IrishStout
Member
Hello all,
First post here. I've been checking in for the last few months, and have been reading more heavily for the last few weeks, so I thought it time to sign up.
We moved to our property, 19 acres, this past November. We have about 9 acres of hay, and surrounded on 2 sides by a nature preserve and the road to the preserve is on my property. The neighbor is doing the hay with his tractor, mower, baler, and a 4 wheel rake I bought us this spring. We are providing labor to pull the hay from both our fields plus paying him $2/bale. I have no tractor at the moment. The previous owner had a JD 4600, and my neighbor has a Yanmar/Cub Cadet 50 horse tractor. I''m starting to look for a tractor to pull general duties around the property, (bush hog, lumber recovery, snow, etc) but also would like to be able to contribute more the the hay production so that I am not paying for the hay work.
I've started to get more serious about getting a tractor and have been researching heavily. I have never owned a tractor so there has been a lot of learning along the way. I have no hard deadline for a purchase. I would like to get a tractor with enough pto horsepower to run the baler and mower/conditioner, which from checking out the previous owners tractor, would put me about 35 pto hp. As most do, I started looking at any and all brands out there. I would prefer new since I have terrible luck with used purchases, and I like the idea of a warranty and that I will really know how the machine has been treated. I'm currently really looking at Kubota and Kioti. JD is pricey and I'm concerned the quality is slipping. I looked at LS for a hot second, but I have serious concerns about dealer network support, parts, warranty being honored, and real lack of info about the company on their website, just too many ??. I will say the LS tractors do offer a lot of options standard that you don't see on other brands, and a nice price too. Mahindra and Massey I'm just not sure they are what they used to be.
After researching online and watching what seems like every youtube video, I though it was time to get out and kick some tires at dealers to see the tractors in person. I went to my closest Kubota dealer (10 miles) last week to check out their offerings. I always head straight to the equipment on the lot so that I can wander around the machines by myself before getting attacked by sales guys. They had a few machines on the lot I was interested in, L3301/3901/4701. Sales guy came out about 10 minutes later. He spent about an hour with me answering all of my "new tractor guy" questions, and seemed happy to do so. Long story short he gave me a few quotes for tractor, loader, quick hitch, and rear remotes, which as expected was more than what I could get a nice Kioti or Kubota package deal for by travelling a few hours south. No big deal this was just a kick the tire visit. Today I had some time so I decided to drive an hour to the Kioti dealer who is the closest I'd consider buying from. There is one about 30 minutes away that I stopped by, but it was like a big box store for tractors. Anyway, this dealers website showed a significant number of Kioti's on hand. What I failed to realize until I got there was most of them were still in crates on the lot. they had 2 CK3510's and a DK4510 out front. My interest in Kioti is CK3510SE, CK4010SE, or DK4510, so not all lost. So I start checking out the tractors. I was surprised at the corrosion on the various parts of the tractor. clearly they had been sitting on the lot a while? Corroded seat brackets, loader shaft, what I believe was the starter and terminals, loader release handle,etc. Wow, I don't recall seeing anything like that on the Kubota's. It's possible they were 2018 models, but still. I looked around, the place was not busy, no sales guy bothered to come out. Not sure this is the dealer for me. There is another Kioti dealer an hour south of me that seems to get good reviews that I'll check out in a few days.
Sorry for the long bit there. I really thought/think Kioti was what I wanted, but was not expecting what I saw. Everybody wants a good machine at a good price, most important to me is a good dealer and support. I don't mind if I have to drive an hour or so for it. I'll keep visiting dealers and doing my online bit.
If you made it through all that, thanks for reading. Wanted to introduce myself and give an idea of where I think I'm headed.
First post here. I've been checking in for the last few months, and have been reading more heavily for the last few weeks, so I thought it time to sign up.
We moved to our property, 19 acres, this past November. We have about 9 acres of hay, and surrounded on 2 sides by a nature preserve and the road to the preserve is on my property. The neighbor is doing the hay with his tractor, mower, baler, and a 4 wheel rake I bought us this spring. We are providing labor to pull the hay from both our fields plus paying him $2/bale. I have no tractor at the moment. The previous owner had a JD 4600, and my neighbor has a Yanmar/Cub Cadet 50 horse tractor. I''m starting to look for a tractor to pull general duties around the property, (bush hog, lumber recovery, snow, etc) but also would like to be able to contribute more the the hay production so that I am not paying for the hay work.
I've started to get more serious about getting a tractor and have been researching heavily. I have never owned a tractor so there has been a lot of learning along the way. I have no hard deadline for a purchase. I would like to get a tractor with enough pto horsepower to run the baler and mower/conditioner, which from checking out the previous owners tractor, would put me about 35 pto hp. As most do, I started looking at any and all brands out there. I would prefer new since I have terrible luck with used purchases, and I like the idea of a warranty and that I will really know how the machine has been treated. I'm currently really looking at Kubota and Kioti. JD is pricey and I'm concerned the quality is slipping. I looked at LS for a hot second, but I have serious concerns about dealer network support, parts, warranty being honored, and real lack of info about the company on their website, just too many ??. I will say the LS tractors do offer a lot of options standard that you don't see on other brands, and a nice price too. Mahindra and Massey I'm just not sure they are what they used to be.
After researching online and watching what seems like every youtube video, I though it was time to get out and kick some tires at dealers to see the tractors in person. I went to my closest Kubota dealer (10 miles) last week to check out their offerings. I always head straight to the equipment on the lot so that I can wander around the machines by myself before getting attacked by sales guys. They had a few machines on the lot I was interested in, L3301/3901/4701. Sales guy came out about 10 minutes later. He spent about an hour with me answering all of my "new tractor guy" questions, and seemed happy to do so. Long story short he gave me a few quotes for tractor, loader, quick hitch, and rear remotes, which as expected was more than what I could get a nice Kioti or Kubota package deal for by travelling a few hours south. No big deal this was just a kick the tire visit. Today I had some time so I decided to drive an hour to the Kioti dealer who is the closest I'd consider buying from. There is one about 30 minutes away that I stopped by, but it was like a big box store for tractors. Anyway, this dealers website showed a significant number of Kioti's on hand. What I failed to realize until I got there was most of them were still in crates on the lot. they had 2 CK3510's and a DK4510 out front. My interest in Kioti is CK3510SE, CK4010SE, or DK4510, so not all lost. So I start checking out the tractors. I was surprised at the corrosion on the various parts of the tractor. clearly they had been sitting on the lot a while? Corroded seat brackets, loader shaft, what I believe was the starter and terminals, loader release handle,etc. Wow, I don't recall seeing anything like that on the Kubota's. It's possible they were 2018 models, but still. I looked around, the place was not busy, no sales guy bothered to come out. Not sure this is the dealer for me. There is another Kioti dealer an hour south of me that seems to get good reviews that I'll check out in a few days.
Sorry for the long bit there. I really thought/think Kioti was what I wanted, but was not expecting what I saw. Everybody wants a good machine at a good price, most important to me is a good dealer and support. I don't mind if I have to drive an hour or so for it. I'll keep visiting dealers and doing my online bit.
If you made it through all that, thanks for reading. Wanted to introduce myself and give an idea of where I think I'm headed.
