I've had a 2638 for a year and put about 220 hours on it. I grew up on tractors with gears and a clutch, spent some time on shuttle shift and power shift machines but most of it was good old geared tractors.
The HST is nice, if you've got a bigger field to mow get the cruise control kit. I've got mine on order because while I don't have big fields to mow I have enough of it that my right knee gets tired of pushing on a pedal constantly.
I added hydraulic remotes to mine because I need them for a few implements, they do their job but have no detent to "lock them" to constant flow. I made a latch to hold it that took my about an hour to figure, fab, paint and install. The paint drying took the longest.
The three point: It works the way it should, I've not noticed what someone else mentioned about the top link not jiving right in all of the pin holes, my toplink has been in the top hole for about a year and I don't think I've moved it. I installed Pat's quick hitch links, makes life SO MUCH easier. It seems to me the swing geometry of the three point links just doesn't seem right to hook up to some things easily. It always worked perfect on captured pin equipment but not so much for me with equipment that has pins that stick out and the balls have to swing onto them. Installing the Pats hitch fixed it, equipment hookup is no longer a painstaking task..... remember I'm only 40 and I've been doing this since I was 10 so its not my first tractor or equipment to hookup... overall I'd give the 3 pt hookup process a C- on this tractor, with the Pats it is every bit an A+ game.
The one flaw I will give this tractor, and I read about it and wondered how, is that the three point lift arms will bend easily if you are pushing something backwards. In my case I had my 7' boxblade on it, pushing some sticks and brush (nothing heavy and not moving fast) and the edge caught a stump and bent a lift arm. In 30+ years on doing stuff with a tractor I'd never bent a lift arm, my dad and uncle easily have double the time of me and they never have. They bend easily, watch out, they're about $350 to replace. (Now of course I took mine, heated it up, slowly bent it back into shape with some wood blocks and pallet forks on my loader, it took about two hours of heating/pressing/heating/pressing to get it straightened out. It hasn't bent again yet). Amongst my farm friends I don't know anyone who has bent a lift arm and I've been accused already of being rough on this tractor. Its nothing I haven't done with tractors in the last 30 years and in fact it was less work to bend this than the same work I've done in the past and lost traction with tractors having 10-20 more hp and 2-3000 lbs more weight. Frankly the lift arms are not designed to push like that and can bend easily.
The three point lift lever next to your seat needs a depth stop. Meaning when you lift your bushhog to make a turn and drop it the lever should end on a stop so the mower is the same height. Mahindra does not make one, my dealer looked at my old tractor that I traded in and said 'yeah that would be handy," I later made one.
The toolbox location and size is poorly placed and grossly undersized. I mounted a new one above the loader couplers to the right of the hydro pedals, hangs off of the foot platform just enough to not be sticking past the tractor. It works well. The factory toolbox I placed on top of the left rear fender as a place to put extra lynch pins and the washers for my Pats hookup.
I installed a canopy on the ROPS, I also put lights on the front corners of the canopy that help illuminate the immediate right and left where the forward lighting does not, lights up the loader at night, its far enough forward to not collect bugs in your face at night. I also placed a rear light on the canopy and one on top of the fuel tank cover that keep the rear lit up nice in the dark. I also placed flashing lights on the rear of the canopy that are wired into the flashing light system and turn signals of the tractor. Makes it easier to be seen on the road at night if you have an implement behind you.
Overall I like the tractor, the 55 hp Ford utility tractor I owned the previous 15 years, it was 2wd with a loader. Overall it was a good tractor and I did alot of work with it. This new one is 2500 lbs lighter and 15 less horsepower, I find it does most all of the same work. Loaderwise my last one would pick up a house and if I had enough weight on the back I had traction to move it, if it wasn't muddy and the front end didn't sink or break. This new tractor will not pick up as much but the traction issues aren't there, the hydro lets you modulate your speed as you need, gets the job done faster just less per lift (of whatever you are moving en masse). I run a 6' bushhog on the last tractor and this tractor, my last tractor rarely ever acted like it had a load with that mower, you could move across a field as fast as you could sit in the seat or that the mower could suck in and spit out. Not so much with my 2638 BUT the 6' mower isn't too much for it and it is easy to regulate your speed in the thick stuff. It doesn't ride near as nice as heavier and longer utility tractors that I am use to but it has a good seat.
I use my tractor with a finish mower on my yard so I have hesitated to load the rear tires, I might do this eventually but I have found the R4 tires don't cut or create ruts but they do create compaction. Over the winter feeding horses in the wet I found it just didn't sink on the surface wetness and create ruts like my last tractor did. That being said I'm not impressed with the R4 traction, they float well though which is more of what I need now.
In the end I am pleased with it and to do it all over I'd buy it again and do it all the same way so far.
