Tractors and Small Properties

[shooterdon]

Finally someone with sense. A tractor is not based on the area of one’s property alone but on the work you have for it. I have a BX23TLB on a .5 acre lot in a city, for 3 years it was on a 1/3 acre lot. BX23 with 60” deck never felt too big, but I’m not to lazy to remove the FEL or 53” 3pt snowblower. When I had a large job I brought in a very large tractor that had a chore turning around on my small lot. Do yourself a favour and filter out a lot of the garbage that gets posted as good information, then use your mind and decide what’s best for your needs with the good information that’s left. If you don’t know what your needs are, don’t buy anything.

Listen the this!!!

 

[prof fate]

Mowing - a zero turn kills it. a $3500-4500 toro is more than enough (from a dealer NOT a big box store).
Snow - I went from a tractor (100' paved and 50x50 gravel) drive to a 17" snapper 2 stroke snow blower...it's FASTER than the tractor, cheaper than the blade a alone for a tractor (plus chains and weights, time to convert over and back every year, storage for them over the summer) and the little snow blower can do sidewalks and fit in the trunk of my car to do my mother in laws place.

The farm has a long gravel drive and usually we just 4x4 over it...but with a CK3510 and a back blade I can clear it. More comfy to sit than walk I suppose.

Leaves..lots of options, grass catchers, mulching blades on the mower, pull behind rake things. I just mulch them in place or have blown them onto a big tarp and pulled it and dumped it.

And remember - TRACTORS MAKE WORK! You can't do it now, so you don't Have a tractor? OH, yeah, I can do this and that and the other thing too - so suddenly you have 10 more jobs to do...

I have a house on a 1.1 acre lot in eastern Massachusetts that's mostly wooded - maybe about 1/4 acre is grass and the rest is either driveway (almost 400ft), or forest (60' tall monster leaf producing oaks with nasty continually tick infested underbrush).

I've been tackling it with a 22" walk behind mower, 18" chainsaw, weed whacker/brush cutter, 32" walk behind snowthrower, and basically blowing leaves into the nearest spot into the woods, and creating brush piles when I have to take down a tree (often right next to where the tree went down). As I approach 60, I'm thinking that I need a plan to maintain this place for the next 15 years, and depending on my back might be a bad idea.

Would one of these subcompact tractors be a good fit for a property like this? Or would be over-kill? Some of me feels like this is a mid-life crisis purchase, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fishheadbob]

My two cents. I think it depends on your plans. If your house and drive are finished A scut might be overkill. A quality lawn and garden tractor, dump cart, and front snowblower will do it. Doesn't need to be a Deere or Massey ($$$$). Husqvarna, Cub Cadet and many more sell good products if you stay away from the entry level stuff at big box store. If you have a lot of plans for property improvement then you may need to go heavier.

 

[prof fate]

I have 2 acres at the house location and 25 at the farm. I've wanted a loader/tractor at the house for a long time. Started at the farm with an old L175 kubota - not very big, physically. Nice fit at the house when I brought it here for some odd jobs. (box blading mostly).
Moved up to a kioti CK3510hst w/ loader for the farm. One size bigger might have been nice, but one has to pay for their toys. It's been great there. It's a bit large (physically) at the house - feel like a fat man in a china shop, always looking over my shoulder so I don't run into things.

I now have a couple of cub cadets - heavy duty tractors. They did make loaders for them - you can still get them - and some folks (few of course) have put hoe's on them. They fit in places the bigger ones won't -handy. HOWEVER...

they lack size/weight to do any 'real' work. The kioti bucket is about 11cuft - 2 wheel barrow loads. And it can take a boring-ly long time to move a big pile of material. The tractor is 4300lb or so with loader and loaded tires. A cub is 800lb, more with a loader of course. the old kubota was 1400 (no loader). Even 1400lbs is very limited in what it's capable of.

Like asking a body builder to move/shovel vs a 10 year old kid. They both have arms...but there's no comparison in what they can do.

Kubota has a small tractor, kioti too (CS22) and RK (rural king) has one (LS I think makes their units). Are they as small as a garden tractor? Almost. On 2 acres might be good.

The local school has one (kubota G something) they use for plowing sidewalks and spreading salt, had a cab on it.

