What would you do...

[kenmac]

If that's your dad's JD. in your pictures . That is a nice tractor. I say pave the drive & buy a nice trailer to haul the tractor back & forth .

 

[cast_and_blast]

If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Been married for over 15 years, built 4 new houses with my wife. Pave the drive and either get a better trailer or take advantage of the 0% financing.

Maybe find a used tractor for less? As long as it's JD...

Scott

 

[ktm250rider]

Tractor. Tell the wife the driveway needs to settle for a couple years before you pave it or it will crack.

 

[gladehound]

Ironically, I was thinking about getting our driveway paved but the wife prefers the stone. She thinks asphalt looks bad and has no character. She things it is cookie cutter and wouldn't go with our 1917 stone Scandinavian farm house. So no paved drive way. Which was just another reason I needed the tractor.

$18K is a lot of money. I bought a similar size tractor to what you are looking at, a FEL, a zero turn mower, a back blade and a carry all for $11,000. Most of this stuff was pre-owned. Most of it was also hardly used and in great shape. And the biggest difference... none of it is JD. Don't get me wrong, I love JD. They make very good stuff - just not good enough to justify the price to me at this point in my life. Maybe when I have more $$$

Pave the drive, show honey you love her. Buy used equipment.

 

[thatguy]

UPDATE - sorry I havent updated more recently. After taking advise from the experts here I laid down the law and told her what I was going to do - and that was buy the new tractor i wanted and if she had a problem with it it was tough since im the man of the house and what I say goes.. Well after her response, the swelling has finally gone down enough that i can see the keyboard to type this response.. IM joking..

ACTUAL UPDATE - Im getting quotes on paving the driveway and they are lower than i expected, which is good. Im waiting on one more quote and I hope to get a contract signed to get it completed by next week...

I am getting one more tractor quote and still considering new due to the 0% interest.. My truck payment (WOO, WOO its now paid off) will cover the tractor payment.. To save cost I am considering not getting a backblade at this time and looking at a less expensive rotary cutters (specifically Howes or KK). Im torn over the rotary cutter but for no more than I am cutting either one would probably do just fine and be way cheaper than the LX4

thanks for all the feedback and suggestions..

ill post pics of the driveway and the tractor when it happens.. LOL

Brian

 

[Soundguy]

3 hr round trip to get the tractor? How much is your time worth? not to mention you have to borrow a trailer.. that by your own admission, may one day spill the tractor out onto the road.

If you had a tractor at your place, you could better maintain that 'redneck' driveway into a nice gravel driveway. I like the look of a gravel driveway.. and maintenance is cheap and easy.. Got weeds in it? that's what chemicals or salt are for.

A lawnmower for 7 ac.. get real. I have 2 neighbors that are each on their 3rd lawnmower in 7ys just mowing 3 ac parcels. One of them finaly gave in and got a SCUT jd just to keep from buying 1200$ lawnmowers every 2 ys. the other neighbor just keeps getting a new jd rider mower every 2 years.

Takes a long time to mow acerage on a rider mower. ( how much did you say your time was worth?).. How about all that exposed skin on them sunny days.. skin cancer?? how much is that extra sun exposure for those hours of mowing gonna be worth down the road? I only have a little more land than you right now ( 13 ac ).. and I mow it with a 15' mower just so i can get it done in a couple hours as i work 6 days a week between my 2 jobs. And don't want to spend 1 of my 4 days a month off tied to a lawnmower. i used to do that on a 5' mower and CUT tractor.. and got tired of having only 3 days a month off.. Now I can mow before breakfast on one of those 4 days a month i have off... My time, to me, was worth purchasing 20k+ worth property maintenance equipment... not to mention that that big diesel tractor kinda turns me on (ahem).

Dual owned equipment.. even family dual owned.. is dicey at best. Right now you co-own a piece of equipment that is extremly difficult for you to make use of... kinda like a timeshare with a bunch of floating 'blackout' dates...

When you get the 790.. sell it and use that money to pave your driveway if it is still a burning desire for your wife. in the mean time.. yous your other tractor for property maintenance.. keep the push mower for the grass 'ring' right around the house... 'hog' everything else.

Perhaps.. compromise on the model a tad.. but not to the point where it changes the implements you could use.. or makes them ineficient. ( an underpowered tractor is frustrating ).

HAve you considered other brands of tractor.. perhaps cheaper ones than JD. In many areas, JD is among the most expensive, with blue , red, and sometimes orange being cheaper. Pretty much can't go wrong with any of the big 3 brands ( 4 ).. pretty much just choose what ammenities you want / need. then match them up.

Me personally? Id rather drive a reliable, but older possibly POS truck, and have a newish big beefy tractor parked in my garage... as a matter of fact... I kinda do.. my truck is a 98 dodge.. my tractor is a 02 CNH (grin)

soundguy

I need some unbiased advise or opinions..

The FACTS

My wife and I just built a house (Tracy_Brian_House - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting) and we have a MUCH larger yard than we used to have.. Before it took about 45 minutes to mow, now it is taking over 3 hours with our same push mower..

