First Tractor Purchase - Looking for advice

[Bill Guenthner]

In my situation I have many acres of hardwoods I would like to extract fallen or stricken trees just to see what I can do with them. Better than letting it rot in place. Am guessing a relatively small tractor to fit between trees to pull the trunk out. No need for fancy grapple, drag it out. Winch, long cables.

Then the remaining 200 acres needs something comfortable with a heated and air conditioned cab to mow.

Dead trees are an essential part of the forest eco system. Leave a few for the owls and woodpeckers.

 

[DaBear3428]

keep in mind that the FEL spec for full height at the pins is a lot less than the lift to 3 or 4 feet, check the breakout and it is fairly linear so 3000lb breakout and 1600lb to full height will have you somewhere around 2100 lb at 4 feet. This is not exact but keep it in mind when sizing your needed FEL capacity. I agree with other comments to buy larger than you think you need (within reason).

As to fixing up an older tractor I'm all over that normally, the problem is that right now 6 year old 500hr used tractors are selling for close to the cost of a new tractor that will have a warranty and 0% financing, so not a lot of reason to do that right now. Given a year and that may change given the way the economy is going right now.

 

[rbstern]

Looking around, I saw your barn project and that you had the LS so thanks for adding your thoughts. Even though the LS website states that the MT225-235 come with the LL3301 loader, the machines I've seen for sale locally have the LL3302 loader which adds about 500Lbs capacity, not sure if that's something the local dealers are choosing or something LS is doing to keep up with Branson and just haven't gotten around to updating the website. It seems like if you're happy with the size and capability and just wish for a little more loader capacity, this might be a good option for me. It's hard to spot a difference between the loaders so I'm not sure what they're doing to increase the capacity, maybe the cylinders are just slightly larger.

Buying/building a log arch is on my wish list but I built a shed over my mill and it's stationary so I probably won't be able to use it for loading.

Thought I'd share this evening's experience: I'm setting up for milling a fairly sizable red oak log in the morning. Log weight calculator estimated it at 1362 lbs. I had to take my bucket off, but I was able to comfortably lift the log as much as 3 to 4 ft off the ground (to get around a couple of obstructions) while creeping my way in low range 1st gear, about 75 yards to the mill. Made most of the trip with it just a few inches off the ground.

Slow? Yes. A bigger framed tractor with more lift capacity and a grapple would have done in a five minutes what took me 30 minutes. But that log (17' long and about 17" on the fat end, 15" on the skinny end) is about the max size I work with, and I just don't do that size very often.

The key, when working at the limits of the equipment, is to do it thoughtfully and slowly.

 

[Tractorable]

The OP could pick up one of them new Yanmar YM342/347’s for ~$28-29K.

4000lb bare tractor weight, shuttle shift, 2500lbs FEL lift capacity, and a 10 year power train warranty.

 

[rbstern]

The OP could pick up one of them new Yanmar YM342/347’s for ~$28-29K.

4000lb bare tractor weight, shuttle shift, 2500lbs FEL lift capacity, and a 10 year power train warranty.

Definitely a lot of tractor for the money.

 

[daltonhawk]

Definitely a lot of tractor for the money.

Yes, that's a good option. I ended up going with the Branson 3015H for $22,949. I'm buying it from a local dealer but he's having it shipped from Georgia so I should have it by the end of the month. I did look into most of the options considered here. An older Case 580 or similar probably wouldn't have been a terrible choice but I would have given up 4WD and it might have taken a while to find one with a PTO. I think the Branson's 2200lb loader capacity will be adequate for most of what I want to do. I'm thinking of trying to design a grapple that holds the load as close to the tractor as possible to maximize the lift capability.

 

[rbstern]

Yes, that's a good option. I ended up going with the Branson 3015H for $22,949. I'm buying it from a local dealer but he's having it shipped from Georgia so I should have it by the end of the month. I did look into most of the options considered here. An older Case 580 or similar probably wouldn't have been a terrible choice but I would have given up 4WD and it might have taken a while to find one with a PTO. I think the Branson's 2200lb loader capacity will be adequate for most of what I want to do. I'm thinking of trying to design a grapple that holds the load as close to the tractor as possible to maximize the lift capability.

Congrats. That's a solid choice for your chores, and a very good value. You can get a lot of work done with a machine like that. Hope it serves you well for many years.

Be sure to post some pics and let us know how you are doing with it.