Newbie needing help

rjproctor · Mar 25, 2004

OK, I have for the past week or so tried to read every piece of information in this forum, but now am totally confused. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I mean really really confused.

I recently bought 9 acres and have a small sears garden tractor (15.5hp). The ground is mostly old hayfield, that the neighbour has been using to bale.

So I have about 1.5 acres that is already been mowed and is in somewhat good shape, I want to eventually make almost all of the 9 acres finished mowed so that I can use it as my own private golf driving range.

So with that said, I need some expert opinion of what I need to be looking at. I have been on the Deere site, NH site and the Kubota site, all of these brands have dealers that are close by here in Central Indiana.

I have been looking around at the NH24DA and the Deere 4115. I am not partial to buying new or used, but deere will finance used equipment through a franchise dealer.

I am unsure on any tractor wether to buy a MMM or an RMM and do I need a tiller and blade to get the ground to be able to plant real grass.

I guess that any advice would be very very greatly appreciated.

James Proctor /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Bob_Skurka · Mar 25, 2004

Do NOT buy a tiller to get the ground ready for a lawn. If you already have reasonably smooth ground then you won't need it. For considerably less money you might want a 72" or 84" York Rake to help smooth a few things out, yank out roots and debris, etc. You may even find a place to rent you one of those. But you can buy those for about $400 versus $1000 to $2000 for a tiller.

You probably have NO use for a rear blade.

You may have some use for a box blade if you have bumps or ruts that you need smoothed out and filled.

If you are lucky, your ground will be relatively flat and smooth from the haying and you can simply mow it. Over the course of a couple of years natural grasses will smother out the weeds (assuming you keep it mowed).

To speed the process, you could use the above mentioned Rake, use some selective herbicides to attack the weeds, and spread some new grass seed to accelerate growth. The herbicides could be sprayed with a fairly inexpensive 25 gallon boom sprayer. It will probably take about 50 gallons to do 9 acres, your cost would probably be about $300 for a tow behind sprayer that your yard tractor could pull.

You can get lots of different types of spreaders for throwing grass seed, if you even want to do that, the costs will run from about $250 to $400 for various brands that are PTO driven, if you decide you need it.

I bought the 4.5 acres next door to me, it was half hay and half woodland. I simply used my finish mower and mowed the couple acres that were in hay. It has become a very nice lawn.

MMM or RFM is simply a matter of choice. Both do the job. If your neighbor cuts down the field for you the first time, and if it is reasonably smooth, your can keep it maintained with a finish mower. Spend your money to buy a good one, you will use it a lot, and if you want a manicured golf course then you won't want to skimp on quality. I have a Befco Cyclone, it is heavy & expensive but does a very nice job.

Hope this helps.

Egon · Mar 25, 2004

The results you wish to acheive may require different methods to get there. Is the hayfield portion smooth enough for what you wish?

Egon

rjproctor · Mar 25, 2004

Thanks for your advice, I am not looking to make it like a true golf course, My mistake. All I am looking to do is to turn it into a reasonable lawn that I can then go and hit golf balls in. The land is pretty flat with a few ruts. I am just looking to get something that is going to be good to cut that amount of grass and do a few other things around the home.

Bob_Skurka · Mar 25, 2004

If it is in pretty good shape and if you are not looking for a true golf course, you probably can skip the York Rake completely. The sprayer & spreader are totally optional depending on how many weeds you can live with, how lush you want the grass, etc.

If there are some ruts that need to be smoothed out, a box blade would be the tool for that.

By the way, you said you are looking at a NH TC24D as one of your choices. I paid $10,600 delivered to my door in June of '03 without any implements (I already had them) and with no FEL. I presume prices are up a bit, but that should give you a frame of reference. You might also want to contact Corriher's Implement, they are a sponsor on TBN and have great no-hassle pricing. I did not finance so I don't know if that is a factor in pricing or not.

rjproctor · Mar 25, 2004

Are the NH24DA and the 4115 comparable machines and are they sufficient to do what I need them to do, or do I need to look bigger?? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Bob_Skurka · Mar 25, 2004

I really don't know, maybe one of the JD guys can help with that.

I will admit to being totally biased agains JD simply because I was treated (twice) like a leper when I walked into the local JD dealership. I have some smaller JD equipment and can't say anything bad about it. But I walked into the dealership with a checkbook (twice) to buy a tractor and had a heck of a hard time getting anyone to talk to me. One time I literally walk away without even talking to any sales man. They were not busy, they were just jerks! And that explains why I own a Cub, a Kubota, and a New Holland. This year I plan on buying a ZTR from the Cub/Kubota dealer, not even going to give the JD/Toro dealer in town a chance. I'm also shopping for a Steiner or Ventrac tractor but that is another story!!!

What I can tell you is that I looked at the small JD tractors and while I don't know what model compares to the NH, I can tell you I was not overly impressed with their operator platform layout. That is simply a personal choice and you may feel totally different. I have really come to appreciate my NH and it is my favorite tractor, I love the visibility over the sloped curved hood on the TC tractors, it beats the heck out of the visibility you get on the Kubotas or the Deeres. The larger Cub Cadets (7000 series) also have the sloped curved hoods that give superior visibility in front of the tractor. If you decide on getting a front end loader, then the curved NH loaders are superior to everything on the market from the standpoint of visibility. I know that because I've been spending a lot of time on my Kubota B2910 (which I really like) and it has a long rectangular hood (as do JD tractors) and square loader arms that really give you a bad view out front. I wish I had gotten a loader on my TC24D becuase if I had it, I'd probably stop using the Kubota completely except for the bigger jobs.

rjproctor · Mar 25, 2004

Do you think that honestly the 24D is enough if I am planning on eventually mowing 9 acres. Or should I jump up to the 29D. I guess that I am just confused by the different horsepowers as I know that my little 15.5 hp gas wouldn't even cut 2 acres of grass.

Bob_Skurka · Mar 25, 2004

I have about 12 acres, the TC24D (or similar size tractor) can easily mow it. I use a 60" Befco finish mower. I enjoy the time it takes to mow. I have some very steep hills and don't use the TC24 on those areas. I also have a lot of native hawthorn trees and find that the TC24 is too tall to mow up close to those, so I use a smaller tractor without ROPS to simply drive under the hawthorn branches (if you are not familiar with native hawthorns, they have 1" to 1.5" thorns all over the branches so you really want to avoid driving into them).

I have the B2910 to BUILD things, but I admit that I am pretty much done building and now concentrate on MAINTAINING. The B2910 is really more than I need for maintaining a lawn or the other landscaping. It is plenty of power for its size, if most of what you are doing is mowing, you will be very happy with the TC24 size tractor becuase it has a nice tight turning radius and plenty of power to run implements.

jwstewar · Mar 25, 2004

( Are the NH24DA and the 4115 comparable machines and are they sufficient to do what I need them to do, or do I need to look bigger?? )

Yes, they are comparable machines. However when I was looking the Deere was quite a bit more expensive then my TC24 . However, I recently went back to the same dealer and he priced me a 4210 (28HP) for less then I paid for my NH /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif One nice thing about the 4115 over the 24DA is if you are looking at a MMM, Deere will do a 72" where as NH will only do a 60" MMM - but then you get the rear-discharge MMM as an option.

BTW, did I say I love my TC24D ?