My dad and I co-own a JD 790 that I get to use when I need it and he isnt using it, but we have to borrow someones questionable (home made with mobile home axles, pretty worn out tires, no state inspection [no hope of ever passing either], brakes that appear to work) trailer. My dad is also 75 and uses the tractor quite a bit cutting part of his 20 acres, plowing gardens etc.. It is about a 3 hour (including loading time) round trip to his house to pick up the tractor.

For years now I have been wanting land (we have 7 acres) so I could get my own tractor. My wife agreed that once I got my truck paid off I could get a tractor, which is in May. I went from wanting a JD 2210 to a 2305 to finalizing on a 2320 with MMM, FEL, rough cut mower, rear blade.. Cost is around $18k

She was thinking everything would be around $15k (which she was OK with), I knew moving up to a 2320 would push it to about 17k and explained to why i wanted to move up months ago...

She is now having second thoughts on me buying this tractor.. It also changes from day to day on what she wants to do.. two days ago it was "its a lot of money, but I know you will use it, buy what you want - we can afford it" until last nite as she was getting emotional as we were talking in bed "we have a nice house with a redneck driveway. It looks so horrible to have weeds growing up along the edges of the driveway" (sniffle sniffle) and you dont want to spend money on what I think is important to pave the driveway"

We have also have about 3 acres of field that we will be keeping pretty short so our puppy has room to run. My thoughts were mow around the house and rough cut the 3 acres of field..

Her reasons for not buying are

1) We have a nice house with a 'redneck' (gravel) driveway that she feels is very important to pave and the $6k we were going to put down on the tractor would about pay for this.

2) I have use of the 790 and I will get it when he passes away.


Her thoughts.

1) buy a nice lawn/garden tractor to mow the yard and field with - mow the yard and 3 acres of field.
2) use the 790 as needed to keep the rest of the land mowed
3) pave the driveway so we dont look like rednecks LOL (she is a city girl and does not understand why everyone cant pave their driveway - she just doesnt get that the cost is out of reach by some ppl)

My thoughts

1) Obviously I think you know what I want to do.. I have been dreaming, planning, obsessing my own tractor for years.. I also dont feel safe hauling the tractor with the trailer we have access to..

Thoughts, suggestions, compromises eagerly anticipated...

Brian

 

[MarkV]

Sounds like you may already have things worked out where everyone will be happy. One justification for a tractor that may or may not apply with your new house is the gravel road. If the road is maintained by the county then you are lucky. If it is a private road maintained by the homeowners in the area, I guarantee that it will eventually be a problem. My first tractor was bought for building a home and spent more time keeping up the community road than working on our property. With a private road there is almost always a reason why 2/3’s of the people on the road can not chip in for maintenance when it is needed. When the road gets bad during the rainy season the wife will not be happy bouncing along and someone with a tractor will be needed to keep it graded.

MarkV

 

[Soundguy]

Deffinately don't finance the implements in with the tractor.. you will pay for them 2x.

Sound slike you can get a cheaper howse or KK mower and BB at a farm store.. and finance the tractor you want.. and come out ok.

Soundguy

 

[RoyJackson]

"I am getting one more tractor quote and still considering new due to the 0% interest"

So, what tractors are you looking at, Brian?

If you don't want to start a brand war, you can PM the answer...

 

[thatguy]

Deffinately don't finance the implements in with the tractor.. you will pay for them 2x.

Sound slike you can get a cheaper howse or KK mower and BB at a farm store.. and finance the tractor you want.. and come out ok.

Soundguy

But JD is offer 0% interest so that is a good deal. I am not going to get a back blade for now and see if I need one later on.. But the Northern Tool Howser back blades I see on the internet look very appealing for about 1/2 of the dealer price..

I looked at and priced the howse/kk really hard, but by the time you add in a slip clutch and safety chains you are right close to were the dealer is.. As an example, different dealers are quoting as low as $900 for a frontier/JD 48" rotary mower, with slip clutch. Northern tools is advertising the howse for $699, plus $130 for chains, plus $65 for a slip clutch (ordered online- locally closer to $100 to $120 and I have to install it) - so grand total on the howse would be $894 to $950 + installation. The KK is about $650 and I would have to fabricate my own chains and add the slip clutch, so it would be possibly $50 cheaper than the howse.. I even priced a Rhino locally yesterday and it was $950, but the dealer wasnt sure if a slip clutch was available.

Im a cheap bargain hunting bastard at times, but the hassle of buying the howse/kk in my mind just doesnt seem worth it when you get down to comparing apples and apples. I would also have to borrow a trailer to go pick up the KK or howse. I only have Northern Tool and TSC as local dealers

And I firmly believe my wife just had a bad day when this whole "you dont love me unless we pave the driveway before you can buy a tractor" conversation started.. yesterday she ask " so when are you ordering the tractor?" I told here I would have to wait until our tax refund came in because we couldnt do both the driveway and tractor right now. her reply was "As long as we get the driveway paved sometime this spring or summer, I would go ahead and get the tractor quickly"... My thought was 'Bite lip, shut mouth and call dealer immediately to place order"' lol

I need to get the dealer to remove the back blade from the price and see if he included the $100 off for buying two attachments in the price.. Does that apply to $100 off each attachment or just $100 off total?

thanks

Brian