Hi
@rScotty this is a very helpful response. From the photos, your property is similar to mine, I have a mix of pines and live oaks, with a similar amount of rocks and hills.
I'm thinking the only reason I would go for a JD 110/Kubota
M59/
M62 is if I needed a 3PH mower. But for now I could put a flail mower on the front of a 310-sized tractor twice a year for the grass. Just don't mow when it's wet. All the other needs are met by the range of attachments for the front end and backhoe with high flow, and I can pick them up as needed.
Have you had any experience with a hydraulic-powered
chipper?
On to make/model:
In looking at used listings, I see a lot of JD, Case, Cat, occasional Komatsu and New Holland. Is there anything I should look out for or be aware of? Or are they effectively interchangeable for my purposes? How important is 4WD vs. 2WD?
You mention the thumb specifically: can this be added later or do I need to pay attention to it now?
Thanks for your advice.
Yes, our western mountain/foothills land does sound similar. That's sort of what I figured. That means that you may have more sand and gravel than mud, and if so, then consider that universal tread or the new radial universals will work a lot better for our soil than the lugged Ag tires. But Ag tires will work...The point is that there are lot of ways to do your project.
I get the feeling that you are enjoying the idea of doing a lot of it yourself, and so do all of us here. Everyone has a different way. Any of them will work. I know my method & it works for me, but there are at least 50 other guys who do it just as well or better with different attachments.
Like the mowing.... I'm no help there. I don't have a lot of grass to mow, and about a third of an acre of lawn around the house is more suitable for a self-propelled mower - once I found the right one.. I do mow the local ball park, but that's a rural park & mowed wit a bush hog.
Rocks and hills are a problem for tractors and TLBs. If you want to flatten areas, then please do yourself a favor and hire a landscape artist with a bulldozer. She will still leave lots of of work for you to spend a year refining with your TLB - but it will be enjoyable work instead of trying to do something that the TLB is not really designed for. .
Same applies to the
chipper. You can really simplify things by hiring certain jobs done for you. These are things you could do...but hard on machines and are places where hiring makes sense. One is the artist with a bulldozer for making main roads, flattening arenas, building sites, and shaping large areas.
Chippers of the most useful size are big loud dangerous expensive machines that you need rarely and they break a lot. Plus feeding a
chipper is hazardous.
With your TLB and a saw you can cut and pile, then schedule a chipping date with your local forester. There is usually someone local that will rent himself and his
chipper. Our local volunteer fire dept. bought a big
chipper and firefighters do slash and chipping jobs to support their VFD.
Lets see... TLBs. The JD110 was possibly the cutest TLB ever built. I love 'em But they haven't been made for awhile, and JD quit instead of improving them because they saw the weak points needed some redesign. Sorry if I've offended anyone. I wish JD had continued with the 110 size. They hit the market squarely and by now we know the weak points. But instead, Kubota took over that size range and ran with it. Their TLBs - the
B26,
L39,
L47, and
M59/52 are all excellent. just flat excellent.
My advice is to leave the remaining nice little 110s to the aficionados. For your work, go Kubota, or Case 580, or Deere 310.
The Deere 310 is not as versatile or handy as the Kubotas. No PTO or 3pt hitch, and not so handy.... but what can I say? I own both for a reason.
BTW, the PTO gives you he option of running really high hydraulic water pump flow - enough for a water cannon. Just slide a PTO pump onto the PTO and you have a LOT of pumping capacity. That's what I mean by being handy.
CTLs are nice, powerful, and handy. They do tear up ground a bit. And althoughCTLs do a lot of things really nicely, traveling back and forth to a job isn't one of them. That is what a TLB does well...here, I'll give an example of traveling on the TLB that doesn't involve driving back to the barn for something I forgot. Which I do too much of..
Locally there is a source of landscape and natural flagstone rocks about mile from where I am wanting to use them. With the Kubota I can put it in road gear and drive over there, pull a lever to drop the SSQA FEL bucket, spin the seat around and use the hoe and thumb to dig out and load the bucket with 3/4 of a cubic yard of 250 pound rocks, reattach the FEL bucket, and drive a mile back to where I am building a rock wall.
As good as a CTL for what it does well, it doesn't do that sort of job well. It trailers nicely, but it is limited for traveling distances.
The other option you mentioned are the teleloaders/telehandlers. I like them, but know nothing about them. The guys who have them are all old timers, so I might end up with one too. I can see that happening, but that is a whole other level of sophistication and expense. For now, the TLB will do.
Hit me with another question and I promise a shorter answer....
Luck,
rScotty
