Tractor Sizing RC size?

ChuckinNH · Oct 1, 2009

The crews mowing the sides of the highways around here have recently switched from the blue tractors that they ran for years to new Kubota Grand L's. I think they are L3240's but I could be wrong. I thought the rotary cutters they were using looked narrow on the tractors, and yesterday I saw one close enough to see that it was a 60". I wonder what the reasoning is behind that? They mow some really nasty areas here in NH so maybe it's a weight, manuverability issue. Still, time is money for those guys, or perhaps not because of the contracts.

art · Oct 2, 2009

Typical government purchase?

ChuckinNH · Oct 2, 2009

Actually, I think all the tractors are owned by a private company, and they lease, or contract out to the state. There was a local guy that became a millionaire doing that..... It could be that they just had a lot of 5' mowers left from the smaller NH tractor set ups they were using though the mower I saw close up was a new Woods. That fleet would be a good sale!

LBrown59 · Oct 2, 2009

art said:
Typical government purchase?

What's typical about it?

Ductape · Oct 4, 2009

Chuck, this isn't gospel or anything, but my BIL works for one of the highway crews. Seems to me he mentioned that the state canned all their mowing contractors this year and bought a whole bunch of mowing equipment and is now doing all the mowing themselves. I'm guessing 'stimulous' money?

ChuckinNH · Oct 4, 2009

Ductape said:
Chuck, this isn't gospel or anything, but my BIL works for one of the highway crews. Seems to me he mentioned that the state canned all their mowing contractors this year and bought a whole bunch of mowing equipment and is now doing all the mowing themselves. I'm guessing 'stimulous' money?

Oh, that could be. New Hampshire sure was on the ball getting their share of that! (I'm not sure how much long term good the summer paving jobs will do, but they sure got a lot done along with much bridge work.) The guy from Claremont that used to have all those contracts did die a couple of years ago, and maybe the state(s) he contracted for haven't been happy since. I say state(s) since I've seen the new rigs in VT along I-89 too.