flashpuppy
Silver Member
We have a 33 acre mini farm in NC that we purchased late last year. I did a lot of considering and decided on our M7040. 2/3 are sparsely wooded and open pasture, easy to drive tractor through. 1/3 is extremely densely wooded and not tractor-friendly. We have pasture mowing to do occasionally, although the goats, horses and cows do a good job of keeping things down. There is also a 3/4 mile gravel driveway I maintain with a 7 LPGS. We do not do any hay and can not see any situation in the future that we would.
The tractor has been great. Cab is comfortable in the heat when mowing and the winter when clearing snow. However, I find that I am constantly wishing I had more dirt working capabilities, a bit more loader capacity (I have checked pressures and loader is doing what it should be) and something I could get into the woods and do more clearing with. I was also sad to discover that (whoops) the tractor is too tall to fit into my barn to clean out our goat pen and horse run-in. Really sucks having to clean it by hand and wheelbarrow everything to the tractor bucket.
At first, I thought perhaps I should look for a compact TLB. Would allow me to get into the barn and give me a backhoe for trenching, burying animals, etc.
After more consideration, I am leaning towards a compact track loader. Cab, hi-flow hydraulics, something like a Kubota SVL75. I would get a decent mower for it and use it for trail blazing in the woods, trimming overgrown trees on fence lines (which we have probably two miles that need to be cut back) and mowing into creek banks. Could easily fit into the barn and I believe it would meet most of my other needs.
Here is my snag: what do I do with the M7040? Keep it? Seems like an expensive extra to have sit around most of the time. I would still use it for pasture mowing and driveway maintenance probably. But would I be better served doing that with a smaller tractor? Is there any benefit of me trying to sell this one and pick up something smaller with ROPS in the 40-50hp range? Will a 40-50hp tractor handle a 7 LPGS? I feel that I could defiantly down trade and save some money if I dropped the loader off a smaller tractor, but do I really want to lose the loader? What if the CTL is down and I need one?
What am I missing? Opinions?
The tractor has been great. Cab is comfortable in the heat when mowing and the winter when clearing snow. However, I find that I am constantly wishing I had more dirt working capabilities, a bit more loader capacity (I have checked pressures and loader is doing what it should be) and something I could get into the woods and do more clearing with. I was also sad to discover that (whoops) the tractor is too tall to fit into my barn to clean out our goat pen and horse run-in. Really sucks having to clean it by hand and wheelbarrow everything to the tractor bucket.
At first, I thought perhaps I should look for a compact TLB. Would allow me to get into the barn and give me a backhoe for trenching, burying animals, etc.
After more consideration, I am leaning towards a compact track loader. Cab, hi-flow hydraulics, something like a Kubota SVL75. I would get a decent mower for it and use it for trail blazing in the woods, trimming overgrown trees on fence lines (which we have probably two miles that need to be cut back) and mowing into creek banks. Could easily fit into the barn and I believe it would meet most of my other needs.
Here is my snag: what do I do with the M7040? Keep it? Seems like an expensive extra to have sit around most of the time. I would still use it for pasture mowing and driveway maintenance probably. But would I be better served doing that with a smaller tractor? Is there any benefit of me trying to sell this one and pick up something smaller with ROPS in the 40-50hp range? Will a 40-50hp tractor handle a 7 LPGS? I feel that I could defiantly down trade and save some money if I dropped the loader off a smaller tractor, but do I really want to lose the loader? What if the CTL is down and I need one?
What am I missing? Opinions?