Questions about tractor rutts.

[Dargo]

I have to agree with many of the others. You can go too heavy. I have soil that has a very high clay content as well. In the dry part of the summer, I can run my 8000 pound forklift across my yard carrying a 5000 pound boulder with it's relatively skinney slick tires and never leave a mark. However, like right now after we've had a couple of days of rain, my larger tractor weighs just over 10k pounds (and that's after taking the filled tires off and putting on non-filled R4 tires) and will leave terrible ruts even with 20" wide tires on the back and 14" wide tires on the front in the R4 design. My loaded R1 tires really leaves some awful ruts that will break axles after the ground gets hard again.

 

[ArtVandelay]

I think probably a 25 PTO hp tractor with FEL and a 5ft bush hog makes the most sense overall.

Thanks for the responses everyone.