About to place an order - sanity check, please.

[gunmonkeyintl]

The wife and I bought a farm this spring, and I am getting ready to order a tractor but, not having much experience with them, I would like to get a sniff-check before I place my order.

Land / Work Details
45 acres - ~35 wooded (50ish year growth) and ~10 acres yard/pasture. The land is appalacian foothills, so there is some roll to it. Between the small apple orchard and the yard, I have about 2 acres to mow, and another 3/4 ac in garden (using 1/4 ac right now). The remainder of the cleared land is pasture that hasn't been used in a few years, with barns attached and some fence posts in place. The wooded sections have a couple old logging roads that haven't been maintained in 10 years or so. The road beds are about 800-1000 yards in length, total. A small spring-creek runs along the longest of the roads.

I would like to mow the lawn/orchard, reclaim the logging roads (which will involve back-filling a culvert that the creek has washed out), and refurb the pastures and their fences in the next couple years. My tillers are currently plenty to keep the garden cut, but there is a 1 ac grain field that I may reclaim at some point. Also, I am planning to put up bee hives along the logging road - so I may want to flatten out some spots along the road to set them up.

I started out talking to a Kubota dealer (45 min away), who had me looking at either an L3800 or L4600. I didn't get a warm/fuzzy off him - he didn't seem overly enthusiastic about selling me a tractor. He handed me a brochure and told me I needed an L3800, without explaining why. He didn't want to talk about the New Hollands he had there - just said everyone orders the L Kubota. I had to remind him a couple days after I visited the dealership that I was still waiting on a quote.

Then, I found a Kioti dealer about 1 hour away, and he was much more helpful. He presented a couple models. He priced out a CK30, which he said was the closest to the L3800. And then a DK40, which he said he thought I'd be happier with. Without dogging the Kubota, he convinced me, point by point, to go with the DK. Initially, I had only considered Kubota and JD, thinking of Kioti as an off-brand, but I'm pretty sure the Kioti dealer has won my business. So...

Here is what I am planning to order

• Kioti DK40SE HST w/ KL401 Loader.
• Dual Rear Remotes - 4 plugs. (Not sure, but I would likely want that at some point and it is cheaper/easier to do it from the start. Good advice?)
• R4 tires (said this would be the best compromise if I am going to mow with it)
• 6' Kioti Finish Mower
• 5' Southern Rotary Cutter
• Post Hole Digger - 6" Auger

I've made friends with the neighbor, who has a similar sized tractor and a bunch of implements. He has offered to lend me whatever I needed, but I decided that I'd like to have my own brush hog. Also, he doesn't have a post hole digger, so I can reciprocate on what I might borrow from him.

Bottom line: does this package make sense? I don't know what I don't know. You know?

 

[k0ua]

Bottom line.. Yes. makes sense. Rotary cutter could have been a 6 foot. You will be very happy with the DK40, I have its little brother the Dk35se The DK is a much nicer tractor than the L3800 with a lot of nice features. and much more lift capacity on the Loader.. Don't get me wrong ,I have owned 2 kubota's and I like Kubota just fine, but the DK40 is a great value. Yes good advice on the remotes. Sign the papers...

James K0UA

 

[murphy1244]

Have them set the rear tires to the widest setting. Yes get the second remote now also before they deliver check how hard it is to use the throttle as James just posted his fix for that. Have them do it instead.

 

[BethelHntr]

You have found a nice piece of equipment that will give you many years of service if properly taken care of. I'd get the 6' cutter as K0ua stated and also think about the addition of a backhoe, It is expensive but incredibly handy.

 

[jenkinsph]

I suspect the DK40HST will work well for you from what you outlined as tasks to do. I prefer a separate mower for the lawn and would go that route instead of a finish mower if that is your intended use for it.

About the attachments, the phd and rotary cutter are important to have when you need them and very few tools cross over well imo. Being that both are pto operated implements I wouldn't be keen on borrowing them. I have several other implements and find that some of them sit the the majority of the time while others seem to get used often. The implements I use the most are a 3ph tiller 6', landplane grader blade and a pine needle rake. The ones I use the least are the landscape rakes, 3ph chipper, 3ph spin spreader, field cultivator and 3ph harrow. Having things such as a boxblade, disk, grapples and forks available would be handy too.

That said I would recommend you start with the tractor and hydraulic top link, telescopic lower links. A 6 ft rotary cutter, phd with 9" auger, pine needle rake and a good riding mower with a large deck. I would also think a ssqa bucket set up on the fel with a grapple would be very useful to you. The landplane graderblade and a rear blade are both good add ons too if you can budget them.

 

[TripleR]

All good advice and Kioti is definitely not an off brand, I would probably want a bit bigger tractor and a separate machine for finish mowing, we have several and they seem to shrink once you get them on your property.