I wonder why nobody builds 4wd tractor loaders in the size of a garden tractor. Like the old case 400's, that size. If they had something like that, I'd choose that over my gc1710, even if it didn't come with a hoe.

I'm on 2.6 acres, some hilly, floodways/soft ground to deal with, lots of ruts here and there. I was managing most of that with a craftsman gt with locking diff. The massey tractor purchase was mainly for the loader and 4wd.

 

[prof fate]

My two cents. I think it depends on your plans. If your house and drive are finished A scut might be overkill. A quality lawn and garden tractor, dump cart, and front snowblower will do it. Doesn't need to be a Deere or Massey ($$$$). Husqvarna, Cub Cadet and many more sell good products if you stay away from the entry level stuff at big box store. If you have a lot of plans for property improvement then you may need to go heavier.

YOu can get a 40 year old cub w/ deck and snow blower for $1500 or less ready to rock n roll. I got one, a 149, with snow blade, deck and tiller for $500. Everything works. Not pretty...but it works just the same. It's WAY better built than anything I've had for the past 20, 25 years (toro, snapper, craftsman, ariens (big box tin thing), Huskee (an mtd/tractor supply unit). There is a HUGE following for cub cadet, parts and support for almost everything, and $1500-2000 will get you a restored unit.

And they made diesels (3 cyl kubota engines), but those will set you back $2000-2500.

 

[MossRoad]

Finally someone with sense. A tractor is not based on the area of one痴 property alone but on the work you have for it. I have a BX23TLB on a .5 acre lot in a city, for 3 years it was on a 1/3 acre lot. BX23 with 60 deck never felt too big, but I知 not to lazy to remove the FEL or 53 3pt snowblower. When I had a large job I brought in a very large tractor that had a chore turning around on my small lot. Do yourself a favour and filter out a lot of the garbage that gets posted as good information, then use your mind and decide what痴 best for your needs with the good information that痴 left. If you don稚 know what your needs are, don稚 buy anything.

Another person with some sense! :laughing:

I have 20 acres of remote property and I only need my little PT425 to maintain it. All I do out there is mow/brush cut a few miles of trails and a couple meadows, remove fallen trees, harvest firewood, and move some dirt now and then when making new trails. Don't need a large machine, even though I have 20 acres.

The bonus is I keep the machine at my home, where we have a bit over 1 acre, and the machine is a nice bonus as a lawn mower, snow plowed, and mulch mover. :thumbsup:

 

[GeneV]

Another person with some sense! :laughing:

I have 20 acres of remote property and I only need my little PT425 to maintain it. All I do out there is mow/brush cut a few miles of trails and a couple meadows, remove fallen trees, harvest firewood, and move some dirt now and then when making new trails. Don't need a large machine, even though I have 20 acres.

The bonus is I keep the machine at my home, where we have a bit over 1 acre, and the machine is a nice bonus as a lawn mower, snow plowed, and mulch mover. :thumbsup:

View attachment 631058

Well, that's a scut basically, right? You could even mount a front-hoe on that PT425, if I'm correct?

 

[MossRoad]

Well, that's a scut basically, right? You could even mount a front-hoe on that PT425, if I'm correct?

They sell a mini-hoe that I'm told by members that have them works really well for digging small holes, bushes, trees, short trenches, etc... digs down 4' or so as I recall. You can get a thumb to grasp branches and such as well.

 

[MossRoad]

The PT425 weighs about 1500# with me on it, can fit in the back of a standard pickup truck with an attachment mounted, fits through 4' gates, is all wheel drive, and can lift 800#. It's a handy little machine. :laughing:

They make several sizes of machine. I think mine is a good choice for a homeowner, small landscaper, etc...

 

[TheYard]

There's a lot to consider and there are some great insights and advice presented here. Thanks everyone - much appreciated.

The message that I'm getting is that I really need to know what I'm going to do with the equipment in order to make a good choice. And as one person here said, tractors seem to create work. Which could be good or bad. I'm trying to figure that out now. There are certainly lots of projects that I'm capable of doing around here - I'm not sure which ones I want to do, and if I do decide to do them, if I should rent equipment or buy, or a combination of both.