1.5 acres. Am I nuts for thinking about a tractor?

[hiddentacocatneddih]

The best idea ... great advice

Never mind. John deere 9 series. With a cummins 14L.

 

[paulsharvey]

You need a Kubota L2501 with front end loader, third function kit, quick attach, a set of forklift forks, a grapple, at the least.

Or the comparable other brands in the same weight class. Just went through this, initially wanting an RK25/TYM25; then shopping between MF1526, TYM 2515; and Kioti 2610H. The Massey is smaller, with a bit less lift capacity; but is probably better on the lawn (and around the tree roots of your syrup trees) and 'probably' more maneuverable.

I got the Kioti for a few reasons over the 2515; I liked the seat, I like Orange, and it was $1500 less. The Massey interested me, but it's about 25% smaller than the Kioti/TYM/L2501.

 

[Rustyiron]

Kennebec Guy, get your tractor! ...and welcome to the tractorhood and Maine.
Oh.... and the tractor size vs. lot size, I started out with 9 ac. and 24 hp Dt 245 kubota. No loader. It was upgraded to a 36 hp Yanmar with a loader. A 3pt Woods backhoe was added along the way.
Next stop was on 128ac. This resulted in a nice new Deere 60hp and eventually a 7 ton excavator.

Hopefully we're done moving and landed on/with over 700ac. There's a 95hp kubota in the shed along with the biggest SS made. The little old excavator just went down the road and was replaced by this one a couple of weeks ago and my real sxs-utv is a 4wd f450 with an 11' dump.

So hold on to your hat!

Loading yard trimmings into the sxs.
Enjoy your new tractor, it's handier than a shirt pocket and more fun.

 

[RicKy25]

It sounds to me that you could definitely use a tractor. 25hp is probably big enough unless you need to lift really heavy stuff, say 1500 to 2000 lbs or more on a regular basis. One thing you need to consider is maneuverability. You said you have a park like property. I assume you have lots of trees. Do you plan to mow with your tractor? Clean up limbs and sticks around the trees? A landscape rake could make clean up a lot easier. I have 5 acres with lots of trees and I use an RK25. I'd love to have a bigger tractor, but there's no way I could fit it in around those trees. Unless I trim all the branches up to 8 feet. Besides the Rk is plenty of tractor.

Anyway, good luck with your search.

 

[BobLewis]

I sold my farm and left my equipment go and moved to the suburbs on a 1/4 ac. lot and still wish I had my L3130 Kubota or 8N, if I had half an excuse I'd have one. Just the times I could use the bucket to lift things in the garage or haul tools or dirt to plant shrubs or flowers would be worth it. Let alone snow removal, tree trimming & gutter cleaning in the pallet lifter while my wife operates it, and garden rototilling. Repeat after me, I NEED A Tractor!

 

[MEMEMEME]

I sold my farm and left my equipment go and moved to the suburbs on a 1/4 ac. lot and still wish I had my L3130 Kubota or 8N, if I had half an excuse I'd have one. Just the times I could use the bucket to lift things in the garage or haul tools or dirt to plant shrubs or flowers would be worth it. Let alone snow removal, tree trimming & gutter cleaning in the pallet lifter while my wife operates it, and garden rototilling. Repeat after me, I NEED A Tractor!

Old guy (72) here in MT with 3.4 ac and a LOT of slope & snow. And rocks. Little rocks, medium rocks, bjg rocks. LOTS of rocks.

Started out with an inherited 18 hp Sears garden tractor which my father (who grew up on a N. Dakota farm) had modified with an electric-over-hydraulic setup with a front blade and a rear scraper.

Worked half a summer putting in 100' of driveway with that thing and most of that time was spent digging out (by hand) and sledding 100-500# rocks which the tractor found but couldn't begin to dig out.

Next tractor was a MH44 gasser with loaded and rotting rears whose only implement was a 7' wide homebuilt snow blade which was raised and lowered via a rear fender-mounted manual boat trailer winch aided by 5 pulleys fastened to the snow blade frame. By looping a log choker around the drawbar I was able to pull 300-400# rocks out of the ground in springtime without having to hand dig them.

The downside to this was, the rocks had to be located within 100' of the closest 240v outlet so I could weld 2 pieces of 1/2" rebar together to form a loop after having drilled holes in the rock and hammering rebar into them...

Next, a Case 530CK which kinda ran followed me home, trailing hydro fluid from every cylinder. It could ACTUALLY DIG OUT ROCKS. BIG rocks. Rocks the size of a washing machine. Only downside was...I was buying tractor fluid 4 buckets at a time...weekly...

Bargained with my buddy to swap him a loader for an 8N I had bought for $200 in exchange for him rebuilding the leaking cylinders. He also got the use of the newly-reanimated machine to put in his septic and driveway.

He held up his end of the deal just fine. Only dowside was...halfway through his septic project, "the Great Hoe of Babylon" spun a main bearing. Amazingly, he was able to drive it the mile+ back to my place! So, I never got to really dig with the old gal after her leaks were fixed.

