L3000 and lending it out

[putty340]

hello I am going to buy a tractor, hopefully a L3000,I dont know much about that tractor and I havent heard alot about it from everyone here yet?Has anyone had one, or one like it with the industrial tires? how would they affect it?Now comes lending it out, my friends want to borrow it and i dont even have one yet! I love them like brothers but 2 of them are backhoe drivers, I also did this for a while and the very first thing i had to learn was, these smaller tractors wont take the punishment,its a good thing i learned on a rental! I am concerned because #1 one friend can beat the tar out of a full size industrial backhoe and #2 they will want to be using mine to learn that on. Help! any ideas appriciated. putty 340

 

[Thomas]

putty340,
Sounds like your headed for a tight spot w/ your friends.

After reading your questions how your friend have used equipment & learning I think you have your mine mostly made up....go w/ your gut feelings.

What about insurance to cover the tractor also your friends off your property...might be worth thinking about.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Dale Binkley]

Putty, my tractor doesn't go anywhere without me in the seat. I may let someone get some "seat time" but only if I am around to see what is going on. Too much of an investment (money and emotional attachment) to let someone else risk abusing it. In my area there are rental tractors available for those small jobs that someone needs done that you can't help with.

 

[gordon]

I'm going to combine your questions into one post. First go with the HST you won't regret it. Yes you loose a couple of hp at the pto but your overall tractor use will be much more productive. Also safer with the hydro. So no matter what brand you buy get a hydro trans. That said (Sorry Mark) I'll get to the question of lending to friends.

Not no but heck no to lending the tractor out. There are only a couple of people that I'll lend mine to and that's only and only if there tractor is broke down and they are in a major jam.

So to not get into a jam with your friends this may help. Nothing is free, everyone knows that. Here are a couple of ideas.

1-insurance won't cover anyone else on the seat of the tractor but you, or the lender you be the judge.

2-Tell them that you will for almost nothing or nothing do some tractor work for them. With of course you on the seat.

3-Tell them flat out not no but heck no right off the bat so there will be no hard feelings. You will have alot of money invested with any tractor. Who will pay for damages and abuse--not them, you will end up with a beater tractor after a couple of years if you lend it to heavy equipment operators.

4-Tell them you would but it's your wife she put her foot down that the tractor won't leave the property do to the coverage on the tractor. Depending on the nature of your wife this might be your best bet!!!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Just my two cents
Gordon

 

[PaulInMi]

Even though I answered your other post, I'll throw my 2 cents in. Hydro would be nice, but you mentioned on your other post you were on a tight budget, the L3000 is a great economy performer(see my other post for more details).

I agreee w/the others on loaning out your tractor. Don't do it unless you are going along with them.

Good luck./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Paul

 

[Anonymous Poster]

i have a new l3000 and i love it. i just got 20 hours on it and have done so much work with it i can not believe it. i used to have a bseries machine and the difference is unbelievable. the standard trans. is very easy to operate. myself the HST might be nice but the differnce between a standard l or a fancy b i would go with the l3000. once u learn how to use it is second nature. u will not be disappointed... the only way i would trade my machine would be to go up to a mseries, like m57 with the cab or soemthing... but to me bang for buck the l3000 is w/o a doubt a good investment and u will not be unhappy...

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

I agree with Gordon <font color=blue>#3-Tell them flat out not no but heck no right off the bat.</font color=blue>

I would add: No why's, no excuses, no discussion, no doubt in their mind. Word spreads fast./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Payback for similar favors is a different deal. I don't have any paybacks so that ain't a problem either.

This don't mean I won't help, but even that is a slope I don't like to head down and it's usually initiated by me. I'm in the seat when that happens.

The B21 in this area Rents for $225, 8 hours delivered and picked up, travel time is part of the 8. I have paid it so can they.

 

[Harv]

Howdy, Putty! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I'm a first-time tractor owner and I have about 32 hours in the seat of my L2500, which is sort of the kid brother to the 3000. Budget and availability had a lot to do with my particular choice in purchase, and I had a little anxiety about getting a "no frills" machine. But I gotta tell you, I haven't missed a single frill so far.

It's true that HST sounds like the transmission of choice around here, but if you're like me, you probably won't miss something you never had. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

To be fair, though, if you plan on doing a lot of pile work or anything that involves a lot of direction changing (forward/reverse), and you're going to be spending a lot of time in the seat, HST will probably make a happier, more well-adjusted person. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Anybody asks to borrow my loved one, ... er -- tractor, I mean, I laugh, slap 'em on the shoulder and say, "Hey! I just got this thing! Let me put the first hundred or so hours on it and then we'll talk". It's something anyone can understand, it gets them out of your hair for probably a year or more, which gives you more time to think about it.

My second choice is to look them straight in the eye, and with a sincere, watch-my-lips kind of tone, deliver the immortal line, "NO!. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

 

[Bird]

putty340, the manual says to not let anyone operate your tractor until they've read the entire manual. When I first started looking a compact tractors, the Kubota dealer was telling me how good they were, how seldom one came back for warranty work, etc., then he said, "Unless you let friends and neighbors use it. He said they'd had two that year that were loaned to neighbors, and the neighbors turned them over into the water mowing around stock ponds.

Bird

 

[bpence]

I have a simple standard response. NO.....I don't loan the tractor to anyone, but I'd be glad to help out with whatever needs doing. I'd just as soon keep relationships with both my friends and my tractor healthy. They'll understand.

Bob Pence

 

[Rch]

I had a deal where I lent my Bolens G214 with a backhoe to a friend. While using the backhoe he noticed steam coming from the engine so he stopped it and went into the house and got a bucket of water and poured it in the radiator. The water pump was leaking. Fortunately he didn't crack the block but I decided right there- no loaning out the tractor. The water pump was $ 235 new from Garden Way! I can't imagine what a block would have cost if I could find one and the work involved rebuilding it.

RCH

 

[Ches]

putty340,
Do what I do when a friend wants to borrow my tractor. Offer to loan them my wife instead. By the time they bring her back they have forgotten what they wanted the tractor for.

Ches

 

[markcg2000]

Ches,
I read that to my wife and she wants to know just what the H--- that's supposed to mean /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

<font color=green>mark</font color=green>

 

[ScottF]

Putty,
Congrat's on the new tractor/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, I know you'll enjoy it.

I'll have to go along with everyone else on the loaning business - not NO, but H#$% NO! I'll be more than happy to do the work for them, but my toosh is in the driver's seat - too much $$ involved. I don't mean to sound like an A-hole here, but after you've had to rebuild a Ford 4000 after loaning it to a "buddy" and he let his son drive it and sink it in a river you tend to get a bad attitude toward loaning expensive equipment out/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Scott

 

[mudisme]

....being a brand new Kubota owner now I wanted to add my .02 ....ah hem...I have to agree with those that say "no". When you think of the money and time you have invested in your tractor (not to mention the emotional attachments you have with HER")...I wouldn't risk it. I will be happy to help people but as it has been said, "my butt will be in the seat".

Steve