Tractors and Small Properties

[shooterdon]

Finally someone with sense. A tractor is not based on the area of one’s property alone but on the work you have for it. I have a BX23TLB on a .5 acre lot in a city, for 3 years it was on a 1/3 acre lot. BX23 with 60” deck never felt too big, but I’m not to lazy to remove the FEL or 53” 3pt snowblower. When I had a large job I brought in a very large tractor that had a chore turning around on my small lot. Do yourself a favour and filter out a lot of the garbage that gets posted as good information, then use your mind and decide what’s best for your needs with the good information that’s left. If you don’t know what your needs are, don’t buy anything.

Listen the this!!!

 

[prof fate]

Mowing - a zero turn kills it. a $3500-4500 toro is more than enough (from a dealer NOT a big box store).
Snow - I went from a tractor (100' paved and 50x50 gravel) drive to a 17" snapper 2 stroke snow blower...it's FASTER than the tractor, cheaper than the blade a alone for a tractor (plus chains and weights, time to convert over and back every year, storage for them over the summer) and the little snow blower can do sidewalks and fit in the trunk of my car to do my mother in laws place.

The farm has a long gravel drive and usually we just 4x4 over it...but with a CK3510 and a back blade I can clear it. More comfy to sit than walk I suppose.

Leaves..lots of options, grass catchers, mulching blades on the mower, pull behind rake things. I just mulch them in place or have blown them onto a big tarp and pulled it and dumped it.

And remember - TRACTORS MAKE WORK! You can't do it now, so you don't Have a tractor? OH, yeah, I can do this and that and the other thing too - so suddenly you have 10 more jobs to do...

I have a house on a 1.1 acre lot in eastern Massachusetts that's mostly wooded - maybe about 1/4 acre is grass and the rest is either driveway (almost 400ft), or forest (60' tall monster leaf producing oaks with nasty continually tick infested underbrush).

I've been tackling it with a 22" walk behind mower, 18" chainsaw, weed whacker/brush cutter, 32" walk behind snowthrower, and basically blowing leaves into the nearest spot into the woods, and creating brush piles when I have to take down a tree (often right next to where the tree went down). As I approach 60, I'm thinking that I need a plan to maintain this place for the next 15 years, and depending on my back might be a bad idea.

Would one of these subcompact tractors be a good fit for a property like this? Or would be over-kill? Some of me feels like this is a mid-life crisis purchase, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fishheadbob]

My two cents. I think it depends on your plans. If your house and drive are finished A scut might be overkill. A quality lawn and garden tractor, dump cart, and front snowblower will do it. Doesn't need to be a Deere or Massey ($$$$). Husqvarna, Cub Cadet and many more sell good products if you stay away from the entry level stuff at big box store. If you have a lot of plans for property improvement then you may need to go heavier.

 

[prof fate]

I have 2 acres at the house location and 25 at the farm. I've wanted a loader/tractor at the house for a long time. Started at the farm with an old L175 kubota - not very big, physically. Nice fit at the house when I brought it here for some odd jobs. (box blading mostly).
Moved up to a kioti CK3510hst w/ loader for the farm. One size bigger might have been nice, but one has to pay for their toys. It's been great there. It's a bit large (physically) at the house - feel like a fat man in a china shop, always looking over my shoulder so I don't run into things.

I now have a couple of cub cadets - heavy duty tractors. They did make loaders for them - you can still get them - and some folks (few of course) have put hoe's on them. They fit in places the bigger ones won't -handy. HOWEVER...

they lack size/weight to do any 'real' work. The kioti bucket is about 11cuft - 2 wheel barrow loads. And it can take a boring-ly long time to move a big pile of material. The tractor is 4300lb or so with loader and loaded tires. A cub is 800lb, more with a loader of course. the old kubota was 1400 (no loader). Even 1400lbs is very limited in what it's capable of.

Like asking a body builder to move/shovel vs a 10 year old kid. They both have arms...but there's no comparison in what they can do.

Kubota has a small tractor, kioti too (CS22) and RK (rural king) has one (LS I think makes their units). Are they as small as a garden tractor? Almost. On 2 acres might be good.

The local school has one (kubota G something) they use for plowing sidewalks and spreading salt, had a cab on it.

I wonder why nobody builds 4wd tractor loaders in the size of a garden tractor. Like the old case 400's, that size. If they had something like that, I'd choose that over my gc1710, even if it didn't come with a hoe.

