The Advice We Give

[jjp8182]

I bought a quick hitch in order to use a pto-driven wood chipper I'd borrowed where the lower pins for a clevis hitch had been replaced with bolts that'd been rusted over for years. That experience taught me two lessons:

- Borrowed/free equipment isn't always as low cost as it'd initially seem
and
- quick hitches might be great if there's enough flat and level terrain to have the implement & the tractor on the same flat and level surface, but I wouldn't know since that's not what I have in the way of terrain (and even if I did I suspect the implements would sink/shift over time)

Personally I prefer telescoping lower links and implements with clevis hitches as that seems allow for the quickest/easiest connection in whatever conditions. Granted a hydraulic top link may make a quick hitch more useful, but at the time I didn't have one of those and I'm not sure I've had as much frustration & wasted time hooking anything up before or since that experience (which pretty much soured me on the concept of a full 3pt quick hitch).

So in general I try to help individuals look at their own expected uses, limitations, needs and try to point out some considerations they should take into account. After all it's ultimately their money and work they need to do.....and I generally don't like telling people how to spend their money, or doing their work for them. I routinely have to do more than enough of both of those activities at my day job (though that case it's usually money they've been given to manage/spend, rather than their personal funds). Though in both places I've seen the first create resentment if/when a person ends up with something that didn't work for them, and the second resulting in having less time to do my own work/projects. :thumbdown:

 

[edgarrian]

This thread is as accurate as one can get. Im heavily involved with a mustang forum. The most common question is "what's the best supercharger I can get". Typically people always tout there supercharger. I was surely one of those guys. Get the one I got. Its the most efficient. Truth be told they are all efficient and effective. As I got older I changed my answer. Gave the person a run down of the types and the things they should do when considering the amount of power to add. As that is important when adding power. Bc when adding a certain amount of power there is always supporting mods that are needed to make your car more reliable and dependable. But most of all it really depends on ur budget and the shop that will be supporting you.

Typically when someone asks about what tractor is best. There again your budget is what is most important as well as which dealer is reputable in your area. That really seems to be the most important.

 

[hks003]

Edgarrian, nicely put. When I started looking for a tractor, I came here and read everything I could. Starting out, I was looking at 25-30 HP tractors in the Kubota B series size. After reading for weeks, I thought I needed a bigger tractor because everyone told everyone "get the bigger one!", so, I wound up with a 40 HP LS along the size of an L series Kubota.

While I've enjoyed the size and been able to do some things I never considered needing to do (move fallen trees, lifting a lawn mower to change blades, etc) I have also torn up my yard in several places (and learned how to fix ruts...) because I was not used to having a 4000 lb machine running around the yard.

I think the B series size would have sufficed for my current needs, but I now have room to grow, and good thing too, because we just bought land to build a house on!

 

[rScotty]

I find myself trying to convince anyone looking for a tractor that they need what I have or they'll be unhappy. It is a big but honest mistake. Most of us have spent may years and perhaps many dollars going through different machines finding what works perfectly - for us and on our properties. The problem with the insights we offer is that the person we offer it to doesn't live at our house. There are lots of discussions on tractors vs. zero turns, brands, horsepower requirements, etc. One of the things my Grandad told me is that any tool made to do more than one thing doesn't necessarily do anything extremely well. I have taken a lot of his wise advice. May have strayed a bit by choosing a tractor instead of different machines, but I'm very fond of the flexibility. Here's where I am after living on this property for 30 years:

* Used open station (1989-2012) and until then couldn't understand why the girly men needed cabs.

* In 2012 I became a girly man when I built a heated cab for the L3200.

* Last year it got even worse. It wasn't enough to have heat in Winter. Now A/C for the hot days of Summer seem like a great idea.

* Grooved R4's are better all-around tires than the R1's and turfs I've had. Full disclosure - the turfs were on a 2WD tractor.

* Had a belly mower on my first tractor and didn't like it.

* Tried a Zero Turn and didn't like it.

* Tried a Ferris and didn't like it.

* Rear finish mowers rule.

* Your RFM isn't wide enough till there's one small spot that gets scalped when you're not paying attention. Three or more spots? Reduce the cutting width by at least 6".

* Never keep the loader on unless you need to use it for something.

* If the tractor you want is too tall, trim the trees and build a larger shed.

* There is an upper limit to tractor size and HP for a given application, but it's a good bit higher than most people think it is.

* There's no such thing as overkill when doing auxiliary lighting. (Remember when MTV played music videos and their slogan was "Too much is never enough"?)

* Bought a 3-point quick hitch and never got around to using it. The smaller implements aren't too difficult to wrestle with. The larger implements go on the larger tractor and it has telescoping lift arms and stabilizers. Probably use it for some ill-conceived front SSQA project one day.

