Sold my 3032e, now looking for a replacement, have questions

[MESSMAKER]

Hello, new member here and hopefully my questions have not already been asked many times. I have a few questions so bear with me. Anyway, I had a 2014 JD 3032e that I bought new to use around my 20 acres property, mostly pasture. I did not use it much and only racked up about 40 hours on it and decided it was too expensive of a piece of equipment to just sit around. I mainly used it for occasional brush hogging (have a guy who cuts hay here so I never mowed the whole thing), box blading the driveway, moving car engines around the shop with the fork attachment I had, and dragging old cars into and out of the shop and pasture. So I ended up selling it and immediately wished I had kept it but just figured I would look for a cheaper older tractor. I am still on the fence if I want another compact, and if so I prefer something with a little more weight and lift capacity that what the 3032e had, or go with some sort of 80's or 90's larger tractor. One thing that would be nice is if the FEL would be able to lift the back end of a small to medium sized car. The 3032 I had would sometimes do it under just the right conditions. A larger tractor would be nice out in the pasture but I am leaning toward a compact due to sometimes using it in the shop.

Anyway, that is a little bit about where I am at now, and onto a few questions.

I have pretty much ruled out JD simply due to cost so I have been really interested in cheaper used LS, Branson, stuff along those lines. Maybe Kubota but those are usually more than I want to spend. I have looked at a couple of New Hollands and they seem decent. I looked a Long LT280 I believe it was. I had seen a few Long tractors pop up but I could not find much info about them beyond what is on tractordata. Are parts available for these anywhere? This one shows around 500 hours but the instrument cluster was completely dead so I am sure its way more than that. It was priced at $7k.

Anything to watch out for on the LS, Branson, or any of the Korean or Chinese tractors? I would prefer to spend around $10k or less but could stretch it up to around $12k maybe.

If I find something to buy from a private seller, or even a dealer, how do you guys actually pay for it? I am not sure I want to just go carrying $10-$12k in cash around with me if you know what I mean. I would prefer to look at it and if I make a deal go get a cashiers check. But then on the other hand, some of the ones I have seen are a couple or more hours away so that would mean 2 trips to do the deal.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If anybody had any thoughts, I am all ears.

I would not worry that much about the cash thing. Lots of people have a pocket full of cash and nobody is the wiser. People who trade in second hand are pretty much cash only. Hide the money in your car and go get what you need after the deal is made.

 

[Atchuuu]

Hello, new member here and hopefully my questions have not already been asked many times. I have a few questions so bear with me. Anyway, I had a 2014 JD 3032e that I bought new to use around my 20 acres property, mostly pasture. I did not use it much and only racked up about 40 hours on it and decided it was too expensive of a piece of equipment to just sit around. I mainly used it for occasional brush hogging (have a guy who cuts hay here so I never mowed the whole thing), box blading the driveway, moving car engines around the shop with the fork attachment I had, and dragging old cars into and out of the shop and pasture. So I ended up selling it and immediately wished I had kept it but just figured I would look for a cheaper older tractor. I am still on the fence if I want another compact, and if so I prefer something with a little more weight and lift capacity that what the 3032e had, or go with some sort of 80's or 90's larger tractor. One thing that would be nice is if the FEL would be able to lift the back end of a small to medium sized car. The 3032 I had would sometimes do it under just the right conditions. A larger tractor would be nice out in the pasture but I am leaning toward a compact due to sometimes using it in the shop.

Anyway, that is a little bit about where I am at now, and onto a few questions.

I have pretty much ruled out JD simply due to cost so I have been really interested in cheaper used LS, Branson, stuff along those lines. Maybe Kubota but those are usually more than I want to spend. I have looked at a couple of New Hollands and they seem decent. I looked a Long LT280 I believe it was. I had seen a few Long tractors pop up but I could not find much info about them beyond what is on tractordata. Are parts available for these anywhere? This one shows around 500 hours but the instrument cluster was completely dead so I am sure its way more than that. It was priced at $7k.

Anything to watch out for on the LS, Branson, or any of the Korean or Chinese tractors? I would prefer to spend around $10k or less but could stretch it up to around $12k maybe.

If I find something to buy from a private seller, or even a dealer, how do you guys actually pay for it? I am not sure I want to just go carrying $10-$12k in cash around with me if you know what I mean. I would prefer to look at it and if I make a deal go get a cashiers check. But then on the other hand, some of the ones I have seen are a couple or more hours away so that would mean 2 trips to do the deal.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. If anybody had any thoughts, I am all ears.

I personally would not pay cash. Your reasoning is valid but another reason is that you don't really know who you are dealing with. It would be too easy to buy stolen property with cash. If you have a bill of sale and a cashiers check you can feel a little more certain you are dealing with the owner. If not then the person who you gave the check to still has to cash it. Making it that much easier to catch him/her.

Good luck with your search.

 

[okiebenz]

I have found several tractors that posted on craigslist that seemed like pretty good deals. By the time I got in touch with seller they just sold it so it seems the market is pretty strong here right now. There was a 05 NH TC31DA that has crappy pics and not much info, and it was about 2.5 hours away in farm country where most folks have tractors as big as a house. Anyway I talked to the seller yesterday and set a time to look at it today. Being that it was 2.5 hours away and it was a weekend, I would not have been able to get $10k+ cash or a cashier check from the bank today. So I just drove up in the car to look at it, and if I made a deal would have to make another trip. I looked at the tractor and aside from a leaking power steering hose, tractor looked pretty good. The FEL is quick attached, and comes with box blade and hay forks for the QA. This tractor has quite a few nice options my 3032 did not have such as easy remove FEL, mid PTO, 3 range hydrostat instead of 2 range like the JD, and the 3pt arms are adjustable which makes it easier to hook up to attachments. Ended up making a deal on it and the seller was OK with a personal check. At first I was just going to write a check for it then go back with a cashiers check next week and pick it up, but they he said the check was fine just come pick it up tomorrow. Which I would have just brought the truck and trailer with me! I got it for $10k, which seems like a fair deal from everything else I have seen in my area, but maybe not a killer deal. Hopefully I did not overpay! I think he was having a hard time selling it because of lack of info and good photos, but maybe there is not as big of a market for these in farm country Kansas? Anyway, I will go back and get it tomorrow. I will be posting some questions in the NH forum later one when I get it back. Since its has a mid PTO I really think I would like to locate a belly mower for it at some point.

I liked the price of that Farmtrack 280 I looked at it yesterday but I just did not get warm and fuzzy about being able to find parts for it.