Which Model?

[florilina]

I'm looking into these reconditioned yanmar tractors in my area. I'm not sure which model would suit my needs the best and what are some of the main points in determining the "quality" of the recondtioned yanmar.
We will be purchasing 18.5 acres in central Florida which has a u-pick orange grove totaling about 6 acres. So I will have about 12 acres of pature and 6 acres of citrus grove. I will need to finish mow the grove. The pature needs mowing once a week from June to October. I will want to use the tractor for spraying the grove as well. Also, I will need a loader as I am already in the nursery biz and will be moving my nursery to the property and a front loader will help in moving potting soil from one pile to another in and around the nursery.
My question(s) is what size yanmar tractor will do the job of all that mowing. The land is flat...do I need 4WD? I do need something that can pull a citrus tree out of the ground.
Please respond soon, as I close on the property Aug 15th.
Thanks

 

[Whiskey]

Florilian:
I'm not sure I have the answer your looking for but I'll give it a whirl. I also live in central Fla. and mow 3 acrea almost every other weekend with the rain were getting now and I'm doing it with a YM187, it's a little on the small side for what I'm doing but does it just fine. With only 18 hp I have to stay with the smaller implaments (4' bush hog) I will tell you this is way to small for what your looking to do.
I would think something in the 25-30 hp is what your going to be looking for. That way you can get a bigger bucket for the front and use the 5-6' mowers. On the 4wd verse the 2wd for your need's I would get yourself a 4wd and if you don't need it you have a choice.
Pulling orange trees out of the ground is going to be a problem, with out beating up your bucket or tractor I don't think this tractor is going to have the "b_lls" to pull this off. Most of the time when I see grove farmers clearing out orange trees or the entire fields it's with a pay loader with a grappling bucket attcheted to it, and this is not something worth buying to have sitting on your property just to use a couple of times a year, so I would pay someone to pull trees when you need it done.

 

[Florida_Farmer]

I also live in central Florida (Orlando/Lake Mary) and have 13 acres of bahia grass horse pasture that I mow. I use a Yanmar 1500 ( 2 WD) and a 4 ft. bush hog mower. Frankly, I rarely bog the tractor down even in dense grass that has not been mowed for a while. And I wouldn't trade my turning radius for more horsepower. The bucket is another issue, maybe you'll need the 4WD for that and maybe a little bigger tractor - that really depends on what you want to use it for.
Hope that helps.

 

[normde2001]

I would think you would need/want about 20 pto hp. 4wd and powershift, YM2010, 2020, 2210 etc.,for most jobs that you describe, however I don't believe any compact tractor is heavy enough to pull a citrus tree out of the ground.

 

[snooks]

I have a YM2500 (2wd) with a loader. I absolutly love the unit and really don't believe I miss a thing by not having 4wd. I put the finish mower on it once to mow my 2.5 acres and really felt the loader caused more bounce than I like. My back hurt (bad back anyway) for days. Since I already had an 8N Ford (had planned to sell) I decided to keep the Ford strickly for mowing. Maybe I'll sell the 8N after all my dirt work is done and I can remove the loader. Until then I am keeping both. Hard to beat the old 8N for finish mowing.

 

[mah]

I had an 8n and thought it was great for finish mowing but now use a YM2000 for finish mowing.It is much better it has more power,turns sharper and lift works better.Point is sell the 8n and buy a small Yanmar for about the same price.

MAH

 

[roger_scotty]

Snooks, I agree. One of my tractors - a YM165D - has a bit too large of a bucket on the FEL, and "bobs it's head" something terrible when I try to plow with it. Its not a quickly detachable loader so no joy there. What I used to do was to pull the pins which drop the the bucket and then lift the arms straight up. That works, though by far the best solution is to have another tractor.

And those 8Ns sure are nice. I especially like how quietly that ol' low compression gas motor runs. Just purrs along. Mowing is a good job for an 8N. I figure eveyone ought to have at least one old American farm tractor around just as an "Americana" piece.


Everyone who stops here knows that the Yanmars do all the work, but when it comes time to look at tractors they all head straight for the old 2 cylinder JD. I'll bet you find the same thing with the 8N.

 

[snooks]

I am not promoting the 8N as much as I make the point that two tractors are better than one. I just happen to already own the 8N. If a person needs a loader on for an extended period of time and doesn't want to mess with it, then a second tractor for mowing is great. Especially if you don't like the "bobbing action". If I were a little younger and had a better back, I could get by with it. Just felt my experience might help someone in making a decision. For those of us that don't have a lot of tractor experience, we learn this stuff as we go along. I guess for my use, the extra cost for 4wd would be better allocated to a second tractor. As 4wd for me isn't that important.