I'm on 2.6 acres, some hilly, floodways/soft ground to deal with, lots of ruts here and there. I was managing most of that with a craftsman gt with locking diff. The massey tractor purchase was mainly for the loader and 4wd.

 

[prof fate]

My two cents. I think it depends on your plans. If your house and drive are finished A scut might be overkill. A quality lawn and garden tractor, dump cart, and front snowblower will do it. Doesn't need to be a Deere or Massey ($$$$). Husqvarna, Cub Cadet and many more sell good products if you stay away from the entry level stuff at big box store. If you have a lot of plans for property improvement then you may need to go heavier.

YOu can get a 40 year old cub w/ deck and snow blower for $1500 or less ready to rock n roll. I got one, a 149, with snow blade, deck and tiller for $500. Everything works. Not pretty...but it works just the same. It's WAY better built than anything I've had for the past 20, 25 years (toro, snapper, craftsman, ariens (big box tin thing), Huskee (an mtd/tractor supply unit). There is a HUGE following for cub cadet, parts and support for almost everything, and $1500-2000 will get you a restored unit.

And they made diesels (3 cyl kubota engines), but those will set you back $2000-2500.

 

[MossRoad]

Finally someone with sense. A tractor is not based on the area of one痴 property alone but on the work you have for it. I have a BX23TLB on a .5 acre lot in a city, for 3 years it was on a 1/3 acre lot. BX23 with 60 deck never felt too big, but I知 not to lazy to remove the FEL or 53 3pt snowblower. When I had a large job I brought in a very large tractor that had a chore turning around on my small lot. Do yourself a favour and filter out a lot of the garbage that gets posted as good information, then use your mind and decide what痴 best for your needs with the good information that痴 left. If you don稚 know what your needs are, don稚 buy anything.

Another person with some sense! :laughing:

I have 20 acres of remote property and I only need my little PT425 to maintain it. All I do out there is mow/brush cut a few miles of trails and a couple meadows, remove fallen trees, harvest firewood, and move some dirt now and then when making new trails. Don't need a large machine, even though I have 20 acres.

The bonus is I keep the machine at my home, where we have a bit over 1 acre, and the machine is a nice bonus as a lawn mower, snow plowed, and mulch mover. :thumbsup:

 

[GeneV]

Another person with some sense! :laughing:

I have 20 acres of remote property and I only need my little PT425 to maintain it. All I do out there is mow/brush cut a few miles of trails and a couple meadows, remove fallen trees, harvest firewood, and move some dirt now and then when making new trails. Don't need a large machine, even though I have 20 acres.

The bonus is I keep the machine at my home, where we have a bit over 1 acre, and the machine is a nice bonus as a lawn mower, snow plowed, and mulch mover. :thumbsup:

View attachment 631058

Well, that's a scut basically, right? You could even mount a front-hoe on that PT425, if I'm correct?

 

[MossRoad]

Well, that's a scut basically, right? You could even mount a front-hoe on that PT425, if I'm correct?

They sell a mini-hoe that I'm told by members that have them works really well for digging small holes, bushes, trees, short trenches, etc... digs down 4' or so as I recall. You can get a thumb to grasp branches and such as well.

 

[MossRoad]

The PT425 weighs about 1500# with me on it, can fit in the back of a standard pickup truck with an attachment mounted, fits through 4' gates, is all wheel drive, and can lift 800#. It's a handy little machine. :laughing:

They make several sizes of machine. I think mine is a good choice for a homeowner, small landscaper, etc...

 

[TheYard]

There's a lot to consider and there are some great insights and advice presented here. Thanks everyone - much appreciated.

The message that I'm getting is that I really need to know what I'm going to do with the equipment in order to make a good choice. And as one person here said, tractors seem to create work. Which could be good or bad. I'm trying to figure that out now. There are certainly lots of projects that I'm capable of doing around here - I'm not sure which ones I want to do, and if I do decide to do them, if I should rent equipment or buy, or a combination of both.

 

[MossRoad]

There's a lot to consider and there are some great insights and advice presented here. Thanks everyone - much appreciated.

The message that I'm getting is that I really need to know what I'm going to do with the equipment in order to make a good choice. And as one person here said, tractors seem to create work. Which could be good or bad. I'm trying to figure that out now. There are certainly lots of projects that I'm capable of doing around here - I'm not sure which ones I want to do, and if I do decide to do them, if I should rent equipment or buy, or a combination of both.

