Is the 3E series too large for 1 acre?

[southern83fire]

As the title states is say a 3025e or 3032e too big of a machine for 1 acre? The backstory to this question is my wife and I own a fixer upper house with just over an acre of flat open land. At first I was going to buy a 1025r but then the economy took a hit with Covid so we played it safe and bought an X380 for our immediate mowing needs. Its been a great machine and instead of trading it in for the 1025r, I'm thinking of keeping it for mowing and buying a 3e series machine for my tractor needs. This would include tilling a 900 to 1000 square foot garden, regrading front and back yards, grading and maintaining a 300 foot private road that sees a fair amount of vehicle traffic to include dump trucks. My thought process is for the price of a fully loaded 1025r I can buy a more capable (in terms of loader capacity and ground engaging activities) tractor like the 3e models.

 

[beenthere]

Nothing is ever "too big"..

 

[Redlands Okie]

Would be hard to do the things listed with a lawn mower. Tractor would be on the way. 1 acre is tight I agree. Tiller and box blade work would be my main concern.

 

[rademamj1]

The 1025R can do a lot more than you think. I have seriously considered purchasing a 1025R as a second tractor, and so i have been researching it the last 2 months. Its an extremely capable tractor. I have seen my neighbor use his 1025R to bush hog a 90 acre field....which took all day, and the same neighbor also maintains a 1200' gravel drive into his ranch. Everything is done slowly, and with patience. But the 3000 series tractor is not too big for 1 acre.

 

[southern83fire]

Would be hard to do the things listed with a lawn mower. Tractor would be on the way.

Thats why I'm thinking of keeping the lawn tractor for mowing and getting a 3e series for tractor stuff. Or would I be better of, for sake of size, trading in the lawn tractor for a 1025r and having a machine that does it all.

 

[southern83fire]

The 1025R can do a lot more than you think. I have seriously considered purchasing a 1025R as a second tractor, and so i have been researching it the last 2 months. Its an extremely capable tractor. I have seen my neighbor use his 1025R to bush hog a 90 acre field....which took all day, and the same neighbor also maintains a 1200' gravel drive into his ranch. Everything is done slowly, and with patience. But the 3000 series tractor is not too big for 1 acre.

Thank you, this is helpful. I agree that a 1025r is a very capable machine, just slow at some tasks. I'm a big fan of tractor time with time, so I've seen what a 1025r is capable of.

 

[rademamj1]

I would still keep the X380 for precision mowing around the house. Its gives a nice pleasing cut appearance. But I also see no need to go to a 3000 series tractor for one acre. The 1025R is more than capable of handling anything on a 1 acre property.

 

[dodge man]

You might look at a 2025r also. Same drive train and loader as a 1025r but on a bigger chassis and larger wheels and tires.

 

[beenthere]

Think I'd opt for the "R" rather than an "E", regardless of model. Too many corners cut with the "E" versions, IMO

And likely the R's will hold their value better in case you want to cash in for something bigger..

 

[Sleepy Holler John]

Here is my experience with the 3032E. We bought a 5 acre Christmas tree farm in NC. I designed and we built a house plus took down about 150 no good Frazer fir trees and about 200 White Pines but not with the 3032. I bought a Case 580SE backhoe to do all that and to build the house. We bought the JD after the house was finished but not all the earth moving and I moved thousands of yards of dirt. I am still moving dirt and making roads but with the backhoe. I have a bucket and a 6 foot mower plus a landscape rake with a plow on it. I also have a spiked roller and a bunch of other ground leveling equipment I made. Just yesterday I finished putting in two very large drains to drain off some springs and had to move more dirt. Where I can use the JD in all of this is more for finish work, not for rearranging the ground in any way. I can scoop up a little bit of dirt but the lift is just not there and the weight is not there to dig with the bucket. It is fine for disturbed soil. As far as mowing, I get better results with our Craftsman 52" garden tractor but it takes longer. The landscape rake works good and plow for what little snow we have had. Regrading the yard might be a lot to ask for depending on how much you plan to move. We have about 900 feet of gravel driveway and it is wonderful for taking care of that. If you are going to buy new for 1 acre and do light work, wow, the price tag. If I could do it over I would look for used at half the price, maybe even an older one without the nutty computer.

 

[Diggin It]

There are comparably capable machines for far less money if you look at other colors.

 

[fried1765]

Here is my experience with the 3032E. We bought a 5 acre Christmas tree farm in NC. I designed and we built a house plus took down about 150 no good Frazer fir trees and about 200 White Pines but not with the 3032. I bought a Case 580SE backhoe to do all that and to build the house. We bought the JD after the house was finished but not all the earth moving and I moved thousands of yards of dirt. I am still moving dirt and making roads but with the backhoe. I have a bucket and a 6 foot mower plus a landscape rake with a plow on it. I also have a spiked roller and a bunch of other ground leveling equipment I made. Just yesterday I finished putting in two very large drains to drain off some springs and had to move more dirt. Where I can use the JD in all of this is more for finish work, not for rearranging the ground in any way. I can scoop up a little bit of dirt but the lift is just not there and the weight is not there to dig with the bucket. It is fine for disturbed soil. As far as mowing, I get better results with our Craftsman 52" garden tractor but it takes longer. The landscape rake works good and plow for what little snow we have had. Regrading the yard might be a lot to ask for depending on how much you plan to move. We have about 900 feet of gravel driveway and it is wonderful for taking care of that. If you are going to buy new for 1 acre and do light work, wow, the price tag. If I could do it over I would look for used at half the price, maybe even an older one without the nutty computer.

