Emerson76
New member
Greetings. I've been reading through these forums for awhile now, and a lot of them sure have been helpful.
I'm getting close to buying my first tractor, and I'm stuck. Hoping for some advice, especially from you folks who operate your machines in the mountains. I'm going to attempt to give you as much relevant information as I can, but let me know if you have any questions.
We bought my in-laws' home almost 2 years ago. Most of the property is wooded, and a lot of it will stay that way. My tractor will ideally help me with road maintenance, general landscaping/clearing chores, and firewood work. The yard itself isn't very big, and I don't mind using my old push mower to keep up with it, so I am planning on the tractor's only mowing duty to be rough brush mowing. It will eventually be a total of 2-3 acres of rough mowing.
Road Maintenance. There is a private road that we share with our neighbor, about .8 miles long, and 2/3 of it (the steepest part) is paved. The rest of it is gravel, and has some pretty serious washout. I can still get up and down it in a car, but I have to watch what I'm doing to keep the oil pan intact. This part of the road is probably 200-300 yards long. About half of it is actually relatively flat, and the other half has a moderate slope. The drainage ditch on one side of the road silts up, and I'll need to be able to re-form the ditch and remove excess silt.
General Landscaping/Clearing Chores. Most of the yard and wooded areas that I plan on reclaiming from the woods are sloped. Most of it isn't terribly steep, and the parts that are can be avoided in most cases. There are lots of rocks of varying size, many of which will have to be moved prior to operating a rotary cutter. Some of them are the size of cars, and will stay right where they are. I don't mind cutting around them if they're too big to move. There is also brush to mow and remove, and several downed trees in the wooded areas that will have to be removed, or possibly burned where they lay.
Firewood Work. I mainly want the tractor to help me drag pieces of trees out of the woods, and lift the rounds up to my log splitter. I had a back injury some time ago, and that bending and lifting just ain't as much fun as it used to be. I used to put up a lot more firewood for family members, but these days I'm only making what we need to heat our house, which is generally only 2 or 3 cords a year.
Eventually, part of the cleared area will become an orchard. The garden seems to get a little bigger every year, so eventually, I'd like to get a small rotary tiller to replace stand-alone tiller I currently wrestle.
I live in a pretty rural area, and tractor dealerships are few. By far, Kubota has the most extensive dealer network here. There's one about 30 minutes away, another about 50 minutes away, and a third about 70 minutes away. The closest John Deere tractor dealer is about 70 minutes away. The closest dealer to me is a small Massey Ferguson dealer in the county seat. The next closest Massey dealer is a long way off, and that worries me, because as tiny as the Massey dealer is, I doubt it will exist anymore after the current owner hangs it up. There are no other dealerships of any kind any closer than the ones I've mentioned. The used tractor market around here is tight. Not many machines, and people seem to want too much for them.
So, I'm mostly looking at Kubota. 4WD BX, B, and perhaps L series. I've studied the literature, gone to the dealerships, and stared at machines. Even tried out a BX in the (flat) parking lot. That's informative, I guess, but without much tractor experience, it doesn't really translate into my reality. I'm not as worried about chores taking awhile as I am about buying a fancy new machine that's too easy to tip over on hilly, uneven terrain. The ground clearance advantage of the B2301 over the BX machines sounds great for my clearing and bush hogging, but does that come with a real loss in stability? The L2501 is much heavier, which I would imagine would tend to help with stability on slopes, but I think it's got to be too big for my needs, and maneuverability in woods has to be less than with the B series. I've read on these forums that the BX will do just about anything that a bigger tractor will do, but it will take longer. That's fine with me, but I don't want to abuse the little thing.
My thinking, which has become pretty much circular, is this: BX will be a whole lot more help than I have now, and I'll figure out how to make its limited FEL lift strength get the jobs done. That's my solution. But wait... the B2301 is only a tiny bit more expensive, and it has some definite advantages in terms of lift strength and ground clearance, and I bet that 3-range transmission will help with my terrain. That's the way I'll go. But wait... the L2501 is 1000 pounds or so heavier, and so should be more stable and plenty strong. But I'm not working with THAT much acreage, and some of the areas I'm working in are pretty tight. And the L2501 is more expensive than my budget will comfortably accommodate. Once the clearing is done and the road is squared back up, that machine will just be overkill for maintaining what I have, and the maneuverability won't be what the BX or B will give me. So back to the BX....
Any suggestions? I'd be particularly interested in the perspectives of those of you who run B's an BX's in mountainous areas. Thanks.