Bingo! :thumbsup:

 

[dodge man]

Keep in mind, there is not always a right answer. There might be a wrong answer though. A 150 horsepower tractor would be to big and a weed whacker would be to small, you just need something in between.

 

[Travelover]

It all depends on your budget. For a fat budget, a BX sized tractor with a FEL for real work and a zero turn mower for cutting grass would be perfect for me. For a skinnier budget, a good quality lawn tractor with accessories for lawn and snow would get you by on most days. Home Depot rents BX tractors if you ever really need one for a bigger job.

 

[prof fate]

define harvest firewood please.
My kioti can lift 1800lbs on it's loader...I have lots of fallen trees when trimmed to logs it still can't lift. So more trips, more work, more time...something a bigger tractor would reduce.
Moving dirt..again, bigger can do more, faster. Teaspoon vs shovel.

To a point bigger isn't always better, nor is smaller. There are some jobs you need X size to do at all. It's why they make tractors in all kinds of sizes.

I moved snow with my kubota...the best I could. The kioti is double the HP and nearly 3 times the weight - there is no comparison when it comes to moving snow. Before we had any tractor we had a snowstorm even a pickup with a plow couldn't get through - needed a case backhoe to mvoe the drifts.

I mow 3 acres of yard at the farm - bigger isn't better as it just doesn't fit well in some places. But then when I have to brushhog/mow the 15 plus acres of pasture the bigger the better - again, used the kubota and now the kioti and the difference is scissors vs a power mower.

It seems MOST people get too small a tractor - so figure out what you need/want and get one size bigger!

Another person with some sense! :laughing:

I have 20 acres of remote property and I only need my little PT425 to maintain it. All I do out there is mow/brush cut a few miles of trails and a couple meadows, remove fallen trees, harvest firewood, and move some dirt now and then when making new trails. Don't need a large machine, even though I have 20 acres.

The bonus is I keep the machine at my home, where we have a bit over 1 acre, and the machine is a nice bonus as a lawn mower, snow plowed, and mulch mover. :thumbsup:

View attachment 631058

 

[prof fate]

I skipped the backhoe ($7500 option). I'm sure i'd use it, I need some waterline run next year. BUT I can hire or rent equipment for when I need that 'specialty'.

My main uses were mowing pasture - 25 acres. talking the Mrs into letting me hay 10 of it (finally did that - my tractor can do it).
Moving things with forks and loader - round bales of hay (lift capacity mattered), moving manure/compost piles.
Removing posts, putting in posts elsewhere. She's had a 'to do' list for most of the 20 years she's owned the farm but without a tractor it was necessary to pay someone - every year she'd spend $700 on stuff, plus snow plowing plus brush hogging - $2k a year, sometimes more.

IN the 18 months we've had the kioti I've put 400 hours on it - locally that's $60/hour to hire someone, perhaps more now, so that's what, $24,000 worth of work. Tractor has paid for itself already!

With haying the rough math says we'll get $4-5k in hay a year, at least, some we'll sell (2nd and 3d cuttings) and the first we'll keep.

More work..yeah, sorta.

A smaller tractor wouldn't have done all this, a bigger one was too costly. We went new cause you don't have to pay for a new one. Well, $300/month. Used it'd be $12k or more and pay right now!

Remember - the tractor is just a ratchet - without sockets it's useless. A tractor needs implements. I've bought some new, most used for a fraction of new. I've got a box blade, disks, hiller, auger, broadcast spreader ($35!!), 3pt fiish mower, had a brush hog sold it and got a flail mower, bucket and forks, a hay rake (1950s Ferguson 3 point), a 70s era new holland square baler. Next need a hay wagon, maybe 2. And a tedder. A haybine might be nice, but it's after the first two hay tools. Maybe a plow...wanted a tiller but got a cub cadet with that for 1/2 the price of a used 3pt one. MAybe hay fork at some point.

Started out just wanting to mow pastures and move snow... now we're leveling yard, clearing woods, haying...

There's a lot to consider and there are some great insights and advice presented here. Thanks everyone - much appreciated.

The message that I'm getting is that I really need to know what I'm going to do with the equipment in order to make a good choice. And as one person here said, tractors seem to create work. Which could be good or bad. I'm trying to figure that out now. There are certainly lots of projects that I'm capable of doing around here - I'm not sure which ones I want to do, and if I do decide to do them, if I should rent equipment or buy, or a combination of both.