"without the nutty computer"
AMEN !!!!

 

[Sleepy Holler John]

"without the nutty computer"
AMEN !!!!

A little something about the nutty computer you may not know. First of all, "you don't own it", it, the computer program belongs to JD. So you are driving along and a message comes up on the dash that says something but you can't understand it. The rpm's drop to 1500 and you have no power. What do you do???? Call the dealer, that's all you can do. I have found and downloaded most or at least a lot of codes, (I don't know how many there are). With the codes you can figure out a lot but I have watched the mechanic tech work on my tractor and have is computer on it and he is still scratching his head. My first backhoe was an 8N Ford, second the Case580SE and I have torn them apart and could fix anything on them. Now that my JD is out of warranty it scares the heck out of me. I'm still looking for a good repair manual at a reasonable cost, not $300. Go for an older tractor that has no computer that you can fix plus get a bigger one, you will need it.

 

[beenthere]

I have found with landscaping that involves moving dirt that a used 5' rototiller works great for working up a few inches of hard dirt for the bucket to scoop up. Much more even digging vs. trying to dig dirt with a light-weight tractor and bucket. As well, that roto-tilled dirt sprinkles out more evenly than the chunks from FEL digging. just a thought..
My JD 4300 is a perfect size.. and just before the computer was added. This model is rock solid IMO. As well, hard to find a used one on the market.

 

[Sleepy Holler John]

I read your post again and even though you have 1 acre you talk about your fix r upper. If it were me doing what you are I would put my eyes on a backhoe not a farming tractor. You say you have the mowing capability and you need to create a garden plus move some dirt, a backhoe will do it. The backhoe is a crane for doing things on the house, it digs ditches and will turn over a garden area. I used mine to dig down one foot in a large garden area. I have a ratchet rake I used on the bucket to rough grade it and remove rocks and it was easy to do. I dug a pond with it and it was my source of a crane for house building. My son in law just bought 150 acres in TN nit too far from us and has begged me to sell him the hoe. I won't part with it. My JD id helpless if I need to dig a trench or lift something very high. Just my $0.02. Oh, in looking for a used one for my son in law I found $11,000 will get a reasonable used one. I'm gonna put a link to my building and dirt moving experience, the backhoe did it all. YouTube

 

[Sleepy Holler John]

Keep away from JD. (I was cutting the grass today and my wife waved me over to the porch to tell me something. I drove onto the driveway and shut down the mower deck, (6 foot) and turned off the tractor. Back to do cutting and I turn around and see the deck hanging at an angle, left side down and right side up. Told my wife, "rock shaft broke" and a few more things I can't say here. This just adds to all the problems I have had with this monster. I get it by the barn and look and I see the left upper arm has fallen off and the shaft is sticking out of the right side. Looking closer I see the left hand bolt is broken and the shaft is ok. I found the bolt head on the tractor but the washer was gone. Lucky me, I has a mm bolt but not high strength and I made a washer. Can you say LEMON, I can).

 

[kthompson]

The 1025R can do a lot more than you think. I have seriously considered purchasing a 1025R as a second tractor, and so i have been researching it the last 2 months. Its an extremely capable tractor. I have seen my neighbor use his 1025R to bush hog a 90 acre field....which took all day, and the same neighbor also maintains a 1200' gravel drive into his ranch. Everything is done slowly, and with patience. But the 3000 series tractor is not too big for 1 acre.

Just asking, is there a typo in the size of the field? If not I am really impressed.

 

[rademamj1]

Nope, not a typo on the field size. My neighbor truly cuts a 90 acre field with a JD 1025R and a 48" Frontier Rotary cutter. But actually takes him more like a couple of days. He is retired now, and a funny guy. He calls his loader a "motorized wheelbarrow"

 

[Deere Dude]

Would there be enough room to turn the 3XXX around?

Unless there is a need such as a business of some sort that needs the capability of that size I would stick to the 1XXX series tractor. I survived with three different homes and 500-700' driveways and dirt moving with a X740 size tractor for years. The 1XXX is way more capable that that X740.

Eventually with a 5 acre home I bought a 3720 mostly because I "just wanted it", but I did find uses for it like moving a couple thousand yards of earth berm and turn it to lawn.

We sold that house and found 18 acres where the 3720 fits very well with all kinds of concrete projects plus hauling and manhandling 18" rocks and hogging 20" oaks out of a 10 acres hilly woods.

I would get the 1XXX unless there are more uses that you described already.

 

[fishheadbob]

Yes it is too large