Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre...

   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #1  

BadDecisions

Silver Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
106
Location
Wittmann, AZ
Tractor
Ford 8N
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.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #2  
I had no idea things "greened up" like that around Phoenix. Y'all get more rain than I do, though. I just mow the weeds once or twice a year and leave the sagebrush alone. A small tractor with FEL may serve your purpose. You could look for a fifty or seventy five year old one or even go with a grey market Japanese tractor. The grey market tractor will be more difficult to find parts for but they're available if you know where to look. My Mitsubishi is about 45 years old and I'm still finding parts for it. Watch your local Craigslist.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #3  
I recently went on vacation in Santa Fe and we rented a house for a week. It sat on about 5 acres and I picture it being a lot like Phoenix in terms of growth. I noticed one of the neighbors mowed while we were there. He had a John Deere riding mower and I would guess he mowed just a few times a year. The place we stayed did not get mowed and was allowed to do its own thing but they did have a lot of nice land scaping around the house.

Cost? Start out by skipping the back hoe. That add quite a bit to the cost. I'd start out looking at a 1 or a 2 series John Deere. In a Kubota it would be a BX or a B series. I personally like a mid mount mower, but no more than you will mow a rear mount finish mower might work great and be cheaper. Get an end loader and maybe some pallet forks. You will get most of the work done without a backhoe. I just bought a JD 2025 R and with tax and everything I bought with it $21k was the cost. They had 0% financing on it. I traded in a 10 year old Kubota BX with 700 hours on it and got $7k for it, which was a little more than half of the initial cost.

You can find a lot of used tractors, Kubota BX tractors seem very common, in my area. You can usually stay under $10k for a smaller used tractor, you just have to know what you are looking at. Good luck, it sound to me like you need a tractor.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #6  
I just bought a JD 2025 R and with tax and everything I bought with it $21k was the cost.

And I paid around $18K for my blue painted unit with the Hoe, MMM and Tiller included.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #7  
"I'm handy with the wrenches, plasma cutter, and welder, and can fabricate just about anything I need."

That statement may be the solution if you injoy and have time to put those skills to work. Since you already have trouble finding time for yard work,will you find time to fabricate and maintain equipment THEN USE IT?
If you value lesure time and socializing,you can hire someone to keep the yard in shape for less than it cost's for a tractor with fel.
If you insist on diy,a 35 to 50 hp, 1965 to 1990 tractor by Kubota,JD,MF or Ford/NH make's sense financially. 3 point hay fork/pallet fork/carry-all are simple and inexpensive to build or buy. A good used fel will cost $1500-$2500 but if you can forgo bucket curl and limit capacity to around 1k lbs,a used trip bucket fel can be had for as little as $300. Adding forks and modding trip bucket to curl is fairly simple.
Forget meaningful 3 point for the suv. One suv towed thing you might find handy for yanking brush out by the roots is fabercating something similar to this with a couple of modifications. http:////www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_logging+log-skidding-lifting+log-arches?utm_source=bing_PPC&utm_medium=Logging&utm_campaign=Gen%20Logging&utm_content=log%20arch&msclkid=857b51f55b2513023f190c427ca86838

I believe a come-a-long or elect winch on tongue with cable through snatch block at top of arch to chain around base of bush will make quick work of uprooting.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #8  
"I'm handy with the wrenches, plasma cutter, and welder, and can fabricate just about anything I need."

