TC24DA or TC33DA and a mower question

[flumpydog]

Hi,

I am new to this forum so go easy on me /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif . It seems like a great place with a wealth of information and a lot of great members!

Now the bit about me, I live in Ontario, Canada and have 1.5 acres, of which most is slightly rolling grass with about a 1/4 acre with a good hill, with trees, the driveway is 300 feet and gravel.

Over the next 2 years, I need to redo all the landscaping, bring in a bunch of topsoil to fill in all the low areas as well as regrading other area. I also need the tractor to grade the driveway from time to time, blow snow in the winter and create/maintain a winding walking path in the wooded hill area of the property. There is also the grass cutting as well that will need to be done. I also plan on getting a rotary broom to help with all the yard work as I have a lot of leaves to clean up as well as other needs for this attachment in the spring.

Big question is (I know this has been asked before) would I be crazy to consider the TC33DA, maybe it is extreme overkill? There is great deals now on the old TC24DA that is hard to resist. I have tried both tractors and while the TC24DA was nice, the TC33DA just felt and ran a whole bunch nicer. There was not much of an issue with either tractor manouvering on my property, tho the TC33DA did seem to do better in the traction department while in 2WD. I guess I just want to make sure I am happy happy happy if I go with the TC24DA, it sure does seem like a great unit.

Now with the mower question, will a rear mount mower give as good a cut as a mid-mount? I am just not too sure how much the mid-mount will get in the way with my other jobs and not really wanting to spend a lot of time mounting and unmounting it. Are their any advantages/disadvantages to the rear mount?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and all input is greatly appreciated.

Best Wishes,
Chuck

 

[kozak]

flumpydog,

Welcome to TBN !

Your property sounds like a nice layout. I am on 2.3 acres & have a NH TC35D that I feel is not out of place given my chores with two horses & landscaping that I also am undertaking. I know the dilemma your facing......justifying a larger machine. There is no doubt that the 24HP machine should be able handle most of what you ask & definitely is better for all around multitask with mowing because of its smaller size. On the flip side as you have already noticed you get better traction (& efficiency) with the larger unit.

If you feel better & it seems like a better fit with the TC33DA I would think you will be happier with that model. The last thing you want to do is go too small.....& thats the difficult part. When I was weighing my options, I too was in the dark but am glad that I went bigger rather than smaller. Even with the TC35D I needed to add some weight (500 Lbs) to the back end to counter the front FEL. With TURF tires & weight front & back my tractor has not let me down for traction (another MAJOR consideration) when dealing with either wet or icy snow. If you have the option go with the R4 tires which will give you even more traction.

The mid mount mower will always be a better mower from a navigation perspective but will be more combersome attaching / disconnecting. The cut will be the same I assume . Others will be better able to advise you.

Vic

 

[thcri]

I bought a TC21D which the 24 replaced, felt much better on a 33 so I took the 21 back and got a new 29 that was on the lot and now I can only wish I had the 33.

If you like the 33 get it. As far as the rear mowing doing better than a mid mower I think one is just as good as the other. I think the mid is nicer if you have a lot of things to get around.

murph

 

[daTeacha]

The mid will be more easily controlled in close quarters, but other than that, they should give the same quality cut. The rear will tend to swing a little wide of the tires at times, especially on tight turns. If you have mowing with wide turns, the rear will do fine.

 

[digggs]

I have the TC24DA and live on 2.4 acres and am soon moving to 5 acres with three horses. It was all that I could afford so a bigger machine was not an option for me and at the time and I did not want anything bigger. So far it has been a great tractor and has been almost able to do all I need. I think now if I could have a 33 in stead of the 24 I would choose the 33. It would be nice to have that extra power sometimes. I do not have any regrets whit the 24 but I may one day move up to the 33. I do not do any mowing now, but on the new property I may. I will probably get a mower to tow behind my ATV Quad for that.

