I have 10 acres of wooded property with some sloped areas. This is a very tough choice to make. Over a decade ago I bought a Kubota
B2620.
It has loaded R4 tires. They work great in all conditions, gravel, grass (wet or dry), snow too. Your choice today will really be R4 or turf. R14s are in short supply from what I hear, very hard to find.
Size of tractor is a very important decision. If you need to go off of a groomed path/lawn, you need bigger than a sub-compact. I needed to remove some tree rounds from an area off of the trails. My
B2620 (a small CUT) was barely big enough (ground clearance) to get there. No way would a SCUT have been able to the job without first leveling the access path, which would have taken at least three times as long and has lasting impact.
Now, the downside of high ground clearance is higher center of gravity. I have never tipped my B, but it certainly feels like it could be easy. I have lots of slopes in the 10, and 15+ degrees category. I won't go on 15+, but even 10 doesn't feel safe. Since I had to make a lot of trips on my trail (with side slope) I started to fix it, which certainly helps. I am looking at rear wheel spacers, which should also help. But, they make the tractor wider, which also has some disadvantages.
There are lots of videos of people using their equipment that will give you an idea of their capabilities. I like Tractor Tim with Tim. He has done some comparison videos too. He started with a Deere 1025R, but now has bigger tractors and even a Kubota. His Kubota LX is the new big B sized tractor. It looks nice but too big for my property. There is also a guy in Canada with a
B2601 (the next generation of my tractor, which now has real position control on the 3PH, the one thing I wish I had that I can not add after the fact).
A lot of people love their backhoes. I wanted one for years. I still do. But, not enough to actually pay for it. When I purchased my B, the backhoe was about $7K extra. I think they are similarly priced now. I have seen the LS MT122 with backhoe for $4K extra. At that price, I might have bought it. But, the thing with a backhoe is how often do you need it there vs how hard is it to remove when you NEED it NOT there. Also, where are you going to store it when you don't want it on the machine. A backhoe will give your tractor is a really big butt. Sometimes (as
ballast) that is a really good thing, other times (when you bash it into something that you value, accidentally, and damage it and the other thing you value) it is a real liability. I have a QA loader (the loader comes off easily) but I have never removed it, even in a few cases where I maybe should have (just using a rear implement and working in a tight area). I now have a QA for my bucket. Now that I know how easy it is to use, I don't think twice about taking off the bucket and reducing the size or putting a different implement on it.
So, think about the actual tasks you want to accomplish. Then think about which implements you need for those tasks. Then think about amount of those things, and how much time you have to do them, and how many times a year you might need to do them. Around here (PNW) one of the tractor dealers has a monthly rental program. The standard rental places all typically have tractors for rent. I would suggest renting one for at least a few days and use it on your property to see what it feels like. Does it feel tippy, too big, too small, does it do what you imagined. I know it seems expensive at many hundreds of dollars, but buying the wrong size tractor is a much more expensive mistake. There are brand differences, and some of them are very important, but size is the first thing to figure out.
