Buying Advice Small tractor advice

[Beaglenut]

First time tractor buyer looking for advice. We're buying a new house on 20 acres, more than half of which is wooded.

Things I plan to use a tractor for:

1) 2-3 acres of grass to mow, all pretty flat except for the dam and banks of a small pond (the dam is maybe 6 feet wide so not a big slope).

2) Want to put in a vegetable garden somewhere in the current mowed area, no idea how big.

3) Also will want to plant an acre or two of food plots for deer, in a field that was farmed until about 5 years ago but is now overgrown.

4) Pull a wagon to haul firewood and dead deer lol.

I'm thinking it would be smarter to pay a local farmer to brush-hog the food plot area once a year rather than buying a brush hog for my own limited use. Same for plowing snow off the driveway because we're only an hour north of St. Louis and if we have 2 big snows a year that's a lot. If that makes sense then I think I'm looking at investing in a small tractor with a mid-mount mower, a rotary tiller for the garden / food plot and a wagon for hauling.

Now for my questions:

I'm not mechanically inclined so I'll be buying something new or very close to it from a dealer. I've been browsing the John Deere web site and have zoned in on the X749 or the 1026R as models that look like they'll do what I need, but they look very different. I'm sure the sales people at the dealer will have their own story but wondered if anyone out here could shed some light on the pros and cons and differences between them.

I've seen other posts mention a spring sale, is that generally the best time to buy a new tractor? Since we're just buying the place now, and since we're in the middle of the worst drought I can remember, I think we can wait until next spring to buy if that's the best time. The current owner has been paying a neighbor to do the mowing so I can probably pay that a few more times and the mowing season will be over. And I can probably make it through one deer season without too much abuse to my truck and / or my back.

Any other comments on my situation and my plan of attack would also be appreciated. I've looked at other tractor brands online and I don't know if it's just that Deere has the best web site but I really don't see a lot of competition for tractors this small with as much power and options available.

 

[EdC]

Welcome, you will sure find plenty of information and great people here. I think you might be thinking a little on the small side. One of the issues that you need to watch out for is ground clearance and while both of those machines are great mowers they don't have very much groung clearance and a stick, kicked up by a tire could do some damage pretty easily. With what little experience I have it sounds like you are describing work work for a 2520 or larger machine. Also consider getting a front end loader. It works okay to clear a driveway and the bucket is just tremendously useful for anything from being used as a crane to lift stuff out of a pickup truck to spreading landscape bark, a FEL will come in handy for more things than you can count. Later on pallet forks may come in handy and then it is a simple matter to take off the bucket and put on the pallet forks. Boy I sure like to spend other peoples money:dance1:

 

[jenkinsph]

The x749 with all wheel steer is more manueverable than the 1026R but the 1026R has the ability to add a fel and drive over 60" 7 iron deck. For mowing and light 3PH work I prefer the x749 especially if there are lots of obstacles to mow around. The 1026R is better suited for those with a wide variety of jobs on a small acreage. For your new property I would suggest a 2720, 200CX fel, 655 tiller and a 72" drive over mmm deck as an all in one machine. Ideally a separate mower and a compact tractor would be best. I really like my x749 but I didn't buy it until after I had the larger compacts to do the heavy work.

 

[Beaglenut]

Thanks for the replies but I'm starting to feel like my bank account has sprung a leak.

On the ground clearance issue, that brings up another question. Is it fairly easy to get the mid-mount mower decks on and off of the small tractors I'm talking about or do I have to go bigger to get the "drive-on and off" feature I've read about? If it is fairly easy, doesn't that take care of the ground clearance problem since the areas I'm taking about mowing are all mowed now and are pretty level?

 

[XSKIER]

Beaglenut,

I think that if you're limited to one machine, the 1026R would be your best bet. Otherwise, I would recommend a 3038e and a Z465. You don't mention a Front End Loader, I didn't think I needed one either, but now wouldn't live with out it 8 months later. With mowing and wood gathering, you'll be swapping implements frequently. The 1026R is quick change, but it's quicker to just jump on a different machine. Finally, no one ever mentions it in this particular comparison, the R has a two speed transmission. In low range it's capable of substantially more torque than the X700 series.

