Olympus
Platinum Member
Hey everyone, looking for some advice/suggestions on a small cab tractor. I currently have a 2013 LS R3039 shuttle shift with 500 hours and it's been a great tractor and I've never had a single issue with it. It's 38.5hp which I've never had a single instance where I wished I had more horsepower. I was using it regularly to maintain a 6 acre property with a long gravel driveway. I have since moved to a new house on 3 acres and no more gravel driveway. I own a hunting property where I use it to brush hog trails. I have two one-acre food plots that I till about once every 2-3 years but I've started renting a Deere 3032e and rotary tiller for $350 to use for tilling. I tried just renting the tiller only but the PTO shaft was too long by about 2 inches and the rental shop would not allow me to shorten the shaft so I've had to start renting their Deere tractor along with the tiller. Which is fine by me because my food plots have rocks and roots still that I'm slowly picking out and throwing off to the side so I'd be pissed if I roached a $2000 tiller that I paid for. Anyway, the last few years I've been keeping the entire loader frame on my LS removed from the tractor because it's easier to maneuver through the wooded trails when I'm brush hogging. I find myself only putting the loader frame back on when I need to lift something or carry something, mostly for neighbors.
But I've been thinking about upgrading to a small cab tractor as I'm getting older. I'm thinking that for my uses now, I could probably move down to a smaller size tractor and still be able to do what I want/need to do. I still want a loader, but want to be able to remove the loader easily like I'm doing now. My current tractor has 2 rear remotes and I've never even used them. Not sure if that's something that's necessary on a new tractor considering I've yet to use them on my current tractor. I'm not sure if I have a preference on HST or shuttle shift. Some days I wished I had HST and other days I'm fine with my shuttle. I do think that cruise control on an HST is important, preferably one that you can set any point rather than presets. I've seen some HST cruise where you can only lock into 2 or 3 different positions and I think that might be hard to find the right speed. One preset might be too slow and the next one might be too fast. Right now I have 2 attachments, a brush hog and a boom spray tank that I use to spray weeds in my yard. I've been living at my new house for 3 years now and haven't had a need for any other implements yet aside from the rotary tiller that I'm renting once every few years.
I look forward to hearing suggestions and advice!
But I've been thinking about upgrading to a small cab tractor as I'm getting older. I'm thinking that for my uses now, I could probably move down to a smaller size tractor and still be able to do what I want/need to do. I still want a loader, but want to be able to remove the loader easily like I'm doing now. My current tractor has 2 rear remotes and I've never even used them. Not sure if that's something that's necessary on a new tractor considering I've yet to use them on my current tractor. I'm not sure if I have a preference on HST or shuttle shift. Some days I wished I had HST and other days I'm fine with my shuttle. I do think that cruise control on an HST is important, preferably one that you can set any point rather than presets. I've seen some HST cruise where you can only lock into 2 or 3 different positions and I think that might be hard to find the right speed. One preset might be too slow and the next one might be too fast. Right now I have 2 attachments, a brush hog and a boom spray tank that I use to spray weeds in my yard. I've been living at my new house for 3 years now and haven't had a need for any other implements yet aside from the rotary tiller that I'm renting once every few years.
I look forward to hearing suggestions and advice!
.
