BadDecisions
Silver Member
Been searching for an upgrade to my Craftsman lawn tractor on and off for a few years now with a (probably too) low budget. Ideally I've wanted to stay below $5,000, and have been limiting my search to tractors with a FEL. I live outside Phoenix, AZ in a rural open desert. I have ZERO plans/intentions/desires to do _any_ type of farming/gardening/etc so I'll never own a plow or other "ground engaging implements"..at least I think, anyways. I'm still trying to make sense of all the terminology, lol.
My primary intentions for the tractor is land clearing, and again - desert environment - I'm not going to be attempting to push over massive oak trees here, lol. I have just over an acre that's been well overgrown with weeds and small brushy plants, up to about 1/2" diameter trunks at most. A circular saw blade on the weed trimmer cuts them down like butter, but they still come back. I've been slowly working with vegetation killer, which works, but it still leaves dead plants behind, which I'm still dealing with clean up, and it seems like it grows faster than I have time to go back and clean up. Then I'm still left with very uneven ground from years of these things growing up in different places.
My thinking/plan there was either a grader blade, or what I believe is called a gannon box? Use either to just basically scrape the top layer off, hopefully taking much of the weed growth with it.
Secondary, I need to move heavy things around. Like steel tube and sheet for various other projects from the truck/trailer to the shop, and various heavy car parts - axles, engines, etc. I'd like to buy things like softener salt more in bulk, like perhaps by the pallet load rather than one bag at a time from the grocery store. I had to remove the center section from the rear axle of my 2.5 ton truck last year for repairs, and getting it back in was an adventure since it's parked on dirt, and it wouldn't fit in the shop to use a jack on concrete. Ended up making a makeshift "crane" from multiple ratchet straps fed in from the top of the flatbed.
The most weight in parts I can think of that I'd be lifting is 1,000 pounds, though I understand a full pallet of salt is around 2500 pounds.
I can certainly see a use for a FEL, especially in times of say, doing some landscaping and wanting to move dirt and rocks around. But it would be rather infrequent, and lifting/moving those heavy things would be FAR more frequent for me. So now I'm wondering if trying to hold out for a tractor with a FEL that falls within my budget is really the best idea? Might I better off doing something like hanging an engine hoist off a 3 point, and using that for lifting duties anyways? I've seen quite a few larger tractors selling for well within my budget without the FEL, but tractors with a FEL are a rare one, and usually end up being a non-runner or in need in major amounts of repairs. Having never owned a tractor like this before, I'm hesitant to buy one without a FEL to try to add one later, as being my first "real" tractor, concern that I'll just have to buy another one later when I learn that whatever I bought really wouldn't work with a FEL anyways.
My primary intentions for the tractor is land clearing, and again - desert environment - I'm not going to be attempting to push over massive oak trees here, lol. I have just over an acre that's been well overgrown with weeds and small brushy plants, up to about 1/2" diameter trunks at most. A circular saw blade on the weed trimmer cuts them down like butter, but they still come back. I've been slowly working with vegetation killer, which works, but it still leaves dead plants behind, which I'm still dealing with clean up, and it seems like it grows faster than I have time to go back and clean up. Then I'm still left with very uneven ground from years of these things growing up in different places.
My thinking/plan there was either a grader blade, or what I believe is called a gannon box? Use either to just basically scrape the top layer off, hopefully taking much of the weed growth with it.
Secondary, I need to move heavy things around. Like steel tube and sheet for various other projects from the truck/trailer to the shop, and various heavy car parts - axles, engines, etc. I'd like to buy things like softener salt more in bulk, like perhaps by the pallet load rather than one bag at a time from the grocery store. I had to remove the center section from the rear axle of my 2.5 ton truck last year for repairs, and getting it back in was an adventure since it's parked on dirt, and it wouldn't fit in the shop to use a jack on concrete. Ended up making a makeshift "crane" from multiple ratchet straps fed in from the top of the flatbed.
The most weight in parts I can think of that I'd be lifting is 1,000 pounds, though I understand a full pallet of salt is around 2500 pounds.
I can certainly see a use for a FEL, especially in times of say, doing some landscaping and wanting to move dirt and rocks around. But it would be rather infrequent, and lifting/moving those heavy things would be FAR more frequent for me. So now I'm wondering if trying to hold out for a tractor with a FEL that falls within my budget is really the best idea? Might I better off doing something like hanging an engine hoist off a 3 point, and using that for lifting duties anyways? I've seen quite a few larger tractors selling for well within my budget without the FEL, but tractors with a FEL are a rare one, and usually end up being a non-runner or in need in major amounts of repairs. Having never owned a tractor like this before, I'm hesitant to buy one without a FEL to try to add one later, as being my first "real" tractor, concern that I'll just have to buy another one later when I learn that whatever I bought really wouldn't work with a FEL anyways.
