purchase or not

[mechanic]

We bought a 5 acrea place with a new home and 300 feet of driveway. My plans were to maybe buy a small tractor after living here awhile. But I have watched diesel go up and up. It is now over $3.00 a gallon. I have now shoveled our 300 foot driveway twice because of snow fall. I wonder how expensive it will be to keep fuel for a tractor on top of buying gas for our cars. I have thought of putting the place up for sale and moving back into town,that is back to Colorado and buy a place with a small yard. I wonder if things will ever get better.

 

[David Cockey]

We're new owners of a BX2350, and 8 hours of use, half of it moving snow used around 3 gallons of Diesel. So a little over $1 per hour. Our 23 year old, 8 HP snow blower uses about as much gasoline per hour. Compared to the cost of the tractor the fuel will be a minor expense.

Based on what I've seen supplies for following the factory maintenance schedule will probably add another fifty cents an hour. Still minor compared to the cost of the tractor.

Assuming we eventually have 2000 hours on the tractor, cost of ownership per hour will be greater than $5 per hour after the time value of money and insurance are included.

 

[davitk]

If you want to save money, the country is not the place to do it. And as some would say, you really don't need a tractor, but it sure makes country life a whole lot more enjoyable. Just kiss that vacation money goodby, put it into your tractor. I'm sure the wife won't mind

 

[johnk]

A tractor is a great multitasker given the right implements. It will perform many different types of chores that would be a pain without one.Add up your needs and how badly you want the chores done and have that extra time on your hands. Also the extra money you would have after the initial investment of the tractor. Having to pay somrone to take care of the chores, and the convience to do it yourself are the things you want to weigh into the equation...

 

[ToadHill]

The Amish guy down the road plows his place with a home made wood blade and One horsepower. The only thing he has to do is feed it and clean up after it.

 

[john_bud]

If the cost of fuel in a tractor is making you feel the pain - you probably are living much too close to the edge.

Also, if you can hand shovel 300 ft of driveway - you don't need the tractor! (Or a gym membership).


You can probably make a snow blade and drag it behind pushing the snow off to the side. It will melt pretty quick in Mo. (I used to live in St. Louis). That would be cheaper than buying a tractor that sits most all of the time. I'm thinking a weighted wood box attached to the rear of your vehicle by chains. Length of chain will dictate the direction of snow removal.


jb

 

[bota7800]

If your only need for a tractor is snow, you can plow better with a $1000 blade for your truck or SUV than with a tractor and backblade. If you have an ATV, you can get a plow for that for less than $500. It depends on if you have any other needs for a tractor- lots of 5 acre homes don't use a tractor. Even a service duty plow will set you back less than most tractors.

Oh, and don't go for the 1 horsepower option - you have to feed them every day even if it doesn't snow.

 

[mjncad]

Mechanic:

I doubt you'll be burning that much diesel with whatever you buy to make it a big problem. To me you need to ask yourself, "Can I stand living back in town next to the neighbors 10-feet away?" I have less than 2-acres where we live now, and since I don't garden, I find it easier to take care of in some ways as I only mow the weeds two to three times a year when we have a normal dry year. In the burbs, I mowed once a week whether I wanted to or not to keep the Kentucky blue grass down to a reasonable height.

I spent the majority of my life in the burbs, and a few years in an apartment, and after moving to where we are now, we enjoy having the elbow room that one can't get in the city. We even bought 35-acres so we can eventually sell this place and move farther away from town and get more space; especially since our current small acreage neighborhood has turned into a royal pain.

 

[JoeinTX]

I have to echo some of the others here...........if the cost of a gallon of diesel is major factor in deciding whether to live the country life or pack it in and move half-way across the country then you've got bigger problems than we can really discuss here.


Modern small tractors are pretty fuel efficient devices and if clearing the drive and doing a little finish mowing are your biggest needs then you can probably expect to fill up the 5 gallon Blitz can once a month, maybe twice in the busy seasons, to take care of it. $15-30 a month. If you've got a mental block about diesel then find an older gas engine rig.....Ford N-series, MF TO-20, etc.....they are pretty stingy with the gasoline and can be had in nice running shape for $2k +/-.

Can it get any worse? YES! Fuel lines.......runaway inflation.....a depression....high interest rates.....if you think $3 diesel in 2008 is bad you can't imagine what real economic hardships can be. Factor inflation and fuel isn't that high in the historical sense.......we've just gotten use to very cheap transportation and the market is beginning to correct itself.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I have to echo some of the others here...........if the cost of a gallon of diesel is major factor in deciding whether to live the country life or pack it in and move half-way across the country then you've got bigger problems than we can really discuss here.

I would have to agree with Joe here. It looks like you are looking for a reason to move back to suburbia. I don't think you would get a great deal of support here, on this forum for the notion of moving to the city. If you want to move back to the city just do it and admit to yourself that you made a mistake. Don't blame that on the price of diesel fuel for your potential tractor.

I lived in New York and Chicago for eight years and grew up in suburbia. I have lived in the country for the last 30 years. I got married shortly before I moved here to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. When my wife was unable to get the professional level job in her field that I thought she should get, I began looking for a job in Chicago. I found a really interesting job, but I told her that moving back to Chicago would be like going to prison. Her comment was, "I will find something that I like here. I didn't ask you to look for the job in Chicago, that was your idea." Well, we stayed, and we're still married.