 

[firefighterjrm]

I faced this same problem about 3 years ago after research I decided on a 2320 with a 62D MMM but since then I had a major drive drain problem which deere covered but I decided to look at other options. What I finally decided on was going with a 3032e with FEL and go with D-140 to cut grass. Here was my reasoning on this. I wanted to get a little bigger tractor than the 2320 and have a tractor to do "tractor" work and a grass cutter to cut grass. The drive over deck is nice but was sorta of pain hooking and unhooking and when I looked at the cost of Drive over deck and set up well it paid for the D-140 due to the fact the cost of a drive over MMM and set up is around 2K. Now there are some limitations to the 3032e/3038e it does not have all the bell's and whistles and does not a mid mount PTO which I did not need. I currently use the 3032e with 5ft Frontier R.C. a 5 foot box blade, and 5 foot scrape along with a I-Match system. For the tractor with FEL and a D-140 I was around 16,500.00. Deere does run alot of Promo's I know when I purchased mine they had 1,000 off on 3032 and 38 when purchasing two or more impliments which FEL would be one and they were offering 0% intrest for 60 months on the D seris lawn mowers. With that all being said there will be alot of pro's and con's on E and D machines, I think if you keep up on your matience and take of your tractor/tractors you will be fine. Keep in mind use the tractors for what they are intended for not to use over its limits.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Is there a reason a three-point finish mower is off the table? Much cheaper than the drive over, and not too hard to hook up.

 

[firefighterjrm]

My 3032e came with a 60 inch bush hog brand finish mower, I used it one time and sold it. It was more pain in ***** for me due to the fact of mowing around the house, the pool, the garage, the deck, the kids play sets you get the point and all the turning and moving dug into my yard. It is good for long stretches but if you have alot of turning and obstacles I would not recom. it but thats just my 2 cents for what it worth......

 

[meburdick]

The x749 with all wheel steer is more manueverable than the 1026R but the 1026R has the ability to add a fel and drive over 60" 7 iron deck. For mowing and light 3PH work I prefer the x749 especially if there are lots of obstacles to mow around. The 1026R is better suited for those with a wide variety of jobs on a small acreage. For your new property I would suggest a 2720, 200CX fel, 655 tiller and a 72" drive over mmm deck as an all in one machine. Ideally a separate mower and a compact tractor would be best. I really like my x749 but I didn't buy it until after I had the larger compacts to do the heavy work.

This recommendation seems completely over the top. What are you basing that on? I have a 2520 with a 62D On Ramp deck, and that thing is absolute overkill for my 1 acre of property. The only reason I bought a machine "that big" was to get the FEL capacity of well over 1,000 pounds because I move firewood in log lengths and stacked on pallets.

The 1026R is a well-rounded machine that will do a lot. If you don't need a loader, don't get one. If you decide in the future that it's useful, add it then (my absolute, hands-down most used function on my tractor is lifting / moving with my pallet forks).

Ballast the rear tires for extra stability and traction when pulling, and you'll be able to do just about any basic task you need. Adding a loader with a bucket would give you a means to move snow when necessary, too.

 

[Beaglenut]

OK it sounds like the 749 is out because I should at least have the option of adding a FEL in the future. Too bad, that 4-wheel steering sounds pretty nice.

So now I guess I'm comparing the 1026R to the 2320. First thing I looked at based on my first reply here was ground clearance and there really is a big difference if I'm reading the specs right, only 7 1/2 inches on the 1026R vs 12 1/2 on the 2320. So the question is what's the "cost" of low ground clearance on a 4WD machine - am I really that likely to bottom-out and get stuck? Other problems? Also the mowers listed for the 2320 are referred to as "on-ramp" so I assume they are drive-on and off for easier hookup, but the 1026R doesn't mention that so does anybody know if there's a difference?

This forum is great by the way, I really appreciate all the feedback.