Definitely go with dual remotes, I like three and a hydraulic top link, I really like a TnT setup personally, but don't know if it is an option.

Tires set wide and fluid filled, put some bucket hooks on and what the others said, I think you could go 5' or 6' on a rotary cutter, just check your rear tire width.

Good luck and enjoy.:thumbsup:

 

[JohninCT]

As others have said, the Kioti offers plenty of good machine at a good value. You will be happy with it. I also agree with using a separate mower for finish work so I myself would skip the finish mower for a nice heavy box blade. 6 inch auger is kind of small. You would probably get the most use/utility out of either a 9 or 12 inch instead. Bigger hole helps to get rocks out easier and you can shift the post a little way this or that in the hole to line up with others if need be.

 

[k0ua]

Remember on your finish mower, that it IS a finish mower.. in other words. NO rocks no big sticks etc.. It is just like a fixed blade lawn mower, it if hits a big rock, the blade will "wad up". I don't know how smooth the orchard area you want to mow is, but if you can mow it with a lawn mower you will be fine, otherwise use the rotary cutter, it has swinging blades and can stand hitting a rock or root or big stick. The finish mower will give a nice pretty cut, the rotary cutter will not. Although it is not too bad looking. Remember you will have SSQA on your front end loader, and that just begs for a set of pallet forks. A real handy thing to have. and not too expensive. I have a set and get quite a bit of use out of them. I have also recently gotten a grapple for the front as well. SSQA (Skid Steer Quick Attach) makes all of this possible. A lot of guys have a boxblade and find it a very usefull tool as well as using it for ballast.. Remember you WILL need ballast for the rear on your 3pt hitch if you try to lift much of anything with that powerful front end loader. I made a concrete filled ballast barrel for mine.

Without ballast you are unsafe to lift a full bucket of heavy materiel with a loader that can lift 2760 lbs. I have 3/4 filled "loaded" rear tires as well as my ballest barrel on the 3pt when I try to lift anything of any significant weight in the loader. Also always remember to carry heavy loads as low as safely possible, especially on any kind of rough or tilting ground. Low and slow when loaded.

Good luck with your new machine if you decide to go ahead and pull the trigger, you will really enjoy it, and come back here often to ask questions, no matter if you think they are "stupid" or not, we will be happy to answer them to the best of our ability. I have owned 5 tractors in a little over 20 years, and I learn new things about tractor operation every day. Some of the things I have learned were the "hard way".

James K0UA

 

[IXLR8]

I just upgraded to a DK40 from a CK30. They both had the industrial tires, I believe the R4's. The tires on the CK are wider than the DK tires and the CK weighed less. The DK being heavier, with narrower tires, does more damage to my lawn than the CK did and I would not recommend it for lawn mowing, if you want a nice lawn. I would get a nice Zero-turn for the lawn mowing. For mowing the orchard, the DK should be fine. The KL401 is a powerful loader and you will need at least loaded tires and 1100lbs of something on the 3pt to take full advantage of it. Otherwise you will just lift the rear tires off the ground.. DAMHIK

 

[GManBart]

You definitely found a a great machine. I had some similar tasks and it came down to the same Kioti, or my LS....very close call, and I'm sure I would have been equally happy with the Kioti.

A couple of quick points on the implements. I would bump up to a 6' brush cutter...they tend to work well when they're a bit wider than the rear tread, and you have plenty of PTO power to run it. I would go with a bigger finish mower (I have a 7'5" and it's not too big at all), but that's mostly if the areas you're going to mow are relatively open. If you have a lot of trees, or other obstacles, a zero turn will work better. I run a ZT around the house, and fenced areas, then use the 90" finish mower to cover the open ground, and the combo saves me time over the ZT alone.

I wouldn't get stuck on the brand implements that the dealer carries....the dealers get them from a supplier, and frequently put the paint/stickers on them to match your tractor, but they're made by somebody else. You might want to compare prices on the finish mower and rotary cutter with a big place like Everything Attachments as a sanity check. I decided to buy used, and got a heavy duty Rhino rotary cutter for $500, and a 90" Sitrex mower for $1000. New belts and blades in the mower, new blades on the cutter, check the gear oil on both, and they're running perfectly...savings of $3K plus.

To maximize the powerful loader on the DK, you're going to need a counterweight, not just loaded tires. Loaded tires help with traction, and some counterweight to the loader, but they don't take the weight off the front axles, which can cause wear/damage over time. You also won't be able to get max lift with just loaded tires (Kioti specs over 1K pounds on the 3pt for loader work). There are tons of good ideas on how to come up with a counterweight that you can research here (even a 55gal drum filled with concrete will do the trick).

Definitely get a set of pallet forks! You'll use them more than you can imagine.