Digggs

 

[flumpydog]

Thanks everyone for the replies and feedback as well as welcoming me to the forum /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

After a lot of discussion with my better half /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif looks like we are going to go with the TC24DA, she is also more comfy driving it. For the price difference right now, we sure can get a lot of attachments and it does seem to be a great tractor as well.

Now with the mower, I am leaning towards the mid mount for the simple reason that I am worried about wiping out a few prized flowers/shrubs with the rear mount, those things sure do appear to swing around fast for a rookie like me. So this begs another question, anyone know of any issues with rear discharge compared to side discharge? I had tried a unit with a rear discharge mower last year and it was nice in that it did not appear to kick up as much dust as well as creating rows of cut grass. My main concern is how do I handle all the leaves in the fall. Currently I use my riding lawnmower and spend hours creating windrows to rake up or try and move as much to the edge of the property as I can. Maybe with this unit, it would have enough power to mulch this stuff up so I could just leave it be? (wishing here lol) Maybe for this reason a side discharge would be best? A sweeper broom would be great but they seem really pricey.

Thanks again,
Chuck

 

[Inspector507]

Chuck,
My tractor is one frame size smaller than what you're looking at, but the MMM will be the same. I have the rear discharge. Am I impressed with the way it CUTS yes, but I'm not impressed with what happens after the grass is cut. The MMM is a mulching deck, but the clippings never seem to exit completely from under there and they'll build up until they bog everything down. Lots of members here have had the same complaint. Others have had no issues at all. Who knows? I saw a post where the owner of a side discharge mower had propped his discharge chute up a bit and it eliminated a lot of the windrow issues.
Leaves with a rear discharge will probably be cut up smaller than with a side discharge. But I cheat, I use the RFM and chop them up going backwards. They come out so fine I can hardly see anything left.

 

[jwstewar]

I have a TC24D w/ the 60" MMM RD. The mower is pretty easy to take off and put back on. Once in awhile the PTO will be stubborn and take a couple seconds longer than normal, but nothing terrible. As far as cut, like Jerry said sometimes it will leave grass boogers. I have a post on here about it somewhere. Some tips that will help w/ that. Normal (whatever that is) grass seems to work the best. Where I typically have my problems is with my "natural" grass i.e. weeds. These normally grow a little bit faster and also are typically a little wetter. These are what typically glob up. If I'm mowing the taller areas I will usually crank the engine RPMs up a little higher and go a little slower. Can also take smaller bites if needed. I've also raised the deck up a little if it is really bad and then remow a couple of days later to the normal height.

As far at the 24 vs. 33 issue. I'm really happy with my 24, though I wanting/needing a backhoe. I've considered talking with the dealer to see what my options are for a backhoe including trading for a 33/34. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Ryno1]

I use the 72" mmm with side discharge connected to a Trac Vac lawn vacumm for leaf and grass clean up on my TC30. Works great, only downside can't get into tight areas. The upside, I went from many days of leaf clean up each fall to maybe 10-12 hours. The main part of our yard is 3+ acres with over 100 12"+ oak and hickory trees, so we have lots of leaves.

 

[jimg]

Your property sounds *very* much like what I used to own. When I was tractor buying I looked at the midchassis tractors as well but eventually decided on the top end of the small chassis class (a tc24). In short Im really glad I went w/ the 24 as anything bigger would have been too big. I used the machine to mow, till my garden, move dirt/gravel, move snow, skid logs, clear land, etc. For its size the 24 is really quite capable and small enough to fit into some fairly tight spots. There were only a couple times I longed for a bigger tractor. You will let us know what you wind up w/?

ETA: I used a 60" 3pt rear discharge mower w/ my 24 which also pitch hit for a brush mower a couple times (and did OK). I found that the 3pt mower was easy to back into areas otherwise not accessible. I still needed the push mower for places such as up against buildings, near places which had overhangs the tractor wouldnt fit under etc. However the push mowing part was minimal (maybe 15mins tops). Most of my 2ac was done w/ the tractor. My snowblower was also 3pt and worked out very nicely making the total job no more than 45mins (my drive was longer than yours too).