That statement may be the solution if you injoy and have time to put those skills to work. Since you already have trouble finding time for yard work,will you find time to fabricate and maintain equipment THEN USE IT?
If you value lesure time and socializing,you can hire someone to keep the yard in shape for less than it cost's for a tractor with fel.
If you insist on diy,a 35 to 50 hp, 1965 to 1990 tractor by Kubota,JD,MF or Ford/NH make's sense financially. 3 point hay fork/pallet fork/carry-all are simple and inexpensive to build or buy. A good used fel will cost $1500-$2500 but if you can forgo bucket curl and limit capacity to around 1k lbs,a used trip bucket fel can be had for as little as $300. Adding forks and modding trip bucket to curl is fairly simple.
Forget meaningful 3 point for the suv. One suv towed thing you might find handy for yanking brush out by the roots is one of these with a couple of modifications. http:////www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_logging+log-skidding-lifting+log-arches?utm_source=bing_PPC&utm_medium=Logging&utm_campaign=Gen%20Logging&utm_content=log%20arch&msclkid=857b51f55b2513023f190c427ca86838

I believe a come-a-long or elect winch on tongue with cable through snatch block at top of arch to chain around base of bush will make quick work of uprooting.

yeah good points. Ive said before might be cheaper to just have somebody else do it, specially if you dont have time.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #9  
I recommend you just hire it done. There are 100,000 landscape companies in the greater valley (Phoenix) area. There's a reason for that.

The whole "desert landscaping" thing is a modern day urban myth. Folks think it's "better", or "saves time", etc over just having a normal yard and a few trees. It does not. It saves water, but not time.

Now before you think "This guy from ND's cheese has slid off his cracker... ", a little background.

I am originally from AZ. Yes, I am a "native" born Arizonan. Grew up in the 60's and early 70's in a location that, "back then", was well north of Phoenix, AZ. I grew up on a farm there, in what could best be described as a rural area. But present day Phoenix has swallowed the entire country side where I grew up and went to school. It is all now part of "Phoenix". I killed my first deer on the side of a hill just above what is currently "Beardsley Rd" and "Cavecreek Rd", to give you an idea of how much it's changed in 50 years. It was all open desert and farm land back then.

When I was growing up, no one, and I seriously mean NO. ONE. had "desert landscaping" around their house. We had yards. With grass, trees, bushes and flower beds. Everyone I knew had the same. We had a couple of acres around the house that was considered "yard", and mowed and treated accordingly. The rest was farm fields that were treated accordingly.

But the "yard", was just like everyone else's yards. Green grass everywhere, trees with leaves on them, and everything was mowed and kept up just like "other" parts of the country.

In "town" (Phoenix) was the same. NO ONE had desert landscaping. Not even the poor neighborhoods in south Phoenix. There's a reason for that...

It is a huge time sink, unless you just let it run it's coarse and look like heck. Yes weeds grow lightning fast when they get rain, because some years you'd go 6-8 months straight with no precipitation at all. So the weeds have to be fast growing, so they get a chance to go to seed before they die. I could easily mow an entire acre of grass, trim bushes and hedges, and haul the clippings to "the pile" out back in far less time than you can maintain the same area in "desert landscape".

I don't think I saw a single desert landscaped "anything" until I came home from the service in the mid 80's.

OP, either hire it done, or be prepared to set back major amounts of time to keep up with an acre of "natural" (desert) landscaping. The county (Maricopa) has some strict ordinances about nuisance weed control now, and if you don't keep it up, they will cite you, do the cleanup themselves and bill you for it (if it gets that far).

Again, for your lack of available time, I would just hire it done.
 
   / Not sure if I should be looking at tractors, or something else...for 1 acre... #10  
Sounds like a traditional tractor isn’t what you are looking for. I suspect a skid steer will do everything you want, although an older 2wd tractor would be cheaper to buy and maintain.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2016 Ford F -150 (A50323)
2016 Ford F -150...
2019 POLARIS XP1000 RANGER (A51222)
2019 POLARIS...
2017 JCB 3CX 15HFCE BACKHOE (A51242)
2017 JCB 3CX...
2019 FORD F-650 SUPER DUTY BOX TRUCK (A51406)
2019 FORD F-650...
2019 INTERNATIONAL LT625 TANDEM AXLE SLEEPER (A51219)
2019 INTERNATIONAL...
2008 RIB 24 Cat Boat (A50324)
2008 RIB 24 Cat...
 
Top