Garden tractors? At a cross roads, need some other heads to bounce ideas with

[FlyFishn]

Not many late model garden tractors made anymore, most have embraced the Sub-Compact Tractor (SCUT) size ...

For example a John Deere X700 series in a diesel model, is a slightly better mower with its AWD, but seriously lacking in being a "Swiss Army Knife Tractor" like is slightly bigger 1R series brother, for hardly any more money ...

Searching Tractor House with your zip code and price range could find you something that would work ...

Some of the older (very OLD, but capable) GT's like the Wheel Horse, Bolens, Simplicity ... Had 3pt and rear PTO which made them very versatile ...

Yea if we're in the territory of a 3pt hitch and PTO I need something that will pull our 2 bottom dearborn plow and 8ft disk. No compact tractor is going to touch those, even the 444 thats tough on in our ground but it squeqks by.

Mowing, towing, and front blade work is what Im after - maybe some light tillage off a sleeve hitch. In the case of the big Husqvarna - Im not interested in their "scoop". I would be interested in the "dozer blade" though.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

While there are quite a few Z-turns and front decks in this list, as they are all in the "lawn mower" category same as the Garden Tractors ...

The older X400 series JD are an older version of the new X700's, a very robust GT with good current parts support,same with the Kubota's, the Case, Craftsman, and Ariens maybe harder to get stuff like the front hitch for a plow or mower deck parts ...

Pardon Our Interruption

Don't know why it always say that, just click on the link, it will take you to tractor house, you can put in your zip code near the top to sort closer to you ...

Here's one in that list with both a plow and mmm ...

 

[FlyFishn]

Ill check some of the ideas some of you have mentioned/linked to as I get a chance.

Some more info to add to the mix - I stopped by a husqvarna dealer. They do not have a 54" deck available until February. Apparently there is a change in their models. However, they have the same machine available - TS348XD - in a 48" deck. The 54 is the biggest they offer (still not big - Id go 72" if possible).

That said, they said the hydro drive is warranted to 1500hrs. They have sold husqvarna lawn/garden tractors since '95 and have not seen very many frames break at all. The guy I spoke to is the long time owner of the business so it wasnt some kid blowing hot air trying to make things sound good. That isnt to discount the possibility of the frame concerns, just it may not be as common as some would have us believe.

They have some financing options available that might work and with the machine on the floor and a blade at the local distribution warehouse it could be ready in a few days. Something worth considering.

Our current deck is a 46" so going to 48" isnt going to make much difference mowing, even 54 isnt, but what might is faster travel speed.

Lots to think about.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

While 5.5 MPH is OK, a lot of ground speed is dependent on the bumps (or lack thereof) in your lawn, but the faster you go ... The blade tip speed needs to also increase to still cut all the grass that goes under the deck ... I couldn't see a speed given for that deck, the Kawasaki generally is considered a good motor, I have over 1400 hours on my bigger one a 31 HP - FX921V

My Z-turn will do 10 MPH, with a blade tip speed of over 18K fps!

 

[bmaverick]

Yea if we're in the territory of a 3pt hitch and PTO I need something that will pull our 2 bottom dearborn plow and 8ft disk. No compact tractor is going to touch those, even the 444 thats tough on in our ground but it squeqks by.

Mowing, towing, and front blade work is what Im after - maybe some light tillage off a sleeve hitch. In the case of the big Husqvarna - Im not interested in their "scoop". I would be interested in the "dozer blade" though.

Slightly used Yanmar Cub Cadet SX3100 has 31Hp and the amazing diesel torque.
It will mow the lawn, have a CAT-1 live 3-point, and do the work better than the 444.

TractorData.com Cub Cadet Sx3100 tractor information

The mower deck is one of those drive on and self attach to go.

Full CAT-1 and live-PTO.

Optional BH too.

 

[airbiscuit]

If you look around, sometimes you can find a deal on a Simplicity Conquest. It checks the boxes for what you are looking for.

 

[airbiscuit]

That said, an ATV with a blade plows snow way better than a garden tractor.

 

[airbiscuit]

My neighbor has a Kubota GR2120 and it does well in snow (he has a front mount snowblower)

 

[FlyFishn]

Thanks for the added input.

Just a quick note on snowblowers -

For those that asked location - we're in Delaware County, Ohio - N-NW of Columbus. If we get 8-12" of snow in a storm that is a lot. I dont think a tractor mounted snowblower would do very well with that. The last 2 plowable snows here were 4-5". That seems a lot better territory for a plow over a blower.

The catch to that is repeated snowfalls where the berms along the drive fiill up from plowing to where there isnt any more room to push the snow. In that case a blower would be ideal as it will move all that snow, if it isnt packed ice. However, we have access to a skid steer to take care of that if it happens (neighbor).

When I was younger we had a 17hp MTD lawn tractor with a plow. It was not a "garden tractor", just a lighter duty mower. It did an OK job with chains and a lot of weight on the back, but we blew out the rear end twice I can think of - where gears broke through the housing.

I think the hydrostatic drives are more robust than the belt/gear style of the generation MTD we had was, but there again thats my core question - getting ahead of that and having a known robust overall machine (drivetrain & chassis) that is dependable doing that work.

From some of the replies so far my.deciphering goes something like this:
"Garden tractors" are heavier/more robust than "lawn tractors", but todays "garden tractors" dont compare to 90's and earlier "garden tractors" in that they aren't near as robust as they used to be. The market moved away from that robustness in that category and went to the micro compact and sub compact markets. The one hold over in the "garden tractor" category that is still a real robust "garden tractor" is the Deere X700 series.

Does that about sum it up?

 

[oldnslo]

We need something that can do some real work and has an actual transmission that isn't going to blow out in a year or two of "heavy" use.

What about garden tractors?

Define real work or worded another way what do you want this tractor to do?

Knowing this might help provide some better suggestions.