 

[TheYard]

I made a list of all the things that I could do. I can break this work up all sorts of ways - hire, diy and rent, diy and buy. If anyone has some thoughts on what would be a good match equipment wise, I'd love to hear...

Destruction - Remove 15 large oaks (60ftx18 average), grind the stumps, cut down 1/2 acre of sapling and brush and pop small stumps, do something with all the "stuff", pop about 100 2 cubic ft rocks and set aside for use later, scoop out 30 shrubs ranging from 3' to 7' and set aside for replanting. Pull out some old footing from an old deck and shed.

Construction - 100 ft of gravel path 6' wide from driveway to backyard, replanting of shrubs, planting of 20 3 gal trees, 36'x3'high dry stone wall, 200 ft of drainage ditch filled with riprap, 16 or so fence posts, 14 bluestone steps, 350 square ft of bluestone patio, 400 ft of 18" trench for driveway lighting, 15 or so lampposts, footings (4' down) for new shed, 100 ft of trench for gutter drainage pipes with gravel on top, 500 ft square of gravel paths. Move existing potting shed 100 ft

Maintenance - mow 1/3 acre, mow 1/2 acre of woods, blow shred and mulch a whole lot of leaves from 1/2 combined acre of lawns and gardens and put back into assorted garden beds, clear snow from 5000 square feet of driveway. Prune shrubs and trees and dispose of branches

 

[MossRoad]

define harvest firewood please.
My kioti can lift 1800lbs on it's loader...I have lots of fallen trees when trimmed to logs it still can't lift. So more trips, more work, more time...something a bigger tractor would reduce.
Moving dirt..again, bigger can do more, faster. Teaspoon vs shovel.

To a point bigger isn't always better, nor is smaller. There are some jobs you need X size to do at all. It's why they make tractors in all kinds of sizes.

I moved snow with my kubota...the best I could. The kioti is double the HP and nearly 3 times the weight - there is no comparison when it comes to moving snow. Before we had any tractor we had a snowstorm even a pickup with a plow couldn't get through - needed a case backhoe to mvoe the drifts.

I mow 3 acres of yard at the farm - bigger isn't better as it just doesn't fit well in some places. But then when I have to brushhog/mow the 15 plus acres of pasture the bigger the better - again, used the kubota and now the kioti and the difference is scissors vs a power mower.

It seems MOST people get too small a tractor - so figure out what you need/want and get one size bigger!

I am fortunate to have about 10,000 locust trees on a 10 acre swath across our 20 acres. Each year I harvest 50-60 of them to cut 6 cords of firewood to heat our home. They are about 50' long telephone-pole size when I drop them. I use tongs on my FEL arms to drag them out and pull them 1/4 mile to my landing. While I can lift 800, I can drag 1500. So I try and trim them to a length I think the little machine can pull. Usually takes me 1 day to drop all the trees, and 1 afternoon to drag them out. Then it takes a couple weekends to cut to 18" lengths, load them on a trailer and haul them home, about 4-5 loads, where I split and stack for a couple weekends.

As for moving loose dirt and mulch from point A to point B, this little 1500# machine with 1/3 yard bucket is way faster than my old 8000# IH2500b with much larger bucket. Excavating hard soil would be a different story, as the little machine doesn't have enough weight.

Also, my larger machine had a harder time on hills, got stuck in our soft sand often, could not fit through my forest without damaging many trees, etc...

So yes, different machines have their place. Bigger ones can stay off of mine. :laughing:

 

[jpm]

For the trees just hire it out . A excavator can pop the stumps out much better and quicker than grinding. And what are you going to do with the trees after they are down? Just something to think about

 

[TheYard]

For the trees just hire it out . A excavator can pop the stumps out much better and quicker than grinding. And what are you going to do with the trees after they are down? Just something to think about

The trees are the real kicker here. I have had quotes ranging from $15K to $22K. That's without stump removal (some stumps are near a gas line, so I'm figuring it would be prudent to grind those - the rest could definitely be popped).

And you are right - what to do about the trees when they are down? I figured I could rent a chipper for the small stuff, and have the logs taken away to a mill on the other side of town. A tractor would help get the logs down to the street where a truck could pick them up. Overall, it's the part of the project that gives me the most pause....

 

[MossRoad]

Why do you want the trees down? Just curious.