Help selecting either a subcompact or compact 25HP tractor?

[sdquick]

Without making a specific vote I would second the idea posted before of "Buy Once, Cry Once". In other words sometimes when you try to save you can buy once and cry a bunch of times with breakdowns and repairs...

 

[jeff9366]

Review titles in the SIMILAR THREADS box at the foot of this page.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I would not even look at a BX or any sub-compact tractor if you plan to do any ground engaging activities. They just wont have the weight or traction or ground clearance needed.
For what you want to do with the ground clearing, a medium/heavy duty disk (heaviest model that you can lift and pull) should be able to turn under everything in the photo. You may have to take an axe to that one large bush though.

I agree that for what you are getting quoted to disk and seed that acreage is ridiculously high and buying a tractor is the way to go. IF you insist on mowing with your tractor, a rear finish mower might be a better choice than a belly mount mower. This would give you greater options for tractor models since you dont need the mid PTO for it.

I dont see any need for you to have a backhoe from what you said you would be doing. If you find a need for one, just rent for a weekend or hire the work done. This likely sounds like hypocrisy from a backhoe owner, but I still find uses for mine to remove rocks that grow from the ground where I live. On the 42 acres that me and brother in law maintained, even with my large tractor, backhoe and his 45 HP tractor, we still hired out dozer work for some of the digging and leveling chores. Sometimes that is the best way to go.

 

[Diggin It]

What kind of work have you been doing with the MT125 and how has it worked for you? Similar type of usage as my needs? Thanks!

A lot more than I thought I would have in just a few months. Would have been a lot more if the seemingly never ending rains hadn't started.

Mostly related to firewood so far and digging stumps out Have a lot planned for spring and itching to get diggin'.

Scan through here: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/ls-tractor-owning-operating/401971-what-did-you-do-your.html

 

[Gary Fowler]

I've had quotes of $10-$12K for the work to bushhog, grade, and seed for the entire lot, and $4K for just around the house where construction would be. I'm definitely going to invest that money into a tractor to do all of the things I need plus mowing, and then can reconsider 4-5 years down the road when things are established whether I want to sell and use the funds to get a ZT or not, but at this point it will be a tractor to get established.

Grading for the house should be done by the contractor building the house and surely shouldn't cost $4000. From your photo, I dont see any drastic need for grading since it looks like you have some gently rolling hills. I prefer that look to a simple flat landscape so I would just leave them as they are for everything except the house and minimal yard. To cost $4000 you much be looking at flattening a larger area and then maybe putting in a retainer wall at the bottom edge, If that is the case then $4K isn't a bad price.
If you plan to do it yourself with a 25HP tractor and box blade, I hope you have plenty of time. I had to grade off a significant area to build my house and decided that a dozer would be much better than digging that with my tractor. You can see some of the work done with a dozer here. It would have taken my months with a tractor to do this and only about $2K worth of dozer work. There is about a 4 foot cut between the driveway height and final grade where the dozer is working. All the dirt from the high side is moved to the low side where the grade is then dropped about 6 feet down a steep slope.View attachment 588380 This area shown in second picture was later graded to better enable mowing as shown in third photo. The final grading was done as a part of the house building at no additional cost to me.

 

[rhatfiel]

Thanks for all of the thoughts. Very helpful.

To clarify the grading, they are doing a final grade for $400. The $4K quoted was for a separate box grade, seed, etc. instead of the basic final grade. I do not plan to actually change any grading, rather just smoothing things out after turning it up to have a nice base for the seed. Maybe I used the wrong term when I said grade, but it is a simple box grade to smooth the rougher soil left from the construction and tilling.

 

[Diggin It]

If you don't want or need the MMM, I'm not sure there's a significant difference between the 125 and 2025. Others may be able to shed some light on that. Because of my slopes, I didn't want a mower dragging behind me. I wanted it under me for COG issues and turning radius.