I'm getting close to buying my first tractor, and I'm stuck. Hoping for some advice, especially from you folks who operate your machines in the mountains. I'm going to attempt to give you as much relevant information as I can, but let me know if you have any questions.
We bought my in-laws' home almost 2 years ago. Most of the property is wooded, and a lot of it will stay that way. My tractor will ideally help me with road maintenance, general landscaping/clearing chores, and firewood work. The yard itself isn't very big, and I don't mind using my old push mower to keep up with it, so I am planning on the tractor's only mowing duty to be rough brush mowing. It will eventually be a total of 2-3 acres of rough mowing.
Road Maintenance. There is a private road that we share with our neighbor, about .8 miles long, and 2/3 of it (the steepest part) is paved. The rest of it is gravel, and has some pretty serious washout. I can still get up and down it in a car, but I have to watch what I'm doing to keep the oil pan intact. This part of the road is probably 200-300 yards long. About half of it is actually relatively flat, and the other half has a moderate slope. The drainage ditch on one side of the road silts up, and I'll need to be able to re-form the ditch and remove excess silt.
General Landscaping/Clearing Chores. Most of the yard and wooded areas that I plan on reclaiming from the woods are sloped. Most of it isn't terribly steep, and the parts that are can be avoided in most cases. There are lots of rocks of varying size, many of which will have to be moved prior to operating a rotary cutter. Some of them are the size of cars, and will stay right where they are. I don't mind cutting around them if they're too big to move. There is also brush to mow and remove, and several downed trees in the wooded areas that will have to be removed, or possibly burned where they lay.
Firewood Work. I mainly want the tractor to help me drag pieces of trees out of the woods, and lift the rounds up to my log splitter. I had a back injury some time ago, and that bending and lifting just ain't as much fun as it used to be. I used to put up a lot more firewood for family members, but these days I'm only making what we need to heat our house, which is generally only 2 or 3 cords a year.
Eventually, part of the cleared area will become an orchard. The garden seems to get a little bigger every year, so eventually, I'd like to get a small rotary tiller to replace stand-alone tiller I currently wrestle.
I live in a pretty rural area, and tractor dealerships are few. By far, Kubota has the most extensive dealer network here. There's one about 30 minutes away, another about 50 minutes away, and a third about 70 minutes away. The closest John Deere tractor dealer is about 70 minutes away. The closest dealer to me is a small Massey Ferguson dealer in the county seat. The next closest Massey dealer is a long way off, and that worries me, because as tiny as the Massey dealer is, I doubt it will exist anymore after the current owner hangs it up. There are no other dealerships of any kind any closer than the ones I've mentioned. The used tractor market around here is tight. Not many machines, and people seem to want too much for them.
So, I'm mostly looking at Kubota. 4WD BX, B, and perhaps L series. I've studied the literature, gone to the dealerships, and stared at machines. Even tried out a BX in the (flat) parking lot. That's informative, I guess, but without much tractor experience, it doesn't really translate into my reality. I'm not as worried about chores taking awhile as I am about buying a fancy new machine that's too easy to tip over on hilly, uneven terrain. The ground clearance advantage of the B2301 over the BX machines sounds great for my clearing and bush hogging, but does that come with a real loss in stability? The L2501 is much heavier, which I would imagine would tend to help with stability on slopes, but I think it's got to be too big for my needs, and maneuverability in woods has to be less than with the B series. I've read on these forums that the BX will do just about anything that a bigger tractor will do, but it will take longer. That's fine with me, but I don't want to abuse the little thing.
My thinking, which has become pretty much circular, is this: BX will be a whole lot more help than I have now, and I'll figure out how to make its limited FEL lift strength get the jobs done. That's my solution. But wait... the B2301 is only a tiny bit more expensive, and it has some definite advantages in terms of lift strength and ground clearance, and I bet that 3-range transmission will help with my terrain. That's the way I'll go. But wait... the L2501 is 1000 pounds or so heavier, and so should be more stable and plenty strong. But I'm not working with THAT much acreage, and some of the areas I'm working in are pretty tight. And the L2501 is more expensive than my budget will comfortably accommodate. Once the clearing is done and the road is squared back up, that machine will just be overkill for maintaining what I have, and the maneuverability won't be what the BX or B will give me. So back to the BX....
Any suggestions? I'd be particularly interested in the perspectives of those of you who run B's an BX's in mountainous areas. Thanks.
