What size to buy?

[RidgeHiker]

Hi folks - this is my first post. I live in the mountains of northern Calif. My son and I plan to buy a tractor together - most importantly for snow removal. It is not unusual to get 1' - 2' of snow at a time and sometimes more. The snow can be wet and heavy.
What horse power should we be looking at? I have been checking out ones between 20 and 30hp.

 

[bp fick]

Welcome to the forum.

Will you be using the tractor for other tasks? If so, what might those be?

Wet mountain snow is the toughest. Wet is difficult to blow, but blowing is the only way you're going to more than a foot of snow at a time. A front blower will set you back a huge percentage of your total purchase, but do NOT compromise. There simply isn't any other way you are going to get the work done. Rear blowers mean backing up and I don't recommend doing that up there.

Get all the HP you can, because the blower is going to need all the mid PTO power you can throw at it to move a foot or two of heavy snow.

 

[RobertBrown]

Hi folks - this is my first post. I live in the mountains of northern Calif. My son and I plan to buy a tractor together - most importantly for snow removal. It is not unusual to get 1' - 2' of snow at a time and sometimes more. The snow can be wet and heavy.
What horse power should we be looking at? I have been checking out ones between 20 and 30hp.

If yout going to plow it, success is more of function of weight rather than HP.
If your going to blow it, the more HP the faster the job will go.
So bigger and stronger is better up to the point of storge considerations. If storage is not a consideration...get a big one, 4wd, lots of hyraulics and a big pump. You find lots of other uses for it. You'll wonder how you got along without it.

 

[RidgeHiker]

I don't really have a perspective of what "bigger and stronger" mean.
What horsepower would you call strong? What would the minimum be?
What weight is big enough?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

RidgeHiker, how far north are you? I would recommend Dave's Tractor in Red Bluff Ca. They can talk with you and I am sure that they can help you out. Ask for Dave or Rob, you will be glad that you at least talked with them.

 

[Rockgod]

I don't really have a perspective of what "bigger and stronger" mean.
What horsepower would you call strong? What would the minimum be?
What weight is big enough?

How long/wide is your driveway? What kind of grade, steep/flat?

 

[LD1]

We need a little more detail here.

First you have to decide on what size implements you want to run. That will dictate the size of tractor.

And you also need to think about what other tasks you want to do with the tractor. Any tight areas you need to squeese between that would limit size? Garage door height/space? etc.

And what dealers do you have in your area? Do you perfer a certain brand?

And then I would suggest you take a trip to your nearest dealer of any brand and LOOK at them in person. Jot down some of the model #'s of the sizes you think you want and report back. You cant go on just HP. You heed to look at the frame size of the machine (physical size). Because just using kubota for example, a B3200, L3200, and GL3240 are ALL 32 HP machines. But there is a HUGE size difference when you actually see them.

This is also true for other MFG's. In the 20-30 HP range you mention, there are two basic sizes. Sub-compact-utility-tractors (scut) and compact-utility-tractor (cut). Typically the CUT have a FULL category 1 hitch. The Scuts being smaller have a limited Cat-1 or even a cat-0 hitch. It does make a big difference. And without trying to start a debate and hijack this thread, there are some people who feel a SCUT is not much more than a glorified lawn mower due to their much smaller size.

So if you can get to a dealer, and decide between a CUT and SCUT, we will be much better able to help you out.

 

[RidgeHiker]

RidgeHiker, how far north are you? I would recommend Dave's Tractor in Red Bluff Ca. They can talk with you and I am sure that they can help you out. Ask for Dave or Rob, you will be glad that you at least talked with them.

We are not far from them - I happened to have checked out their site earlier. Thanks for the suggestion.

"How long/wide is your driveway? What kind of grade, steep/flat?"

Our driveways and parking areas are both flat. Mine is probably 160' long. We will be helping our other people also.

 

[RoyJackson]

We are not far from them - I happened to have checked out their site earlier. Thanks for the suggestion.

"How long/wide is your driveway? What kind of grade, steep/flat?"

Our driveways and parking areas are both flat. Mine is probably 160' long. We will be helping our other people also.

That's right about what I've got.
I did fine with a 27 HP Deere 790 (about 2800 lbs with the loader). I'd previously done quite well with a 19 HP Deere 670 (about 2300 lb with the loader). Both of those were engine HP's, not PTO HP.
So, a tractor around the size and weight of those two should work for you. That gives you a lot of choices.

What other tasks have you in mind for a tractor? How much do you want to spend? What features?

 

[RidgeHiker]

That's right about what I've got.
I did fine with a 27 HP Deere 790 (about 2800 lbs with the loader). I'd previously done quite well with a 19 HP Deere 670 (about 2300 lb with the loader). Both of those were engine HP's, not PTO HP.
So, a tractor around the size and weight of those two should work for you. That gives you a lot of choices.

What other tasks have you in mind for a tractor? How much do you want to spend? What features?

Do you use the loader? Scraper? Snow blower?

We would like to keep the costs below $7000. We would like to do some general land maintenance - clearing, scraping, handling debris, etc. though our properties are small, a little over an acre each.