GuadGrassfed
New member
After using TBN for many years to read up and educate myself on tractors, I have finally gotten on board with my first post. I'd like to thank the hundreds of people whose contributions I've read and researched that have greatly benefited me. Its been like a college course on equipment: how to evaluate, size, maintain, use and purchase the right machine. Its a gold mine of information!
I'd like to think that my situation is slightly more complicated than average. I have a small ranch by western standards but of course we don't have very much dry-land farming here so we don't need to plow or mow. I run livestock and they eat grass that gets banked over the summer and is fully used-up over the winter. My tractor needs are for fence-post holes, modest road maintenance, handling round bales, plus some brush clearing and assorted FEL chores. The land is reasonably level for being in the mountains, elevation is about 7200', although I have read all the posts about how to make you machine more stable and less prone to rollover since we have plenty of incline (over 500 feet in a quarter section in places), and I plan to use loaded R-4s since its rarely muddy here and I like the lower profile.
My requirements lead me to look at the medium to large utility tractors: Kioti DK55, Kubota MX5100, the Deere 5000 series, etc. No need for cab, it's usually sunny all winter :thumbsup: My bottom-line list of "must-haves" are: 50hp machine (with matching loader for say 2500# lift at the pins), 4WD, TURBO (primarily for altitude compensation - at 7000' I'm giving up over 20% of my hp without it), and possibly HST since I think its advantages match my average use better than gear (though I don't have any issue with using a gear). I'd guess my average use per year might be 150-200 hours.
The last major item is The Dealer, and you can imagine it is sparse around here. I read on TBN where people have every dealer within 15 miles of their place: here its about 250 miles. It turns out that one of my closest dealers (80 miles and over a 10,000' mountain pass) is the one I prefer: long-time record of customer satisfaction, small town, wants the business (not lots of it here), knows how to deal with customers located far away. The dealer has therefore lead me to consider his brand quite strongly: Kioti. Luckily, I think Kioti appears to stack up rather well (thanks TBN for the info).
Therefore, I am faced with the fact that the Kioti line doesn't have much turbo. The DK55 is probably the best choice (I think?) but it doesn't have HST, just gear. I'd really like to buy Kioti although Deere and Kubota and possibly others have this rare combo: 4WD, turbo, 50hp, and HST ($$$). Mahindra, LS, TYM and others don't seem to have the same combination of these features. Kioti isn't perfect, but its just the tranny choice, the rest seems to line up. OR, I can chuck my strongly-held beliefs about turbo and altitude and get a DK50HST. Price differences between these two choices not significant to me.
Another thought I haven't seen written about: is hydraulic performance impacted by reduced HP of a naturally-aspirated engine at altitude, or would the tractor continue to pump out the same GPM with understandably reduced power for pulling and PTO chores? That might lead me to go to the naturally-aspirated HST all else equal.
So, my dilemma is to either forsake my goal of a turbo machine and get the Kioto HST -- or get a geared turbo model (DK55 presumably only choice) and just get good at running it. I'm mid-50s and the legs are still OK, but i certainly understand the point of view expressed here that the clutch can be a pain as you get older
. Thanks in advance for any advice you might share-- recognize there is no objectively right choice but its still quite helpful to hear educated opinions.
I'd like to think that my situation is slightly more complicated than average. I have a small ranch by western standards but of course we don't have very much dry-land farming here so we don't need to plow or mow. I run livestock and they eat grass that gets banked over the summer and is fully used-up over the winter. My tractor needs are for fence-post holes, modest road maintenance, handling round bales, plus some brush clearing and assorted FEL chores. The land is reasonably level for being in the mountains, elevation is about 7200', although I have read all the posts about how to make you machine more stable and less prone to rollover since we have plenty of incline (over 500 feet in a quarter section in places), and I plan to use loaded R-4s since its rarely muddy here and I like the lower profile.
My requirements lead me to look at the medium to large utility tractors: Kioti DK55, Kubota MX5100, the Deere 5000 series, etc. No need for cab, it's usually sunny all winter :thumbsup: My bottom-line list of "must-haves" are: 50hp machine (with matching loader for say 2500# lift at the pins), 4WD, TURBO (primarily for altitude compensation - at 7000' I'm giving up over 20% of my hp without it), and possibly HST since I think its advantages match my average use better than gear (though I don't have any issue with using a gear). I'd guess my average use per year might be 150-200 hours.
The last major item is The Dealer, and you can imagine it is sparse around here. I read on TBN where people have every dealer within 15 miles of their place: here its about 250 miles. It turns out that one of my closest dealers (80 miles and over a 10,000' mountain pass) is the one I prefer: long-time record of customer satisfaction, small town, wants the business (not lots of it here), knows how to deal with customers located far away. The dealer has therefore lead me to consider his brand quite strongly: Kioti. Luckily, I think Kioti appears to stack up rather well (thanks TBN for the info).
Therefore, I am faced with the fact that the Kioti line doesn't have much turbo. The DK55 is probably the best choice (I think?) but it doesn't have HST, just gear. I'd really like to buy Kioti although Deere and Kubota and possibly others have this rare combo: 4WD, turbo, 50hp, and HST ($$$). Mahindra, LS, TYM and others don't seem to have the same combination of these features. Kioti isn't perfect, but its just the tranny choice, the rest seems to line up. OR, I can chuck my strongly-held beliefs about turbo and altitude and get a DK50HST. Price differences between these two choices not significant to me.
Another thought I haven't seen written about: is hydraulic performance impacted by reduced HP of a naturally-aspirated engine at altitude, or would the tractor continue to pump out the same GPM with understandably reduced power for pulling and PTO chores? That might lead me to go to the naturally-aspirated HST all else equal.
So, my dilemma is to either forsake my goal of a turbo machine and get the Kioto HST -- or get a geared turbo model (DK55 presumably only choice) and just get good at running it. I'm mid-50s and the legs are still OK, but i certainly understand the point of view expressed here that the clutch can be a pain as you get older
. Thanks in advance for any advice you might share-- recognize there is no objectively right choice but its still quite helpful to hear educated opinions.
