deezler
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2012
- Messages
- 3,572
- Location
- Southeast MI
- Tractor
- Cub Cadet 7305, Kioti CK3510seh TLB
Well, I finally found a bargain for a nice used machine in the size, weight and power range that I have been targeting (28-35 HP, 2500+ lbs, under 5' wide).
Back story: my wife and I just bought a 19 acre parcel of vacant land. We are currently renting a house just under 2 miles away, and the dream is to get some farming and recreation going on the new land for now, and someday (hopefully soon) start building our dream home. So as the winter has been so pathetic, and with spring just around the corner, I wanted to get my equipment in line to start breaking ground as soon as the weather allows. Because the property is quite overgrown, the first step is to clear in a driveway and open up a bit of space in the interior. Then cut some trails to allow better scouting of the terrain. So the main thing I wanted was obviously a fairly potent CUT with a nice assortment of implements. I am hoping to require minimal contracted digging work in the future.
So I hit the interwebs and started visiting dealerships. It was beginning to look pretty bleak there for a while. Anything used was either very old and beat up (high hours), or like new, and priced as new (why do some people think their machines don't depreciate?!?). The local dealers in my area were either mostly unresponsive (You don't "do" email? WTF?), or could only get a reasonably sized machine down to the 17 or 18k range on price. Being young and broke-ish, that was hard to swallow. A co-worker had a Mahindra 2615 he said he might sell me... but after further discussion, it didn't seem like he wanted to, and ~20 HP at the PTO felt a little low anyway. But she was in great shape:
To be honest, I never even thought about trying to find a Cub-Cadet tractor. I was vaguely aware that they bought and re-sold these Mitsubishi made tractors for a while, but I don't see many at all around here, and hadn't researched them. But then my daily search-tempest scan turned up a 2001 Cub Cadet 7305 with super low hours (~135!). Only one grainy picture with the ad, but it looked pretty clean, and the initial phone calls with the seller were reassuring. So he agreed to hold it for me over the last week and I got my ducks in a row. Financing secured, buddy to come along with me, dad's truck ready (so I thought) and a rental trailer. This is all new stuff for me.
I expected a bit of an adventure and the journey did not disappoint. Got a late start and was already feeling a bit rushed, as the seller (a dealership) closed at noon. The equipment trailer was probably ~2000lbs on its own, and the big rear ramps hanging up into the wind let me know I had a load to pull, even before getting the tractor. So I couldn't seem to do much more than ~65mph, but after about almost an hour on the highway, this happened:
Not a flat. An almost instant blow out. Thankfully I had a weigh station on-ramp to quickly swerve over to and get well out of the roadway. Looked at the three remaining tires... all dry rotted, cracked, and looking generally quite scary. Oops. People, don't do what I did and drive on tires that look so crappy. Inspect them regularly.
Went to grab the spare tire (original from 1995...) and it was totally flat. Great. Call to AAA and a tow truck pulls up eventually. He swaps the spare wheel/tire on there for me, and even after I told him it was flat, proceeds to drop the truck right down onto it. ARg! But it held. Then he pulls out a tiny cylinder of pre-compressed air. "Is that all you brought ?!?" ... "yep, hope it's enough". The answer was: barely. Probably got it almost to 20psi. Thankfully the next exit was only a mile further, and I could get some proper air in it.
So we are now scared sh*tless about the remaining 3 old tires. Are they going to hold? Who knows, but if I don't make it to get this tractor by noon, he is going to sell it to someone else. So we push on and made it. Thankfully, the tractor looks awesome and I am happy to purchase it. So we settle up and start to get it loaded. Back the trailer up, hit the parking brake and.. SNAP! goes the pedal. Awesome, did I just lock the parking brake on, and now we're totally stuck here? Thankfully, no, it was disengaged.
She's mine! Now we just have to make it home....
An important stop along the way was to pick up a 5' King Kutter brush hog, as this was another implement I knew I wanted and didn't want to pay full price for. Well off the beaten path I find the ranch it's being sold at. Try to back up the trailer to where the cutter is sitting and.... STUCK in the mud. awesome. We need 4 guys to drag this heavy *** brush hog up onto the trailer, but we get it secured. Now: 4WD on, let's try again to back out of here. Jack-knifed it, totally screwed. So they pull up their F350 and yank us out of there. Phewf.
