Buying Advice Questions on a JD 440 with BH

[wadebrown]

I am looking to purchase a compact tractor to manage a small property, although a BH would be nice I had not been looking too hard as I wanted to keep the total purchase price under $20,000 and I wanted either a new or low hour unit. Yesterday I decided to purchase a new LS MT225HE with no BH, as soon as local dealers have them in stock. Yes I know heresy on a green sub-forum. Today a dealer I know let me know he has a nice JD 4400 with a BH at $16,900 with 2,200 hours. The price is in the right range but more hours than I hoping for. The BH would be handy for many things given new construction and some logging for the home site (think lots of stumps). I planned to rent a mini-excavator for the jobs needing a hoe but having a BH on hand all the time would be a plus, so the JD has me thinking.

So a couple of questions on the 4400: 1) I know the Yanmar should have significant life left in it at 2,200 are there other systems I should check out closely when I take it out for the test drive? Plus is my assumption valid on the life left in the engine?
2) What do you think about the price? I live in Minneapolis if that colors your answer.

Thanks
wade

 

[3Ts]

Not sure what to tell you about the 4400 other than I have a Kubota L235 with about that many hours on it and it still runs fine. I've only heard good things about Yanmar engines. I would caution you on the tree stumps, you don't say what type of tree they are or how big they are. Digging out stumps is a challenge. Can the 4400 do it? Eventually, -- Maybe eventually.

I had 7 pine tree stumps about 12" at the butt. I have a bigger tractor (JD 5055) with backhoe I'd considered using to dig them out, but I had a construction sized excavator in for another job and asked him to pop them out. It was a bit more work for him than either of us expected. It would have taken me the better part of a week to get those out.

 

[wadebrown]

I would caution you on the tree stumps, you don't say what type of tree they are or how big they are. Digging out stumps is a challenge. Can the 4400 do it? Eventually, -- Maybe eventually.

They are pine trees about 8 inches at the butt, all of them the same size as they were all planted at the same time. I have taken out a few stumps but it was more than 4 decades back and I forgot how much work it was.