 

[shooterdon]

I've had quotes of $10-$12K for the work to bushhog, grade, and seed for the entire lot, and $4K for just around the house where construction would be. I'm definitely going to invest that money into a tractor to do all of the things I need plus mowing, and then can reconsider 4-5 years down the road when things are established whether I want to sell and use the funds to get a ZT or not, but at this point it will be a tractor to get established.

WOW!!! $10-12k to bush hog and grade 3 acres...no wonder you want to buy a tractor! Too bad you do not have any farmers or TBN'es near you that would be willing to take on a side job. Prices around here are a lot less, about $100/hr last time I had work done but that was a few years ago on a small job.

Too bad the Kioti did not work out for you.

 

[tractorshopper]

I have a subcompact tractor currently and use it for many chores including tilling and box blading. I till quite a few food plots each year (largest being about 2 acres) with a medium duty tiller (Land Pride RTR 1250) and my SCUT tills just as good as my first tractor did (CUT) with the same grade tiller (but 10" larger - Land Pride RTR 1260). I usually go over them 2 times and did so with the larger tractor as well. Takes longer with my BX as it is basically a foot narrower, so more rounds to make. Tills just as good. Plowing could be another story, but I have never plowed with my BX so don't know what to say there.

I am maybe opposite some folks, but originally bought a CUT (Kubota L3800) and did some major chores with it at both my properties then (11 acres total) for about 3 years, but as my lawnmower was on its last leg and my tractor sat in the garage more and more after the big projects were done, I decided to downsize to the BX and get more use. I used to bush hog about 4.5-5 acres with my L3800. My BX mowed that same property faster and cleaner. I have sold that property so now just have my 3.3 acres at my house (I mow about 2.25 of that).

I still maintain my neighborhood gravel road 2/3 mile with box blade. It takes a little longer and one more pass to break it up and distribute it well, but not so much that I regret my decision. I mow my lawn with my BX now which is way faster than I ever mowed with JD lawn tractor and it is light years better than my lawn tractor was. I mulch, but yes the bucket is smaller, so I make more trips than I used to. I don't tear my lawn to pieces which I sometimes did with the larger tractor. I use my grapple a lot and love it. I have a tooth bar on my bucket and it digs well. Smaller bites at a time than my CUT took, but it is sufficient for all my needs so far.

To each his own I guess, but don't think a SCUT is not a very capable machine. I am pleased with mine in pretty much all regards. If I was loaded, I'd probably have both, but the CUT would sit idle much more for my needs than my SCUT.

The one thing the SCUT is not good at is digging post holes. I have found it to be more than suitable for everything else and have absolutely no regrets with my decision to downsize.

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

I also have the MT125 TLB. Do I wish I had a bigger tractor? Of course... Do I NEED a bigger tractor? No.
I was very limited in budget and could only get a SCUT, LS being the "best bang for my buck".

I installed a complete septic system for our new home using the little SCUT. The depth I needed for the trenches was 6'. The digging depth of my BH is 6'6"....6" to spare. Did it take me a while? Yes. I spent 3 weeks digging maybe 8-12 hours a week. That included digging the hole for the 1000 gal tank. There was 120 linear feet of trenches 2' wide. Took some time. Cost savings to me was over $5K including the materials over paying someone to do it. If i rented a full size BH, it would has cost me $3500 in rental fees out here.

I have also used it to spread over 20 yards of mulch. Dug 40 post holes for fencing (about 80 more to come this summer) removed over 30" of drifted snow this last snowstorm, plus cleared the drive a few other times (it's over 1500' long), graded the driveway, dug electrical service trenches, waterline trenches, and did preliminary final grade around the new house. Also carried equipment, lumber, materials to the jobsite from my storage area.

I have 5 acres that used to be farmed for pinto beans. It now has 'field grass' that i cut with a 6' rear finish mower. Does it cut like a ZT...no. I would be literally be beat to unconsciousness on a ZT. I have fun and enjoy my 'seat time' on the tractor.

My suggestion is to get the biggest tractor that you can budget now, even if it is just one size bigger. If that's a SCUT, that's OK.

Would a bigger tractor do it faster....probably.