Next, a MF 230 (I think) with a side-shifter hoe made goo-goo eyes at me. Second decent-size rock I dug resulted in a blown hose. A quick 60 mile roundtrip to the conveniently-located hydro shop and I was back in business...only downside was-a seal somewhere between the bellhousing and the tranny also let go and hydro fluid began running out of the bellhousing. Running out FAST.
Never split a tractor before and don't plan to learn at this advanced age.

At this point it began to look as if I might be developing a pattern...

SO-I decided to spend 3X more money up front so I wouldn't spend as much on the back end.

Found a Ford 4500 TLB with a 740 loader and a 755 hoe. Think the loader specs say 6000#. Hoe has 15' depth, so far have not had to bury a body that deep...though if the right politician happens to be found trespassing...who knows?

This thing is a beast. Have dug out a 40" stump so heavy I had to fully extend the hoe to counterbalance it. Have dug a rock the size of a Smartcar. Couldn't lift it, but I could push it. Pushes over a 30' pine rather than chainsawing then having to dig the rootball. Who knew these things could be so much fun?

THE MORAL OF THE STORY IS: BUY ENOUGH MACHINE THE FIRST TIME-DO NOT BE "THAT GUY" LIKE ME!

Edited to fix fatfinger typos

 

[TIMMYDUCK]

I read your concern about the amount of maple leaves on your property .

Tractors can be an excellent resource for collecting them.

 

[scaredychicken]

We're nothing more than a collection of enablers.

TRUTH OF THE DAY



a Tractor sounds like a wonderful idea ... you probably need it more than you need your car.
implements are wonderful too, and you can never have enough

my suggestion (never to talk you out of a zero-turn) might be to get the tractor with planned implements, and add a mid-mount mower or pull behind mower. Maybe get the tractor first, and postpone the zero-turn for a season ... just my thought.

if you are planning to run a business on the property, the tractor will certainly pay for itself over time with the write-offs / tax credits

sounds like a fun place

welcome to the TBN forum - lots of good info here

 

[DML1214]

Hey all! I've been lurking for a bit but I've yet to see a use case quite like mine.

We recently bought a large ~1.5 acre property and historic home in a small town center in Maine. Originally a small horse farm, it was at one point extensively landscaped like a park, with lots of garden plots and about 60 old growth maples and while it's not a big property, it's been a fairly high maintenance one for its small size. The whole property is on a gently sloping hillside with about an acre of lawn, which currently takes me about 90+ minutes to mow with a commercial walk behind (there's a ZTR in our near future). On top of that, it had been neglected for a couple of decades when we bought it, and we're in the process of digging it out from the overgrowth and restoring it to its former glory.

We've got a long list of major landscaping projects planned, including building stone stairs and doing a lot of terracing/retaining wall construction to build foundations for an outdoor dining pavilion as well as a workshop/sugar shack/garage for the ZTR. In addition, the 60 maples generate about 20 cubic yards of leaves every year, which has been "fun" to manage and sustains a leaf pile that's about 45'x25'x6' deep. We're also doing the millennial hobby farmer thing and expanding a large vegetable garden and I'm growing a large hobbyist/small commercial scale maple syrup operation.

With the cost of getting any work done these days, I figure I'm easily at $30-40k or more to get all of the outstanding landscaping projects done, and between moving sap barrels around the yard during syrup season, gardening/landscaping odds and ends, and turning over our large compost pile, a loader would be nice to have. Am I crazy for thinking that a tractor more than pays for itself with the landscaping/earthmoving projects and afterwards becomes a useful tool for managing a small but high maintenance property while raising a growing family and often being pressed for time? What size/hp range should I be considering?

The only rear implements I'd likely be running are a box blade, a small rotary cultivator, and probably a wood chipper. I'd like to be able to lift/move ~800lbs for the landscaping projects. I was thinking that a 25hp emissions-exempt compact with loaded tires would be a good place to start. My local dealerships sell Deere, Kubota, Kioti, Massey Ferguson, and Yanmar, and they all seem pretty decent. If I even need a tractor, what should I look for?

Go for it. A 25 to 30 something HP tractor will serve you well. You'll use it more than you think. I don't see snow removal on your list but you'll likley use it for that too. If possible, get a quick disconnect front end to easily swap front end attachments, like a bucket, forks, snowblower, grapple, etc. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Yander]

I sold my farm and left my equipment go and moved to the suburbs on a 1/4 ac. lot and still wish I had my L3130 Kubota or 8N, if I had half an excuse I'd have one. Just the times I could use the bucket to lift things in the garage or haul tools or dirt to plant shrubs or flowers would be worth it. Let alone snow removal, tree trimming & gutter cleaning in the pallet lifter while my wife operates it, and garden rototilling. Repeat after me, I NEED A Tractor!

Hey Bob, take your own advice. Post some pics of your new tractor!