What tractor

[Anonymous Poster]

I justbought 12.5 acres and I am quickly getting over whelmed with tractor choices. I have approx 2 acres of yard grass to mow and 4-5 acres of hay field growth that I would eventually like to plant clover, sunflowers and corn. There are some areas that I would like to landscape and the drive is 1/4 of a mile of crushed up pavement that needs to be maintained. I have been recommended everything from subcompact to compact tractors. What I don't want to do is purchase too small and regret it later yet I don't want so large that around the house its a pain. When I do decide on a model how the heck do you luck into finding that model in decent shape for a reasonable price. The local dealers tell me they get 5-6 calls a day for used tractors.

Jeff Plummer

 

[RobS]

Hi Jeff, sounds like you've got some fun ahead of you. It's pretty tough for any of us to make recommendations for someone else not knowing every detail about their needs and personalities (yes, personality and preferences do play a part). Your best bet is to educate yourself and make and informed decision that only you can really make. For starters, read Muhammad's E-book, available by clicking the header on the forum. It's loaded with info on buying new and used tractors. Second, stick with this forum for a while reading others' experiences and asking your own specific questions. Third, shop several dealers in your area and test as many different tractors as you can. Once you get the field narrowed down, see if you can test some on your own property in your own conditions.

Once you've been through all that, you should be a very well informed consumer armed with enough info to talk turkey with any dealer you chose.

Specifically on the subject of new versus used, there are a lot of used tractors out there. I spent some time shopping that market. I wanted a newer machine that I knew would be trouble free and I found the lightly used units selling for nearly the same as a brand new unit. I ended up spending just a bit more and bought new. The used tractors I found that were significantly less than a new one were either beat, very old or both. There are deals out there, but the market is pretty hot for compacts.

Kind of a long-winded answer that's not really an answer at all, but as you'll find out tractor shopping can be pretty involved. It's also quite a lot of fun, so enjoy it /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif