mo1
Platinum Member
Hello all, longtime listener but first-time caller...er, poster.
I recently had the luck to buy a house on a dozen mostly wooded acres in southwest MO not terribly far from Springfield. There is about a half acre of open lawn as well as about an acre of fenced-in paddock the current owner is using for keeping horses. The rest is wooded with 1-2 foot diameter oaks and mostly rolling but there's a bit of a draw where a wet-weather creek runs in part of it. The driveway is a concrete apron with a ~100 foot long gravel driveway. I am looking for a recommendation on a tractor for property maintenance. Here's roughly what I want to be able to do:
- Mow the lawn in a reasonable amount of time, which for me would be no more than about two hours. I'll get a guy with a good-sized cat to come in sometime and knock some trees over and smooth the grade to make about 2-3 acres of lawn in total. There aren't currently and shouldn't be a lot of obstacles to mow around. I am leaning towards getting something in the neighborhood of a 72-90" 3 point finish mower for this.
- Rough cut the fenced-in paddock and the ditches. The paddock will have a garden inside of it as well as berry bushes and fruit trees per my wife so there will be some obstacles. I'd get an inexpensive 5 to 6 foot rough-cut mower to do this as it would only need to be done a handful of times per year.
- Till up a garden. My Dad now has a 7-foot-wide 3-pt unit (King Kutter, I believe) that can till up a garden in about 10 minutes when hooked to the back of his JD 5083E. I'd much prefer to use something like that compared to the walk-behind tiller I used as a kid.
- Remove snow. There isn't a whole lot in SW MO but there are occasional big wet dumps and I have to be able to get to work without spending two hours shoveling if we get those big wet dumps. Not sure what would be the best way to attack this as I've never cleared snow with anything bigger than a shovel before and the driveway is part concrete and mostly gravel. I guess perhaps a blade would be the best way to go?
I am thinking something like a compact utility tractor in the 25-35 PTO HP range on turf or R4 tires would be what I am looking for. That should still be maneuverable but large enough to handle the kinds of implements I want to well. The only issue is that they generally start in the upper teens and most are well into the $20k range, and that is before I would even get any implements. There does not appear to be much of a used market for compact tractors either. I'd rather not have to spend that much money if I could avoid it. However the classifieds are littered with mid-60s to late-70s vintage smaller utility tractors like Ford 2000s/3000s, JD 1020s, Ford 2600s/3600s, and MF 135s selling for $3000-5000 which is much more reasonable in my book. What would you guys recommend?
I recently had the luck to buy a house on a dozen mostly wooded acres in southwest MO not terribly far from Springfield. There is about a half acre of open lawn as well as about an acre of fenced-in paddock the current owner is using for keeping horses. The rest is wooded with 1-2 foot diameter oaks and mostly rolling but there's a bit of a draw where a wet-weather creek runs in part of it. The driveway is a concrete apron with a ~100 foot long gravel driveway. I am looking for a recommendation on a tractor for property maintenance. Here's roughly what I want to be able to do:
- Mow the lawn in a reasonable amount of time, which for me would be no more than about two hours. I'll get a guy with a good-sized cat to come in sometime and knock some trees over and smooth the grade to make about 2-3 acres of lawn in total. There aren't currently and shouldn't be a lot of obstacles to mow around. I am leaning towards getting something in the neighborhood of a 72-90" 3 point finish mower for this.
- Rough cut the fenced-in paddock and the ditches. The paddock will have a garden inside of it as well as berry bushes and fruit trees per my wife so there will be some obstacles. I'd get an inexpensive 5 to 6 foot rough-cut mower to do this as it would only need to be done a handful of times per year.
- Till up a garden. My Dad now has a 7-foot-wide 3-pt unit (King Kutter, I believe) that can till up a garden in about 10 minutes when hooked to the back of his JD 5083E. I'd much prefer to use something like that compared to the walk-behind tiller I used as a kid.
- Remove snow. There isn't a whole lot in SW MO but there are occasional big wet dumps and I have to be able to get to work without spending two hours shoveling if we get those big wet dumps. Not sure what would be the best way to attack this as I've never cleared snow with anything bigger than a shovel before and the driveway is part concrete and mostly gravel. I guess perhaps a blade would be the best way to go?
I am thinking something like a compact utility tractor in the 25-35 PTO HP range on turf or R4 tires would be what I am looking for. That should still be maneuverable but large enough to handle the kinds of implements I want to well. The only issue is that they generally start in the upper teens and most are well into the $20k range, and that is before I would even get any implements. There does not appear to be much of a used market for compact tractors either. I'd rather not have to spend that much money if I could avoid it. However the classifieds are littered with mid-60s to late-70s vintage smaller utility tractors like Ford 2000s/3000s, JD 1020s, Ford 2600s/3600s, and MF 135s selling for $3000-5000 which is much more reasonable in my book. What would you guys recommend?
for the first couple few years. It will give you time to better assess your needs and maybe put a few more $$ together toward the purchase.
