help me choose/ what to consider

[old sparky]

I borrowed a friends skid steer with forks. that is what started this. I have a small property with a few horses. I do some coral cleaning moving my trailers use my fel as a third hand. After using the forks I thought I need to get some. I have a Kubota 1700. I put a couple empty 55 gallon drums in the bucket and filled with water. One drum filled it lifted great no strain wobble. I filled the second drum to 1/2 and you knew there was some weight but I felt comfortable and safe. Any more water and tires got squishy and I felt I would be dangerous. Also I wish I could lift a couple feet higher than my 1700 to get bails of hay off the top of a squeeze. So I start looking at tractors and realize a 40 horse tractor is too big to get in my areas. So I start looking 30ish. I went to a Kubota dealer and played around with a l3200 nice tractor a definite step u from my old 1700 but I was surprised of the flexing of the fel when lifting with it. Was I paranoid? They also had a new Holland that I didn't try it was on the show room floor. Anyway I started looking on the internet and it can become overwhelming. So I took a break. Yesterday a neibors horse died and we dug the hole mostly by hand and drug the horse with a bobcat. I covered it with my gannon and started thinking I need more tractor. So I think I would like to lift around 1000 pounds as high as I can safely. Get in a tight area. I would welcome all ideas.

thanks, Sparky

 

[whiz]

Sparky, sounds like you have some of the same issues that I do, although I don't currently have a FEL on my Fords. Getting a Mahindra eMax 22 this week. Maybe something in the subcompact size will work for you too. My livestock pens are 20 x 60 and 20 x 40 and a SCUT should be about right. The Mahindra has the capacity to do lots of out side the barn chores too. You might start with the tractors available from dealers near you (I personally like to spend my $$ locally) and get familiar with the tractors in those lines and see what might work well for you considering size and capacity and your price point. Mfgs. are rolling out new lines of SCUTs lately... Mahindra the eMax line, that is lower price than the previous Max series (believe that or not!), saw that Yanmar has a new line out now too, always something new from Kubota and Deere too. I think you'll see a good value and lower price on similar sizes from brands like Mahindra, LS, Kioti, etc. as they are all trying hard to break into the market in a bigger way and take some market away from CNH, Kubota, JD, Case/IH.

Good luck in the hunt and let us know how you're are coming in the search.

 

[Xfaxman]

-------. Also I wish I could lift a couple feet higher than my 1700 to get bails of hay off the top of a squeeze. ----So I start looking at tractors and realize a 40 horse tractor is too big to get in my areas. -------------- So I think I would like to lift around 1000 pounds as high as I can safely. Get in a tight area. I would welcome all ideas.

thanks, Sparky

What lift height do you need?

By too big, do you mean height or width?

The 5x6 round bales that I deal with weigh from 1100 to 1500 pounds.

 

[old sparky]

Sorry, what I mean is size of tractor not fitting in my pens, also turning radius. I would love to have a 40ish horse tractor it would lift the weight and height I want but I dont think I could manuver.

Sparky