I remember when I was finishing up my MBA at The University of Chicago and I attended a graduation party. I was telling this cute girl, that I wanted to move to the country. She asked me why I would want to do it. I guess that caught me off guard because the only thing that I could think to say was I really enjoyed walking in the woods, which I do. Her comment was, "When you've seen one tree, you've seen them all." Classic big-city girl.

 

[gordon21]

Give the guy a break here. He asked about diesel costs and didn't know the answer. He could have been worried that it might cost $40-200 per week for diesel.

Mechanic: A tractor in the size range you would need (20-30HP) will use less than a gallon per hour running time. Small diesels are very stingy with fuel. Assuming you could do the whole driveway in an hour, you might spend $1-3 depending upon the tractor and cost of diesel. $2 is a cheap price for not shoveling. You would be running at low RPM if only doing snow. That saves even more.

Some pieces of equipment DO USE a lot of diesel. Big tractors, big excavators, big trucks, etc. Even pickups. If you run a diesel pickup for an hour at 60 MPH, you will probably use 4-5 gallons. That's $13-17 per hour. The key word here is big. The big diesel engines do suck down fuel. Over the road big rigs can tear through $30 per hour of diesel. If a driver is out for 10 hours, that can be $300 per day per driver for a company with a lot of trucks on the road.

Another good comparison is boats. At one point we had a 21' bowrider and a Sea-Doo at the same time. The sea-doo would burn up to 10 gallons PER HOUR. Yes, that's 10GPH. The boat would burn 10 gallons all afternoon. Of course the sea-doo could go from 0-44MPH in about 4 seconds and it was a 2-stroke, but performance costs money. The boat had a 4-stroke I/O that sipped fuel when towing waterskiers at 25MPH.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Not totally knowing the neighborhood you are in and such, sounds like an ATV would be the way to go. They have lots of little implements now to use in the garden and such. Personally have moved awesome amounts of snow with a blade on an ATV, do not underestimate them. About the only thing i can think of that an atv cannot do well is picking up stuff higher than a foot or so.

 

[LBrown59]

We bought a 5 acrea place with a new home and 300 feet of driveway. My plans were to maybe buy a small tractor after living here awhile. But I have watched diesel go up and up. It is now over $3.00 a gallon. I have now shoveled our 300 foot driveway twice because of snow fall. I wonder how expensive it will be to keep fuel for a tractor on top of buying gas for our cars. I have thought of putting the place up for sale and moving back into town,that is back to Colorado and buy a place with a small yard. I wonder if things will ever get better.

Sell yer cars buy a tractor it will use less fuel.

 

[drtydeed]

Factor inflation and fuel isn't that high in the historical sense.......we've just gotten use to very cheap transportation and the market is beginning to correct itself.

And ExxonMobil making 40.6 BILLION profit this year...ha, and I worked for them for 12 yrs...

 

[JoeinTX]

Yeah, take a gander:

Inflation adjusted Gasoline Price Chart

 

[davitk]

We bought a 5 acrea place with a new home and 300 feet of driveway. I have now shoveled our 300 foot driveway twice because of snow fall.

Shoveling sucks, I feel your pain. I was in the 8th grade during the winter of 1978 - 1979, when we moved to a farm on top of a hill with a long drive and no equipment but armstrong shovels. First snow, we shoveled (myself, 2 brothers and dad) enthusiastically, piling the snow on the north side of the drive. Wind came up, filled it level full to a depth of about 2 feet. New Year's eve we had a blizzard (you know, we actually had real snowstorms back in the 'old days'). As everybody was digging out the next week, the county came by with their road grader mounted V-plow and proceeded to get stuck in a 10' drift in the mouth of the drive. Sucked. Really sucked. Didn't help that the old man was pleased with the fact all the shoveling was making his kids "tough".

He didn't get a tractor until sometime after I had left for college, my grandpa's old Farmall H. A few years later along came a 4WD plow truck, then ultimately a skidloader. Dad passed away a few years ago, and Mom finally sold that awful place. Ah, yes, memories......

Oops, sorry Mechanic, I digress.... back to fuel prices - diesel and gas is cheap. Of course, it's not as much fun to use power equipment as to do everything by hand, but the price of fuel is cheap. It's everything else that's expensive, like the wife, and the kids, and the groceries, and the clothes....

 

[mjarrels]

Exxon was 40 billion last QUARTER.

mark

 

[john_bud]

If you run a diesel pickup for an hour at 60 MPH, you will probably use 4-5 gallons. That's $13-17 per hour.

.

Gordon, FYI

My 2003 3.4 ton diesel has records of 65.6 mph is 3.12 gph, 71.1 mph is 3.56 gph, 63.2 mph is 3.28 gph, 58.4 mph is 2.66 gph. All empty.

60 mph and 5 gph would be 12 mpg uggg, that would be bad for a diesel unless towing heavy.

 

[wesross]

Fuel isn't the concern here, its the tractor itself.

 

[RalphVa]

Clearing my approximately 300 ft driveway takes about a half hour. That's about a quart of diesel fuel. Having a diesel-powered "wheelbarrow" is very useful. It's all you need to clear snow. A $250 back blade with do it faster and use less fuel.

A 10 to 12 hp snowblower or smaller tractor with a plow, like a DR, would use the same amount of gasoline. Carb-engined vehicles use 50% more fuel than a diesel engine.

Ralph