility tractor. I figure if we can't afford additonal machinery in the future, a bigger tractor can do most of the things the specialty equipment could. A Bobcat may be much better for spading trees, but a good size tractor can still do it.
Steve_Carver, your site has been very helpful in figuring out a lot of what's-what with the Kubotas. I think there's more information there than on kubota.com!
winejon, Kubota's site doesn't really list a WHOLE lot of the finer details of the machines. Also, I think that the hydro-shuttle was added to the M6800 recently, and I don't think they bothered to update the web site. This is a feature which, indeed, would have pushed me to the M6800.
HR_Mutt, awesome pics. Thanks a lot for them, it's nice to know that decent-size spades can be run off of these tractors. I have looked into caretree and they are a possibility once I've got the trees and the $$$ to get a spade. I am also looking into Optimal since they seem to make more compact spades, which still dig up the same size trees as the caretree spades. See http://www.optimaltreespades.com/optimal-advantage.html for details. The smaller spade would make maneuvering around trees in rows much easier, I think. At any rate, I'm too early in researching tree spades to know all the in/outs, but that's what I know so far!
All you guys, it's been real interesting seeing what you all thought about my situation and (I can't say it enough) thanks again for bearing with me on my long posts. I originally started by looking at Case, John Deere, Massey-Ferguson, New Holland and Kubota, but when I saw that Kubota was the only manufacturer with a cab on the compact-size tractors, I figured I'd see if I could manage with an L3710HSTC (since we definitely knew we wanted a cab). Of course, this "grew" to an M4700, which "grew" to an M6800. At this point I went back and looked at the other manufacturers as well, and wound up signing paperwork for a New Holland TN75S with cab last night. Please don't hate me because I went blue! The New Holland dealer here (Jennings Tractor) is amazing - by FAR the best of the dealers I went to, and the Kubota dealer (Saxby) didn't seem to take me very seriously, didn't even have an M6800 on the lot (although they told me they did when I called on the phone) and gave me the impression that the Kubotas were selling like hotcakes (maybe they are) and I felt like he'd be reluctant to deal with me very much (or in the least, it would be like pulling teeth - and I hate haggling). Carver offers a great option with his web site, but I prefer dealing with someone local and I didn't know how the Kubota from Carver would have shaped up with the options I wanted (price-wise and time-wise). New Holland also has 0.0%/3 years - 1.9%/4 years and 2.9%/5 years financing right now, which pushed me over the edge. Again, THANK YOU so much. Even though I didn't go Kubota, I hope you'll all be happy knowing that I got enough tractor for my purposes, and that you helped me make the decision (so I didn't wind up with too "little" tractor).
Mike Slavis
mike@slavis.com
gordon, I listened to your advice, and bought the largest tractor I could afford. However, it didn't leave me with any $$$ for the FEL. My wife and I figure we'll manually shovel the drive this year and then, in spring after our tax rebate, we'll look into getting the FEL. On the trees - there are only 2 that I'm worried about not making it in our Zone 5/6 climate here in Rochester, Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia. The others should be able to make it. We've bought a couple of seedlings of both Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia, which are container potted right now. We're going to keep them that way for another year or so and then plant them when they're larger. If they make it, we'll know enough to give it a shot. For us, this is a big experiment and we wanted to have some fun with it. Most of our investment will be in NY native trees, but we wanted to throw some fun ones in there as well, just to see. Thanks for the links. I've also been looking at:
http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dlf/privland/nursery/species.html
http://itascagreenhouse.com/page3.html
and, for seeds:
http://www.treeshrubseeds.com/
http://carterseeds.com/
Bird, Thanks, that's what I thought, I just wanted to make sure.
cowboydoc, Thanks again, I went with a good size utility tractor. I figure if we can't afford additonal machinery in the future, a bigger tractor can do most of the things the specialty equipment could. A Bobcat may be much better for spading trees, but a good size tractor can still do it.
Steve_Carver, your site has been very helpful in figuring out a lot of what's-what with the Kubotas. I think there's more information there than on kubota.com!
winejon, Kubota's site doesn't really list a WHOLE lot of the finer details of the machines. Also, I think that the hydro-shuttle was added to the M6800 recently, and I don't think they bothered to update the web site. This is a feature which, indeed, would have pushed me to the M6800.
HR_Mutt, awesome pics. Thanks a lot for them, it's nice to know that decent-size spades can be run off of these tractors. I have looked into caretree and they are a possibility once I've got the trees and the $$$ to get a spade. I am also looking into Optimal since they seem to make more compact spades, which still dig up the same size trees as the caretree spades. See http://www.optimaltreespades.com/optimal-advantage.html for details. The smaller spade would make maneuvering around trees in rows much easier, I think. At any rate, I'm too early in researching tree spades to know all the in/outs, but that's what I know so far!
All you guys, it's been real interesting seeing what you all thought about my situation and (I can't say it enough) thanks again for bearing with me on my long posts. I originally started by looking at Case, John Deere, Massey-Ferguson, New Holland and Kubota, but when I saw that Kubota was the only manufacturer with a cab on the compact-size tractors, I figured I'd see if I could manage with an L3710HSTC (since we definitely knew we wanted a cab). Of course, this "grew" to an M4700, which "grew" to an M6800. At this point I went back and looked at the other manufacturers as well, and wound up signing paperwork for a New Holland TN75S with cab last night. Please don't hate me because I went blue! The New Holland dealer here (Jennings Tractor) is amazing - by FAR the best of the dealers I went to, and the Kubota dealer (Saxby) didn't seem to take me very seriously, didn't even have an M6800 on the lot (although they told me they did when I called on the phone) and gave me the impression that the Kubotas were selling like hotcakes (maybe they are) and I felt like he'd be reluctant to deal with me very much (or in the least, it would be like pulling teeth - and I hate haggling). Carver offers a great option with his web site, but I prefer dealing with someone local and I didn't know how the Kubota from Carver would have shaped up with the options I wanted (price-wise and time-wise). New Holland also has 0.0%/3 years - 1.9%/4 years and 2.9%/5 years financing right now, which pushed me over the edge. Again, THANK YOU so much. Even though I didn't go Kubota, I hope you'll all be happy knowing that I got enough tractor for my purposes, and that you helped me make the decision (so I didn't wind up with too "little" tractor).
Mike Slavis
mike@slavis.com
