First time tractor

[RobinOK]

Howdy,
Long time lurker working toward purchasing my first tractor. Was hoping to get the advice of anyone here on the forum to make sure I'm not over-sizing the model I'm looking at. I've got 10 acres about 60% dense wooded, rocky, hilly and 40% cleared yard/fields. Main tasks would be digging trenches for irrigation, digging out old stumps, digging out rocks, preparing new plots for planting or beds for the wife. Move around pallets of mulch etc. Moving large branches/stumps/logs. Rough-cutting about an acre worth of semi-cleared forest area working around trees etc.
Implements that I would expect to use the most- FEL, backhoe, rotary cutter or flail mower, some type of grapple, and maybe eventually a tiller and PTO-powered chipper.

I had been looking at the T474 vs 4820 vs T494 but having a hard time judging just how much lifting capacity I need as I'm bad at estimating the weight of some of the rocks/logs I need to move around. Also know that larger tractors tend to be more stable for novices but I also don't want something too big as some of the forested area is pretty tight with trees and terrain.

Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendations.

Rob

 

[K5lwq]

Welcome to TBN. Out of the models you listed and the task you have mentioned, I would go with the 4820. The main reason is it has the tightest turning radius out of the 3 and that would come in handy in the woods.

 

[2manyrocks]

There are various log weight estimators you could use like this one: Log Weight Calculator at WOODWEB

 

[Thomas]

Welcome to TBN...enjoy.

 

[jeff9366]

Long time lurker working toward purchasing my first tractor. I've got 10 acres about 60% dense wooded, rocky, hilly and 40% cleared yard/fields.

I recommend any brand of 4-WD tractor of 3,700 to 4,200 pounds bare tractor weight.

Sufficient tractor weight is more important for most tractor applications than increased tractor horsepower. Bare tractor weight is a tractor specification easily found in sales brochures and web sites, readily comparable across tractor brands and tractor models, new and used.

A quality dealer, reasonably close, available for coaching, is important for tractor neophytes. Most new tractors are delivered with a glitch or two requiring correction. My Kubota dealer is six miles away. I feel my local dealer continues to add value to my equipment after eight years. Dealer proximity is less important for those experienced with tractors and qualified to perform their own maintenance.

BUY ENOUGH TRACTOR.​

What tractor brands are these model numbers associated with? T474 vs 4820 vs T494

TYM T474​

ROPS Weight

3230 lbs 1465 kg

​

Branson 4820R​

Weight

3831 lbs 1737 kg

​

TYM T494​

ROPS Weight:

4012 lbs 1819 kg

 

[paulsharvey]

I'll be the contratian; 85% of what you mentioned is the work for a dedicated TLB, which is every bit of 10x the machine that TYM is. I would look at potentially renting a TLB for 1 month (should be approx $2500) and doing the heavy work, then sizing the tractor for your routine work, once the major site development is complete. Stumps are a major effort, even with something like a fill sized back hoe or a mini-mid sized track hoe (Cat-308; JD-85; Komatsu PC80); and that sounds like a major part of the initial work. I would rent the back hoe (JD-310 sized machine, not one of the true baby ones); run it like a rented mule for 30 days, and send it back.

 

[paulsharvey]

The back hoe on a utility or compact tractor seems to normally fall into 1 of 2 categories; you either leave it on almost all the time (which means you can't use it as a tractor), or you stick it in the barn, and almost never dig it cause it's a bit of a pain to swap on/off.

It's too expensive of an attachment (guessing $7500) for something you use for a month, and stow in the barn. That's just my opinion,

 

[paulsharvey]

Sunbelt looks like $3300/4 weeks; and pretty much any rental place will beat Sunbelt's prices.

I feel like a tractor mounted back hoe is almost never the right tool for the job, and it fits a good roll for when you randomly Need to dig a big hole, unannounced, like burying a random horse/cow, where you don't want to wait a couple days, and you dang sure don't want to shovel dig.

At the same time, maybe this is just hate from me, cause I don't have the spare cash for one... I have used them on a 25ish HP yanmar CUT. and they do dig, they are far worse at it than a TLB or mini, and they are kinda a pain to reposition, and (maybe operator error) very hard to really get a good grade with, yep its a trench, but not a nice, even, 36" deep, 16" wide trench, ready for your conduit/waterline/whatever;

 

[TractorTYMe]

For forested areas my T474 is pretty nice, last weekend I was into the woods with my cab tractor and forestry winch.

But you'll have to determine yourself how big you want to go? I'd say a Legacy model 4820 would be a nice choice.