Hahha, thanks for the advice everyone. Confession: I don't have 2 tractors. I have a few more than 2 as well. Besides the Fords, I have a Pasquali 986 articulating tractor which is quite a bit lighter but I think it's 23-ish HP as well, and I mainly use it for skidding logs as it is incredibly maneuverable and honestly a little too much for me to comfortably handle doing anything other than just trying to drive and not flip or hit things. I also have three Cub Cadet wide frames in various states of reconstruction, one of them is my main plowing/snowthrowing/wagon pulling/riding around machine and restoring another is currently my main consumer of discretionary time. Last I have a John Deere/Sabre lawn tractor which is currently my only functional mower and is also high on the list for the chopping block once I get a mowing setup onto one of the Cubs. I do think culling the flock a bit is the right thing to do, because 1) I'm running out of parking space, and 2) I need a few less distractions and a little bit of consolidation of the tractor budget so I can actually fix and properly care for the tractors I keep. Seems like the consensus is generally that the 1700 is probably the right answer.
Last night we had a snowstorm much bigger than forecasted and at 6 this morning I woke up to about 10" of heavy wet snow. I shoveled my way to the garage, then pulled out the 2-stage walk behind snowblower. After about 15 feet I shut it down and went back to try the BIG walk-behind snowblower. That couldn't handle it either, so I went to the barn and fired up the 1700, thinking I probably wouldn't even make it to the driveway, there being about 18" total of snow on the not-well-prepared path through the woods. Kicking myself for not pre-staging the tractor for the forecasted storm but the 1700 just churned through that snow, through all the brush from the downed trees, through the 14" deep slush pond that had formed in a low spot (under all that snow), and went to work. When it was said and done I had piled snow 5' high in some places, I finally figured out how to use the loader float function properly, I feel much more familiar with shifting efficiently, and I think I finally got the hang of modulating down pressure to balance getting a good scrape and having enough front tire pressure to steer when needed. I tried to break out the cub cadet with the plow to finish driveway cleanup but even with the bulk of the snow gone I couldn't maintain traction enough to get around. So the 1700 did all the cleanup too. I think I'd decided that's the one I'm keeping even before I saw all your responses. Thanks again for everyone's input.
Anyone looking to pick up a Ford 1510? Central NH.