How Many Have More Than One Tractor?

[LHF2019]

Oh, does a Yale forklift count too?

Only if you can to tractor like things with it. Can you drive into a field and pick something up and drive back? How about hook a wagon to it or change the attachment and go grapple some brush.

 

[ibboatin28]

Only 4 here, all green

3720 to mow with

3520 for dirt etc.

955 with a hoe and loader

755 is my sprayer tractor. (Nimble)

 

[pecans]

I have 5... but for purpose. If you are looking for a thought process, one would presume it comes down to time/ whether you want a profit / surplus cash. In my case, having different tractors for different purposes offsets available labor. We have been through each tractor and have a preventative maintenance program. If one is operating to produce a profit and has excess time, then as few as possible would be best... just change out implements as needed. For a long time I had only a 37.5 hp. Everything got done but there was time available. Now the operation is of a size where time works better to have a 160 HP attached to a 15 foot shredder, a tractor for loading and bale moving / similar, etc. Having quick attaches front and back reduces the number of tractors needed. A much better option for most operations. Separately, if your operation is not about profit and if you enjoy the art of the various abilities and engineering history, then a collection as big as you can afford that does not get in the way of feeding the family or building a retirement, can be a wonderful hobby.

 

[PROFarms]

We have 3 currently but looking to get a 4th as we increase farmed area.
Started off with a Yanmar 169D, little 16hp beast my grandad bought nearly new back when he was renovating and rebuilding the house. Did everything we ever asked of it just sometimes jobs took a bit longer and had to get help in to make the hay every year for baling and mowing where the sickle mower got bogged down.
Skip to 2014 we ‘upgraded’ to an International 454 made us pretty much self sufficient we could make our hay ourselves with the drum mower and little square baler we bought ourselves, and it came with a loader which was handy but had its limitations being 2wd and no power steering would regularly get stuck no matter what weight went on the back. Still use this tractor now as a spare mowing tractor and occasionally put the haybob behind it. Always like to drag out the vintage Massey baler every year if I get a chance and go baling a few hundred of hay if we aren’t against the weather too much. Most of the time though it’s on light duties now with the topper or a transport box on the back.

Finally in 2021 we bought a Massey 2430 (made my landini tractors) which was a great improvement having 70hp 4wd it currently does everything we ask of it. This is definitely our main tractor used most often now having bought a 8ft disc mower, bigger 4 rotor tedder, new rotary rake as well as a number of other bits of kit we never would’ve had the power/hydraulic capacity to drive.

All we need now is a loader tractor/telehandler to help moving bales on the farm and steel around for my businesss!

 

[Hard Knocks IV]

I have about 20 I use for different things

 

[jasonlawn76]

From what I see, the majority of tractor owners here and everywhere else have only one tractor.

I mean more than one that runs, you maintain, and use regularly... (Don't count the old broke down one behind the barn with 2 flats. )

Surprisingly, after replacing my 2 previous tractors with newer, more improved ones, I find I have have about the same hours on both new ones.

I'd hate to have to choose between them, if I had to pick only one. I really have a use for both.


How many of you are multiple machine owners? Could you get by with just one? Which one would you pick if you had to?

I have a freshly rebuilt 1953 TO-30 that is like my right hand. I use it 3-4 times a week at least. I have Long 445 (not sure of the year) that gets used a lot during the fall thru spring but hangs out in the shed thru most of the summer. I'm not sure if a MF11 wheel loader counts, but I have one that goes thru one or two spurts of intense use one to two weeks each time per year then hangs out behind the Long under the shed the rest of the time.

 

[tjandrews]

From what I see, the majority of tractor owners here and everywhere else have only one tractor.

I mean more than one that runs, you maintain, and use regularly... (Don't count the old broke down one behind the barn with 2 flats. )

Surprisingly, after replacing my 2 previous tractors with newer, more improved ones, I find I have have about the same hours on both new ones.

I'd hate to have to choose between them, if I had to pick only one. I really have a use for both.


How many of you are multiple machine owners? Could you get by with just one? Which one would you pick if you had to?

We have four. From biggest to smallest:

John Deere 4600 - our current workhorse, but is too big to do everything. Cab often gets in the way of watching equipment work.
International 424 - the workhorse for many years, but really is too small for what we made it do. Our most maneuverable, best in tight places.
1952 Case SC - Our grandfather's tractor, and the workhorse when he owned the farm. Still can do a full day's work, and we have equipment designed for it that will not work on the other tractors.
1960's Allis Chalmers garden tractor. These days used mostly for spraying herbicide on vegetable plots that are too small to be done with anything else.

I suppose there are five, if you count the Sears lawn tractor, but all we do with that is mow the lawn.

Couldn't possibly do as well without any one of them. Each has its place where it excels. Could possibly fix up the mower deck for the garden tractor and use it to mow the lawn, but that had continual problems and wouldn't be worth the trouble.

 

[Jlillie2]

From what I see, the majority of tractor owners here and everywhere else have only one tractor.

I mean more than one that runs, you maintain, and use regularly... (Don't count the old broke down one behind the barn with 2 flats. )

Surprisingly, after replacing my 2 previous tractors with newer, more improved ones, I find I have have about the same hours on both new ones.

I'd hate to have to choose between them, if I had to pick only one. I really have a use for both.


How many of you are multiple machine owners? Could you get by with just one? Which one would you pick if you had to?

One tractor, but thats backed up with an excavator, and a utility vehicle. If I had to lose all but one, I'd probably keep the excavator.

 

[somanytractors]

I have a bunch but only 2 that I call my tractors.
A to-30 with a loader and backhoe.
A ford 600 that I use for the box blade, scraper, and moving trailers and dead tractors around.
And my wife has one she claimed. A 1923 mccormick deering 15-30

 

[MaineGN]

It’s a habit that grows on you. I started out with a B3030 with a Woods 8 foot hoe and found that was a little big for puttering around for doing yard work so added a B7500 for smaller chores and replaced at 500 hours with a B2320 the dealer gave me a good deal on. Along the way added a zd21 that went to my son and replaced with a Zd1211. More recently my son in law had bought a B2601 with a small hoe for his property management/pool company that wasn't ideal for what he needed and only had 20 hours on it so I offered to take it for what they allowed him on a trade for a compact excavator. So now I'm up to three plus a RTV 900 for support activities. In our defense, we have 25 acres here at the house with about 4 of it being lawn and some garden etc. and the rest woodlot and another piece of land here in town I bought years ago because I wanted to build our retirement home there with 20 acres of field and another 110 acres of wood lot. We cut our own firewood etc. and we're both 70 so mechanical work savers are a necessity. Decided I'm to old to build another house so saving that land for the kids. The 3030 lives with my youngest son during the winter to take care of his 600' driveway. Lots of orange in the family as you can see. To add to the color choice I have a Jeep Wrangler as a summer toy that is "Punkin" which matches the Kubota fleet perfectly! I've threatened to have lettering made up for the Jeep hood saying "Kubota Touring Edition". Our local Kubota dealer wants to borrow it if I do for shows... When I was in my 20's and had my first house lot I was clearing it and an old guy up the road stopped and chatted with me. He owned 700 acres + of woodland that he was a third generation owner of and lived off the land yarding wood with horses. He cautioned me that you don't want to clear any more land than it takes to feed your animals and have a decent garden. He told me that in Maine, water wants to be land and land always wants to be woods. You clear more than you need and the woods are going to battle you. I'll be darned if he wasn't right. Took me a while to catch on.