Cahaba Valley Farm
Veteran Member
I have been in the market searching for a tractor for 2 years now to use in a turf application. What started out looking like plethora of options has now come to the realty that nothing in the market exactly fits or meets my needs. The problem with the U.S compact tractor industry is all the tractors are built around loaders and lift capacity and not PTO driven implements and horsepower. This design philosophy is totally contrary to the way tractors used to be built. Ford Tractor company came out with the 1000 series tractors in 1967. The 3000 was the compact tractor of that time and went on to become one of the greatest tractors that has ever been built. They are still fetching fairly high prices fifty years later due to their bullet proof design, battle tested reliability and incredible strength and power. Coming from being an owner of one of those tractors I have been surprised and disappointed at the lack of equal offerings in today's tractors. What I have observed is neither John Deere nor Kubota are offering a medium frame size compact tractor with more then 30 PTO horsepower. John Deere has the 3046R and the 3043D but here's the problem: The 3046R is stupid expensive and the 3043D has no live PTO. Some of you will suggest that I look at another brand of tractor and I have but here is what I found when I did that. They were either way away from me and/or the quality, durability, parts support, customer service and resale value were not there. Then there is the issue of not being offered the option to have a front mount PTO like the tractors in Europe have which takes more then 20% of your productivity away. It's obvious that the industry is doing this because they don't want to cannibalize sales on their front-mount mowers but when I looked at those they too were not the right fit for my application. Those machines are made for light duty mowing applications where the turf is well maintained and the terrain is fairly even and smooth. They are not what I would consider a rugged, all terrain machine. The tires are small and the ground clearance is fairly low so getting a machine like that stuck and damaged on a property like mine would not be hard. Zero Turn mowers are wonderful but the problem with them is they only offer rotary cutters, they have no gears or brakes for hill stability and they are also not good for rougher terrain. So if you are looking for a tractor exclusively for a mowing and turf application currently there are none that fit that use type well. It's ironic that the US tractor manufacturers build better tractor solutions for Europe then it does for it's own country. I have included a link to a copy of John Deere's European edition tractor brochure so you can learn and see what is being withheld from us in the US market:
Last edited:
