Buying Advice which to buy Mahendra 1538 versus 2538 or 3540 versus 3550?

Chaos5150 · Sep 24, 2016

I have 10 to 20 acres having trouble deciding which tractor to buy I own 10 to 20 acres with some trees. I will likely do some backhoe work, Bush hoging, and some Rototiller work for the garden! They all seem to be good tractors just having trouble deciding which one.

JerryK · Sep 24, 2016

The weight of the 3540 or 3550 would help when using the backhoe. They tend to try to toss the tractor around at times. I have a 3550 with a Mahindra hoe that was made by Bradco [ Paladin Industries ]. It's not commercial TLB, but they make a nice hoe. I not sure about the hyd flow on the 2538, if it is the same as the 35 series or not. The 3550 is a nice tractor, big tires, lots of heft...

MtnViewRanch · Sep 24, 2016

Any of them will most likely work for you. The bigger ones will usually get things done faster, a lot faster.

If you just want to play, or if you have tight working areas, then smaller will be better. But for open areas, bigger almost always works out better.

If $$$$$ is no problem, the 3550 would be my choice. I personally would go with the power shuttle, but that's just me. :thumbsup:

dickfoster · Sep 27, 2016

Chaos5150 said:
I have 10 to 20 acres having trouble deciding which tractor to buy I own 10 to 20 acres with some trees. I will likely do some backhoe work, Bush hoging, and some Rototiller work for the garden! They all seem to be good tractors just having trouble deciding which one.

As some have said it all depends on what you're going to be doing and bigger is usually better for most things. As for the difference between the 2538 and the 1538 they both use the same Mahindra engine but the 1500's are built by Mitsubishi and the 2500's are built by TYM in Korea. The 1538 is a little more solid and a bit nicer built machine, nicer seat etc. The main difference is mainly in the HST if you're going that way. The 2538 is a two pedal design while the 1538 uses a very awkward to me rocker pedal. I went with the shuttle as I don't do a lot of back and forth work and much of my property slopes. I think the KWM built loader and backhoe on the 1538 is said to be a bit more solid than what comes on the 2538 too. I know mine is built like a tank but backhoes on smaller machines like this don't have a whole lot of power for digging stumps and stuff like that but for digging in the dirt it's just fine.
Whatever you get be sure to get the dealer to reflash the ECU with the latest code before it comes home with you. There have been a lot of problems across the line lately that are being taken care of with an ECU reflash. In my case it was an inop temp gauge due to faulty ECU coding. For some silly reason Mahindra wants this done at the dealer. Hauling the tractor 50 miles one way for an ECU reflash to fix something as small as an inop temp gauge was nothing short of stupid IMHO.

Chaos5150 · Oct 1, 2016

Chaos5150 said:
I have 10 to 20 acres having trouble deciding which tractor to buy I own 10 to 20 acres with some trees. I will likely do some backhoe work, Bush hoging, and some Rototiller work for the garden! They all seem to be good tractors just having trouble deciding which one.

Update: I decided to go with the 3550 PST and at the moment no backhoe! I did get a package deal 6 foot box, 6 foot brush cutter, 6 foot Rototiller and a 10,000 pound trailer. Although the backhoe would have come in handy I wanted to buy as much tractor as I could afford. I can look into a backhoe at a later date. Thank you everyone for all the advice.

BlackOps · Oct 1, 2016

congrats!

mcfarmall · Oct 1, 2016

Congratulations on the new tractor. I am favoring the 3550 PST when I make my purchase and I'd be delighted to hear your experiences with it once you have some hours behind you. Keep us updated please! And some pictures would always be appreciated.