BadDecisions
Silver Member
This is probably going to be a bit long winded...I've never been any good at condensing thoughts....
I live on just over an acre of Phoenix, Arizona desert land. Bought the place a few years ago with stars in my eyes, reminiscing of the rural life I had growing up in northern Michigan, but without the hassle of doing yard work. Thought I'd be able to just let nature do it's thing, never have to cut grass again, and enjoy the slow growth of desert landscaping that I'd rarely have to touch. Turns out, I was VERY wrong, and maintaining desert property is a LOT more work as an adult here than I remembered doing as a kid in Michigan, lol.
So now i find myself with 50,000 sq ft of scrub desert land that turns into a jungle 2 or 3 times a year during the rainy seasons. Seems like I go from bare ground to weeds nearly as tall as I am inside of a month (maybe a little slower that that, but it's still freakishly fast how it can go from nothing to thick weeds and brush in a dry desert).
The problem is compounded by being a single guy, living alone, and out of the house 12-14 hours a day for work. I still haven't finished the clearing I started doing by hand a year ago, and it's growing over again. The wash cutting through the property has been a pain every time it rains, as I have some trees down in it that restrict flow/collect debris every time it rains as well.
So I thought about buying a small tractor with BH and FEL, thinking that it would be handy to do things like scraping land clean of the weeds, digging out the debris from the wash, smoothing out the road and driveway that get torn up every time it rains, and it would be handy to have something capable of lifting things like engines and axles from my parts trucks out back, without having to lay a plywood highway for the engine hoist.
Until I looked at pricing of these things. Yep...wasn't expecting a new import tractor to be the same price as a small car. My neighbor bought a Yanmar 4WD that set him back $20K (which is WAY out of my current budget), and broke the transaxle in the 1st month with the BH (actually broke one of the mounting bosses cast into the transaxle).
And then I wonder if I really should even be looking at tractors, or if maybe there's a better solution for my needs? I'm _never_ going to be doing any farming type work out here. I can't even mentally keep up with growing herbs on the kitchen counter, lol. It's very unlikely that I'm ever going to have any farm animals like horses here - see again about being away from home so much. I'll never be cutting large plots of grass...I would just as soon clear the land than have to cut grass ever again, but at the same time, I don't want to go nuts with vegetation killer either as I do want to have a few trees and bushes out there...just not a jungle, lol.
The big needs that I can think of now is clearing land of weeds and small brush and transporting that stuff to the bed of the truck to take to the landfill. Dragging/smoothing the dirt driveway and road. Digging out the wash (which I'd be OK with doing part of that by hand..having a FEL would make the transport to the truck part MUCH easier though). Lifting heavy objects up to maybe 1,000 pounds max, and transporting to garage, over dirt. I think I can get by without a backhoe, but a FEL would be awfully handy.
I'm handy with the wrenches, plasma cutter, and welder, and can fabricate just about anything I need. I'm thinking it would be simple to upsize the drag a bit more, and drag it around with the Suzuki Samurai in the garage. I could easily replicate the 3 point hitch adapters sold for using 3pt attachments on trucks with receiver hitches, and maybe even use a box blade with the Samurai. But I'm not sure how I would replicate the function of a FEL, or being able to lift things higher. I bought one of those mini hoist things that attach to a receiver hitch (looks like a smaller version of an engine hoist, but using the truck as the base), because it cost less than what the raw steel would have cost me, but found it of limited use value, and doesn't solve the problem of having to get the wheelbarrow full of brush clippings into the truck very well.
I live on just over an acre of Phoenix, Arizona desert land. Bought the place a few years ago with stars in my eyes, reminiscing of the rural life I had growing up in northern Michigan, but without the hassle of doing yard work. Thought I'd be able to just let nature do it's thing, never have to cut grass again, and enjoy the slow growth of desert landscaping that I'd rarely have to touch. Turns out, I was VERY wrong, and maintaining desert property is a LOT more work as an adult here than I remembered doing as a kid in Michigan, lol.
So now i find myself with 50,000 sq ft of scrub desert land that turns into a jungle 2 or 3 times a year during the rainy seasons. Seems like I go from bare ground to weeds nearly as tall as I am inside of a month (maybe a little slower that that, but it's still freakishly fast how it can go from nothing to thick weeds and brush in a dry desert).
The problem is compounded by being a single guy, living alone, and out of the house 12-14 hours a day for work. I still haven't finished the clearing I started doing by hand a year ago, and it's growing over again. The wash cutting through the property has been a pain every time it rains, as I have some trees down in it that restrict flow/collect debris every time it rains as well.
So I thought about buying a small tractor with BH and FEL, thinking that it would be handy to do things like scraping land clean of the weeds, digging out the debris from the wash, smoothing out the road and driveway that get torn up every time it rains, and it would be handy to have something capable of lifting things like engines and axles from my parts trucks out back, without having to lay a plywood highway for the engine hoist.
Until I looked at pricing of these things. Yep...wasn't expecting a new import tractor to be the same price as a small car. My neighbor bought a Yanmar 4WD that set him back $20K (which is WAY out of my current budget), and broke the transaxle in the 1st month with the BH (actually broke one of the mounting bosses cast into the transaxle).
And then I wonder if I really should even be looking at tractors, or if maybe there's a better solution for my needs? I'm _never_ going to be doing any farming type work out here. I can't even mentally keep up with growing herbs on the kitchen counter, lol. It's very unlikely that I'm ever going to have any farm animals like horses here - see again about being away from home so much. I'll never be cutting large plots of grass...I would just as soon clear the land than have to cut grass ever again, but at the same time, I don't want to go nuts with vegetation killer either as I do want to have a few trees and bushes out there...just not a jungle, lol.
The big needs that I can think of now is clearing land of weeds and small brush and transporting that stuff to the bed of the truck to take to the landfill. Dragging/smoothing the dirt driveway and road. Digging out the wash (which I'd be OK with doing part of that by hand..having a FEL would make the transport to the truck part MUCH easier though). Lifting heavy objects up to maybe 1,000 pounds max, and transporting to garage, over dirt. I think I can get by without a backhoe, but a FEL would be awfully handy.
I'm handy with the wrenches, plasma cutter, and welder, and can fabricate just about anything I need. I'm thinking it would be simple to upsize the drag a bit more, and drag it around with the Suzuki Samurai in the garage. I could easily replicate the 3 point hitch adapters sold for using 3pt attachments on trucks with receiver hitches, and maybe even use a box blade with the Samurai. But I'm not sure how I would replicate the function of a FEL, or being able to lift things higher. I bought one of those mini hoist things that attach to a receiver hitch (looks like a smaller version of an engine hoist, but using the truck as the base), because it cost less than what the raw steel would have cost me, but found it of limited use value, and doesn't solve the problem of having to get the wheelbarrow full of brush clippings into the truck very well.