Buying Advice Always two there must be?!

[TheMadOne]

The subject of tractors came up with a farmer friend of mine, and he recommended that I should budget for two tractors. One new(ish) smaller tractor with a FEL and one bigger used tractor without. His logic is that having a second tractor would, in combination with a cart, allow a single person to do much more, or two people to do even more than that.

The logic behind only one having a FEL is that the cart tractor will be mostly...well...pulling the cart, and have no need for it.

The reason for the larger tractor being hooked to the cart is so that you can fill the cart more, I guess.

The cart tractor wouldn't be getting worked as hard as the FEL one, and so could be older and still be expected to hold up.

With two tractors, as long as you don't need the FEL, if one goes down you still have one.

He also recommended that the bigger one have a cab if possible, since it wouldn't need to get into all the tight areas the FEL one would.

Thoughts?

 

[newbury]

Three chainsaws, two tractors, one wife.

 

[DT86]

Depends on what your doing I guess. What are you supposed to be carting?

 

[TheMadOne]

Depends on what your doing I guess. What are you supposed to be carting?

Firewood/brush mostly. His logic is that by the time I bring the tree to where I can buck and limb it with the smaller tractor, that having a second tractor ready to go and haul the wood would be much faster and easier than having to hook the smaller tractor to the cart, drive it to the pile, empty it, return, unhook, and repeat. Pretty much the same story for moving dirt around. Leaving the cart hooked to a tractor and loading it with the FEL of the other one.

 

[bcp]

An older 4x4 pickup would be more all around useful than a 2nd tractor for pulling the cart.

Bruce

 

[Wagtail]

As DT86 says but with the caveat of what your circumstances are.

In a way, your farmer friend's axiom held true for me. I bought my big tractor first, thinking that that would be all that I'd need; what with the implements I'd bought to go with it. This included a 3pt slasher.

It soon became apparent that I needed a second smaller tractor (the D110) to mow/mulch and, via a wheeled cart, do/haul smaller things around the property.

Since buying the lawn tractor, I've used the big tractor's slasher only 3 times in as many years.

 

[Bird]

I know a fellow in the hay and beef cattle business who had his own 18-wheeler to haul the hay he sold, and he had 2 John Deere tractors with air-conditioned cabs. He usually worked alone. So he finally got a third John Deere with air-conditioned cab. He'd cut the hay with one tractor; didn't have to unhook the cutter because he had the rake on one tractor and the baler on the other one. But the oddest thing, to me anyway, was when he'd start baling hay, he'd rake some, leave that tractor running with the A/C on so it wouldn't get too hot inside while he baled a bit, then leave the tractor with the baler running while he raked some more. When I saw what he was doing, I could hardly believe it.

 

[Grandad4]

Not a bad theory. If you're in the farming business, you get to depreciate your equipment so it's not the same as those of us who just own property that needs work. But heck, some of us own more than one tractor too! Funny how that works.

 

[Looking4new]

For every implement you should have a tractor hooked to it.

 

[murphy1244]

Yea screw the Quick hitch when you can Quick Tractor..:thumbsup:

 

[brasco426]

Yea screw the Quick hitch when you can Quick Tractor..:thumbsup:

x10

 

[dieselcrawler]

That's what my father in law does. MF165 runs the disk mower, mf150 has a tedder on it, Ford 3000 has the rotovator rake. That gives him a day or two to get the disk mower off and hook up to the round bailer with the mf165. And there's a skid steer to load the bails on trailers, and a mf135 with a loader back at the barn to unload and stacked with... yup, ol man is tractor poor...

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Not a bad theory. If you're in the farming business, you get to depreciate your equipment so it's not the same as those of us who just own property that needs work. But heck, some of us own more than one tractor too! Funny how that works.

More to the point, if you use your equipment enough that you wear it out, if you have more it wears out more slowly and doesn't cost you any more. Let's say you can wear out a piece of equipment in four years. If you have two of them each will last eight years with the same use. Either way you're buying a new one every four years on average.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Lol... I think my father in law is on the 50 year trade in schedule. Every tractor he has is 40+ years old!

 

[jenkinsph]

Lol... I think my father in law is on the 50 year trade in schedule. Every tractor he has is 40+ years old!

These tractors you mention are easy to work on and fix as needed. Bet he has all of them paid for and knows what the capabilities of each are. Plenty of back up in case one goes down during hay season. Sounds reasonable to me.

 

[bspeedy]

If you have the budget, the two-tractor approach does have its benefits. Ever been stuck on the woods and unable to extract yourself with bucket / backhoe? And somewhere that the pickup could never go? That second tractor has saved me about once per year at my place. Also handy with breakdowns, etc. Spend reasonable money on a good older 2nd machine and don't look back. Not like it will be worth less if you need to sell it.

I like the one tractor per implement idea. That would be very handy sometimes. Storage space might be an issue, though.

 

[oldnslo]

If you are going to be loading a two wheeled trailer with the tongue supported by the jack I would definitely want a second tractor to keep the trailer hitched up. My faith in jacks supporting loads is minimal at best. tractors are much easier and less painful to repair than smashed legs and feet from a jack collapsing.

 

[TheMadOne]

If you are going to be loading a two wheeled trailer with the tongue supported by the jack I would definitely want a second tractor to keep the trailer hitched up. My faith in jacks supporting loads is minimal at best. tractors are much easier and less painful to repair than smashed legs and feet from a jack collapsing.

My cart is a two wheeler. Maybe that's why he suggested it.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Two tractors are preferable to one in most cases. You need one 60+ HP and one 30- HP so you can get to all places and lift large loads when needed. I prefer to have FEL on both. I use my LS to move large loads, push over trees, pull up stumps, bushhog pasture, till up the garden with 72" tiller and disk up pasture for reseeding. I use my Kubota TLB for digging, all kinds of digging like stumps, dead standing trees, rocks, burial plots for animals and moving small amounts of dirt when I need to fill in some small holes in the yard. It is light enough so it doesn't damage the grass.

AND lets not forget to have the second tractor to pull out the one that is stuck, BTDT.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Also while spending other folks money like I did mine, you need a UTV like my Kubota RTV to save your legs from lots of steps, haul small stuff like small rocks, dirt, trimmed limbs etc. I cant really believe that we got by on the farm as a kid without a utility vehicle BUT we did. Probably the reason my hips are worn out now from all that walking. We didn't have a backhoe either and that is another thing I cant do without now.