What size tractor can we get by with?

[Stormy873]

Sounds to me like you have talked yourself into a new tractor. What confused me is it sounded to me like you were against the expense - so I offered options. Although the options would work, I can't really speak against buying new since we went shopping for a new machine back in 2008 - after 50 years of rural life and used equipment. We still have the new one we bought, it works perfectly, and it has been a tremendous help around the place. I really don't expect it to need much or anything in the next few decades. Good ones don't.

The price we paid 15 years ago was $50K for a basic model, no cab no down, no interest, 5 years.
Yes, that seems inexpensive by comparison with similar TLBs today. My only regret is that we didn't outfit it with even more options and accessories back when tractors and loans were so inexpensive.

All of our equipment sits outside. It doesn't seem to hurt them. We have relatively mild climate here at 7000 ft in the northern Rockies. I just shovel enough snow to get to the block heater and the ignition key. After that it can take care of itself.

rScotty

 

[Stormy873]

We are looking at a variety of options including going without a tractor.

 

[rScotty]

You suggestion would be the ideal but under the circumstances not something we can pursue. We are getting older and we are bucking the tide because we don’t want to spend our last days sitting at a casino or living in town

.unfortunately we also have deep snow so we aren’t like the flatlanders that just deal with rain. Buying a new tractor was NOT on my bingo card. We were planning to build a machine shed.

We are looking at a variety of options including going without a tractor.

I guess I still don't understand. My view of getting older and retiring is that it generally gives a person more time to do things. Plus money goes farther too when you have time to do things for yourself.

Maybe do both? Build a machine shed AND fix up that old tractor? If not now, then aim to do so when you retire. They haven't made a law yet saying we can't do things for ourselves....

BTW, we were just up in Oregon not too far from you. Last month we spent a day at the maritime museum in Astoria.

It seems to me that an older couple would want to use a tractor rather than a shovel. Doing without seems like a less desirable option. I will say that having a loader to lift & move things is important in rural life. In fact I can't over emphasize the value of a loader.

rScotty

 

[Tread70]

The b8200 has a stainless screen on the right rear. They are about 70 new. Mine needed cleaned/replaced when the hydraulics quit working. The b8200 is a nice machine, at least mine is. Rough looking but nice.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

Tossing in the same comment I make so often: shop the dealer. A shop that will keep you running without breaking the bank is is worth a bit more on the purchase price.

 

[FERLING]

We acquired a B8200 and proceeded to impoverish ourselves trying to take care of all the deferred maintenance. All in we have almost $6000 in a litany of fixes, all new hydraulic hoses, new water pump, rebuilt loader cylinders, refurbished gas tank, new water pump, custom fabricated rear wheels and brand new tires…and last week the hydraulics quit…had it hauled into the local dealer and $806 later they said there was water in the hydraulic fluid….brought it home started it up, lifted the loader and hydraulics proceeded to quit working again. Now, we are almost $7k into a tractor and I’m voting it’s time to move on. She’s been a good girl, but She’s a very expensive date.

So, we know we need at least a marginally larger tractor as the B8200 is about 18HP and it has always been really expensive to try and find attachments suitable for that small a tractor. Our needs are fairly simple. We need to loader for cleaning my sheep barn and for moving snow, and we need to be able to disk up our pasture to rehabilitate it. We have lots of rodent damage but the lay of the land is Flat and our acreage is smaller. We would anticipate renovating 1 Acre at a time and we will not be plowing because the topsoil is shallow and we don’t want to kick up any more rocks that we have to. We would like to be able to run a rear offset grade blade not simple back blade but one with adjustable offset illustration attached but we can’t find one that is suited for a smaller tractor. A snowblower would be heaven but unlikely.

With that in mind, will a 25 HP work or will we be much happier with a 30Hp? We are only looking at geared tractors at this point. I have a personal thing against anything that wreaks of having a CVT or hydrostatic drive…Thanks for any and all feedback.

Minimum of 50 motor hp / 45 PTO. That perfect tractor is bigger than what you think is needed to do your jobs needed done.

 

[ensrob]

It was consoling to read your post as I too have a b8200. I’m $5000 in on repairs and still no end in sight. Full rebuild on hydraulics, rad reconditioned, new glow plugs, starter replaced, new rear wheels, and all round tires plus more. I’ll get it working one last time and sell.

 

[aircommuter]

I think you’re taking the wrong approach. Instead of what can you get by with, you try to see what is the largest you can afford. The more you use a tractor and improve your skills the more you’ll be limited by your machine. Forget about horsepower, I know they size tractors by that a lot but the real information is weight and torque. I would choose power shuttle over any system. You choose a gear usually second that works for your job at hand. The only time I ever change gears is when something becomes extremely difficult or I need speed which is rare in a tractor. Usually just on the road.
Also power shuttle has the torque converter to help with load variations. I have rebuilt hydrostatic units and they are more expensive and time consuming. There are also power limitations with hydrostatic although many people will never experience them. Just depends on what you’re doing.

 

[Jcichy71]

I went from a Hydrostat 18hp New Holland that was getting burned out mowing hills (I would have to stop mid mow and let it sit an hour) to a gear drive 31hp John Deere and I couldn't of been happier with the upgrade. Not to big/small. Handles snow, stone/grading driveway, backhoe, mowing and never gets tired.

 

[Timmer92]

We have a small hobby farm raising a handful of beef cattle. When we bought the property 7 years ago we started with a Kubota BX series. We made do for a couple of years but we were frequently limited in what we could do, and all too often had to be creative to get a job done. We moved up to an L3901 and it was night and day for most of those limitations. We still wish we had more lifting power. Last year we got some large heavy round bales and couldn't do a thing with them.