Make it home on back roads, keeping under 45mph. Took forever, but went smoothly. And the best part of all is now I get to look out my window and see it! Going to get her dirty out on the land next weekend!
Back story: my wife and I just bought a 19 acre parcel of vacant land. We are currently renting a house just under 2 miles away, and the dream is to get some farming and recreation going on the new land for now, and someday (hopefully soon) start building our dream home. So as the winter has been so pathetic, and with spring just around the corner, I wanted to get my equipment in line to start breaking ground as soon as the weather allows. Because the property is quite overgrown, the first step is to clear in a driveway and open up a bit of space in the interior. Then cut some trails to allow better scouting of the terrain. So the main thing I wanted was obviously a fairly potent CUT with a nice assortment of implements. I am hoping to require minimal contracted digging work in the future.
So I hit the interwebs and started visiting dealerships. It was beginning to look pretty bleak there for a while. Anything used was either very old and beat up (high hours), or like new, and priced as new (why do some people think their machines don't depreciate?!?). The local dealers in my area were either mostly unresponsive (You don't "do" email? WTF?), or could only get a reasonably sized machine down to the 17 or 18k range on price. Being young and broke-ish, that was hard to swallow. A co-worker had a Mahindra 2615 he said he might sell me... but after further discussion, it didn't seem like he wanted to, and ~20 HP at the PTO felt a little low anyway. But she was in great shape:
To be honest, I never even thought about trying to find a Cub-Cadet tractor. I was vaguely aware that they bought and re-sold these Mitsubishi made tractors for a while, but I don't see many at all around here, and hadn't researched them. But then my daily search-tempest scan turned up a 2001 Cub Cadet 7305 with super low hours (~135!). Only one grainy picture with the ad, but it looked pretty clean, and the initial phone calls with the seller were reassuring. So he agreed to hold it for me over the last week and I got my ducks in a row. Financing secured, buddy to come along with me, dad's truck ready (so I thought) and a rental trailer. This is all new stuff for me.
I expected a bit of an adventure and the journey did not disappoint. Got a late start and was already feeling a bit rushed, as the seller (a dealership) closed at noon. The equipment trailer was probably ~2000lbs on its own, and the big rear ramps hanging up into the wind let me know I had a load to pull, even before getting the tractor. So I couldn't seem to do much more than ~65mph, but after about almost an hour on the highway, this happened:
Not a flat. An almost instant blow out. Thankfully I had a weigh station on-ramp to quickly swerve over to and get well out of the roadway. Looked at the three remaining tires... all dry rotted, cracked, and looking generally quite scary. Oops. People, don't do what I did and drive on tires that look so crappy. Inspect them regularly.
Went to grab the spare tire (original from 1995...) and it was totally flat. Great. Call to AAA and a tow truck pulls up eventually. He swaps the spare wheel/tire on there for me, and even after I told him it was flat, proceeds to drop the truck right down onto it. ARg! But it held. Then he pulls out a tiny cylinder of pre-compressed air. "Is that all you brought ?!?" ... "yep, hope it's enough". The answer was: barely. Probably got it almost to 20psi. Thankfully the next exit was only a mile further, and I could get some proper air in it.
So we are now scared sh*tless about the remaining 3 old tires. Are they going to hold? Who knows, but if I don't make it to get this tractor by noon, he is going to sell it to someone else. So we push on and made it. Thankfully, the tractor looks awesome and I am happy to purchase it. So we settle up and start to get it loaded. Back the trailer up, hit the parking brake and.. SNAP! goes the pedal. Awesome, did I just lock the parking brake on, and now we're totally stuck here? Thankfully, no, it was disengaged.
She's mine! Now we just have to make it home....
An important stop along the way was to pick up a 5' King Kutter brush hog, as this was another implement I knew I wanted and didn't want to pay full price for. Well off the beaten path I find the ranch it's being sold at. Try to back up the trailer to where the cutter is sitting and.... STUCK in the mud. awesome. We need 4 guys to drag this heavy *** brush hog up onto the trailer, but we get it secured. Now: 4WD on, let's try again to back out of here. Jack-knifed it, totally screwed. So they pull up their F350 and yank us out of there. Phewf.
Make it home on back roads, keeping under 45mph. Took forever, but went smoothly. And the best part of all is now I get to look out my window and see it! Going to get her dirty out on the land next weekend!
Last edited:
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