John in AR
New member
We finally moved to our rural property and I'm looking into tractors. Been looking into them for quite a while, but am just now getting serious about pulling the trigger on one.
Fwiw, our situation - right at 40 acres, but only ~10 of it is cleared; the rest is scrub woods. Basically have ~2 acres of 'lawn' around the house and ~8 acres of field/pasture to bush hog. On the lawn near the house, still have our old 48" Deere riding mower that can do that no problem, so I'm okay without a finish mower on the new tractor, at least initially. I want to eventually put in some trails and maybe some cleared areas in the woods, for riding, shooting range, or whatever else. Not a ton, but it's something I'll need the tractor to do to one degree or another. I'm assuming a grapple (and therefore a third-function valve up front) would be almost a must-have, but that's just an assumption - there may be something better that I'm not aware of. On brush-hog, a 6' would be nice, but with the future trail-clearing work, I wonder if a smaller 5' hog with bigger cut-diameter rating might be a better idea. Not sure if HST is very important for our purposes; seems like a good idea, but never used one besides our current riding mower.
Initially I was intrigued by the B2601HST, largely probably because of all the youtube videos with them. Then I sat on one, and it was a deal-killer before even starting up the tractor. I wear size 15 shoes, and the rocker pedal (size and location both) was an immediate no-go for me personally. Just too small and too close. The dealer had an L3301 and it was a little better, but still didn't really like it. I went to a New Holland dealer in the same town and was surprised to see a few Kioti's there. I'd never looked into a Kioti, and checked out a CK3510 and a Workmaster 25(?) there; of the two I was much more comfortable on the CK3510, and am leaning that direction at this point. Neither dealer is particularly close to us, both 45 minutes away or so. Can't really define the 'why' of it, but for whatever reason, the CK was the most comfortable of the new tractors I've tried, all of which have only been briefly.
Basically, looking for guidance, ideas, and pitfalls of the Kioti compared to the New Holland, and is the Kubota enough 'better' that it would be worth the reduced physical comfort?
Fwiw, our situation - right at 40 acres, but only ~10 of it is cleared; the rest is scrub woods. Basically have ~2 acres of 'lawn' around the house and ~8 acres of field/pasture to bush hog. On the lawn near the house, still have our old 48" Deere riding mower that can do that no problem, so I'm okay without a finish mower on the new tractor, at least initially. I want to eventually put in some trails and maybe some cleared areas in the woods, for riding, shooting range, or whatever else. Not a ton, but it's something I'll need the tractor to do to one degree or another. I'm assuming a grapple (and therefore a third-function valve up front) would be almost a must-have, but that's just an assumption - there may be something better that I'm not aware of. On brush-hog, a 6' would be nice, but with the future trail-clearing work, I wonder if a smaller 5' hog with bigger cut-diameter rating might be a better idea. Not sure if HST is very important for our purposes; seems like a good idea, but never used one besides our current riding mower.
Initially I was intrigued by the B2601HST, largely probably because of all the youtube videos with them. Then I sat on one, and it was a deal-killer before even starting up the tractor. I wear size 15 shoes, and the rocker pedal (size and location both) was an immediate no-go for me personally. Just too small and too close. The dealer had an L3301 and it was a little better, but still didn't really like it. I went to a New Holland dealer in the same town and was surprised to see a few Kioti's there. I'd never looked into a Kioti, and checked out a CK3510 and a Workmaster 25(?) there; of the two I was much more comfortable on the CK3510, and am leaning that direction at this point. Neither dealer is particularly close to us, both 45 minutes away or so. Can't really define the 'why' of it, but for whatever reason, the CK was the most comfortable of the new tractors I've tried, all of which have only been briefly.
Basically, looking for guidance, ideas, and pitfalls of the Kioti compared to the New Holland, and is the Kubota enough 'better' that it would be worth the reduced physical comfort?
