thanks for the kind words. Answers:
1. It's an
L4240 (2010).
2. Granddaughter (Sophie Lee) came first--Monday night, about 7:30 pm PST, 8lbs 13 oz: Mom, baby, and my stepson are all doing quite well, if a bit tired after 21 hrs of labor. Regrettably his duty station with the Canadian Air Force is over 3000 miles from our home.
3. The snow in the bucket is from attempting to plow our drive, but by the time the tractor had arrived it was hard packed ice.
4. Wish I could make it snow in TX but my superpowers lie in other directions:laughing: later today the snow will turn to the more typical rain of the area and melt what's on the ground, although first turning it into a skating rink for drivers. right now it's cold and dry so it has decent grip.
This tractor is such an improvement over my
L2250 I'm completely blown away. The ability of the HST to position the tractor delicately right up to Things You Don't Want to Break is amazing--really difficult with a clutch even after 20 years of practice. I LOVE the way you can drive into a pile of gravel and not have to spin the tires or use the clutch--those of you with HST who HAVEN'T done this with a geared tractor should try it just so you can truly appreciate HST. Sure the whine is annoying, the seat kill switch cuts the engine when I twist around to look at the BB, and frankly the Kubota gas pedal is in an awkward spot for me but who cares??? In less than one hour on the meter I've already done two jobs that I would have had to do largely by hand on my old tractor: all because of the HST (easy toposition a load next to a structure), TnT (easy to use the BB for smoothing), and R4 tires (can work around my yard without tearing it up).
Only issues: dealer forgot to weld on the bucket hooks and fitted the TnT with the wrong kind of connectors. My buddies 5240 has the new-fangled hyd connectors you just yank on to disconnect. Seems like it takes him 3 or 4 tries with each one and I can't see the advantage over the "old" style with the coupling you pull back to release. I had specifically talked to the salesman and the shop foreman about how I wanted the couplings and they had agreed but something fell through the cracks. They can pick up these two items when the monster is in for its 50 hr service, though. (I thought about welding on my own hooks and also doing the 50 hr service myself but nah...).
Looking forward to getting lots of seat time today.
congrats and enjoy. 
