Hi AND Help!

[Badback]

Hi,

I am a retired engineer living on a 10 acre hobby farm in Prior Lake, MN. The hobby farm part is really Julie's horse hobby (two Icelandics). But, naturally, I have to help out.

There is pasture and other rough mowing in addition to the lawn, snow clearing, manure spreading, wood cutting and other cleanup chores. Julie has a very nice Kubota L4610 that mows the pastures with a 6' flail mower. The tractor also pulls the spreader (New Holland 513). There is an XMark HP ZT for the lawn.

I was using the ZT for trimming around the outside of the fencing (~3000 feet of fencing) and around our 1/3 acre nature pond. But, that is kind of rough on the ZT and me. So, last year, we traded our aging Bobcat skidsteer for a used New Holland CM274.

The Hew Holland is a 4wd, rear steer commercial mower with a 72" out front deck and a 48" snow blower. After a year with the New Holland I am unhappy with it. It feels very tippy, especially near the pond. This forces me to come at the pond edge at right angles and makes for a lot of work. It has a cab, which often makes it hard to get under trees but does keep you warm in the winter.

The snowblower is the biggest problem. It clogs too often, especially in heavy wet snow. There is a lip at the bottom of the chute which gets in the way.

We also miss the Bobcat for manure loading. I was using the Bobcat for snow plowing with a 7' blade. But, in the middle of a Minnesota winter you start to run out of places to push snow. A snowblower is much better for us. At my age (67) and with a bad back, it is hard for me to get in and out of a skidsteer.

So, we went looking for a better machine that would do everything. There is a Ventrac dealer in Minneapolis. We looked at a 4226D. Nice stable machine, great for mowing and snow blowing. But you have to take the cab off to connect the loader. And WOW, what a price!!! North of $40K with attachments and cab.

So, we are considering a PowerTrac. But we have concerns about buying one sight unseen. And, their snowblower looks wimpy, especially the exposed auger drive chain. A third party snowblower is a possible solution and I could use some help on sources. I did find FFC who makes a 48" model that will run on 8gpm, but it is pricey.

I tried to search the member list for a PowerTrac owner near me, but no luck. The member lists posted in the PT forum do list a member in Minnesota (DML), but when you look at the member profile, he is in KY. A trip to VA is not possible, but IA or WI would be doable.

We are considering a PT425 or possibly a PT1430.

So, I joined this forum hopping that I could find someone near me who would let us look at his machine.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Ron

 

[Muhammad]

Welcome to TBN.

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Welcome to TBN!!! I'm sorry, but I can't help your problem. You might ask in the Power Trac section. You might want to also look at getting a sub compact tractor...:thumbsup:

 

[Briana03]

Hello, I have moved your post to the Buying/Pricing/Comparisons Forum. You will have better luck finding assistance there.

Thanks for joining TractorByNet.com!!!

 

[Johndeere3720]

:welcome: to TBN!

 

[Stonehaller]

Hi,
The snowblower is the biggest problem. It clogs too often, especially in heavy wet snow. There is a lip at the bottom of the chute which gets in the way.

Have you thought about getting a snow blower for the 4610? That should easily run a 6' blower.

 

[Badback]

Stonehaller,

Thanks for the fast reply.

The Kubota is not small enough to make the turn at the garage. This would leave a large area of shovel work, done by Julie. A rear blower won't work for me. I can't handle the looking back. We once had a rear blower on an old Belarus and it was literally a pain in the neck. A front blower would be much better but the conversion is expensive.

The real reason: the snow plowing is my job but the Kubota belongs to "the women". She doesn't want me to touch it. It's a female thing...I don't know.

But, thanks for the suggestion just the same. Maybe I should look into it again.

I would still have the loader/mower problem though.

Thanks,

Badback

 

[dusty3030]

Have you looked at a bobcat toolcat?
I played around on one and it sounds right up your alley for what jobs you want.
Especially if you don't already have some sort of utv.

 

[boggen]

it sounds like you have way to many things that need to be done with a single tractor.

there is a "power trac" forum here on TBN
Power Trac - TractorByNet.com

for list of all forums...
TractorByNet.com - Compact Tractor Forum

when cleaning out the livestock lots. do you have actual room to get a bigger size tractor in them and clean them out? there be a lot of corners, and working around feed bins, and like. that a larger size tractor may stop ya. due to being to big.

===========
you never mention how much lawn you have. pending on tractor you can get MMM (mid mount mower) aka belly mower, or rear 3pt hitch finishing mower. one of these might free up the ZT and being able to sell it off.

===========
not real much help for ya. you are kinda all over the place. i am sure what ever you get will most likely work for ya. but i would caution, having at least 2 tractors. one smaller and one larger.

 

[Badback]

Stonehaller,

The problem with the front mount blower is that the power transfer box is connected to/interferes with the rear PTO shaft making it a PITA to use other stuff on the back, like the spreader and mower. If it had a PTO shaft extension, then the implement shaft might have to be shortened. It also kind of clutters up the tractor with a bunch of hydrolic stuff and weighs it down with brackets and shafts. The under carriage shaft reduces ground clearance and might wind up a lot of weeds. Its gonna spin anythime the PTO is engaged.

Dusty3030,

We have looked at a Toolcat, way too expensive for us. I really do think that the PT425 is the right machine, I just need to get past my issues.

boggen,

The lawn mowing is done easily by the ZT, which we will keep. The lawn is about 3/4 acre. The rough mowing is around the the outside of the pastures and around the big pond. Not really rough but more like pasture, just too confined for the Kubota. The 4in1 bucket on the Powertrac would also be handy for pulling buckthorn, and a stump grinder sure would be nice.

The horse stalls are cleaned by hand, forked straing into the spreader, except for the overflow in the winter. The Kubota pulls the spreader and mowes the pastures.

I wound up in this thread because I was asked to post an introduction, and I guess I got carried away with my questions. I think that I'll post my questions in the Powertrac forum and see what happens.

Thanks to all of you for your fast and thoughtful replies,

Babback