* Front mounted snow plows are the best snow removal tool. (Exception in first sentence below)

* A snowblower is a lot of fun, but unless there's absolute lack of somewhere to push the snow, it isn't the right tool for snow removal if time is of the essence. They're awful if you need to re-blow the snow a few times to get it all the way off the parking lot.

* A wife with a poor memory may not be a bad thing. Mine just reminded me I said I'd sell the L3200 when we bought the L4240 last December. Thankfully, she still hasn't recalled a similar deal that the Ford would go when we got the B7500 in '02.

* Buy a couple lynch pins each time you get into Tractor Supply. Those little buggers have a way of escaping from whatever storage spot you provide for them.

There ya go. Pure honest and accurate advice for anyone who lives at my house. Could be different for the next door neighbor

We've had compact tractors for the past 40+ years now, and your experiences mirror my own - right down to the tire choice.
I'd add a couple of things, and apologize if any of it seems redundent.

* Blades - whether on the front or back - sure work better if they can tilt a little.

* Compact tractors are too light & loaders are too front heavy. 4WD and power steering are the cures for those problems.

* HST is great for loader work but for all else the old fashioned gears and a foot clutch are simple and darn near as handy anyway.

* Once had the good luck to have two very similar 30 hp tractors - one with a turbo and one without. Frankly I couldn't tell much difference in power. We live at 7000 feet.

* SSQA is a wonderful thing to have on a loader.

* Overall, compact tractors are incredibly reliable - and the different brands are more similar than different.

* All tractor toolboxes are too small.

rScotty

 

[fatjay]

Snowblowers are great in my case. I plowed for years, the first snow the driveway is 10' wide. By the 4th it's barely 7' wide because it turns to a solid sheet of ice once you plow it. Snowblower the width remains consistent.

Rear mount mowers are terrible if you have to do any sort of turning. Rear mount doesn't do anything mid mount can't do. I was really on the fence with my kubota 60" zero turn, until I got used to it. Now I won't do anything else. If you have tree's or do a lot of turning, rear mount is really squirly. If you go strait all day and make a single u-turn and then go strait some more, maybe rear mount isn't bad. But for mine, it's not suitable.

 

[shooterdon]

Lots of wisdom here.

I see it on many forums. Guys recommend stuff without considering what the other guy needs. Guys asking for advice without telling us what they want to accomplish.

It sure makes for a lot of poor advice.

One of the worst topics is snow removal. We have guys that move 2 ft a year, making suggestions to those who deal with over 10 ft a year. Occasionally, I get so much that I will remove snow half way through a storm event to keep ahead of it.

But if you spend a lot of time here, you learn who to listen to and can avoid a lot of mistakes. I appreciate how much knowledge is available and it has been very beneficial. Bought my second, and hopefully last, tractor this year. Turned 69 two months ago; and wanted something that would last my lifetime and do all the jobs we need done to live on the homestead for as long as we can.

 

[TnAndy]

I'll add a clarification.

Almost always, comments made here are "opinions" not "advice".

We can only logically offer "advice" to a situation that we fully understand and have all the facts. That's nearly impossible here. So,,, it becomes "opinions".

And almost invariably, someone else will post a criticism of whatever you post telling you what is wrong with your opinion or why you've been doing it wrong for 25 years.

 

[RickB]

I'll add a clarification.

Almost always, comments made here are "opinions" not "advice".

We can only logically offer "advice" to a situation that we fully understand and have all the facts. That's nearly impossible here. So,,, it becomes "opinions".

And we all know that opinions are like______ . Everyone has one.

 

[Industrial Toys]

People don't submit a financial statement before asking for advice. People also don't tell you and you can't know what type of person they are. Some guys are hands-on, love tools, type of guys and some just want to get a job done. So, it's an almost impossible question to answer, what someone else should get.

 

[edgarrian]

That is exactly why I purchased a tractor. We purchased 8 acre of woods in the country. I rented an excavator and took down trees, used a chainsaw to cut them up into manageable logs, dug a hole and burnt stumps and limbs. That was about 5 years ago. It was a chore as I did most of it by myself. My wife would come out for moral support. Actually she was awesome. I would get out of the cab and she would always bring me the chainsaw. It doesn't sound like much but it was helpful. Our driveway is about 450ft long, house is 2000sqft ranch, plus the pole barn site. Id say i took down approximately 2 acres of trees including the site where the septic is placed. I recently took down some trees this past summer to expand our front yard and I didnt feel as spry when doing it. I do enjoy that kind of work but as you get older the task becomes seemingly larger when in fact it was a much smaller job than five years ago. Anyway we purchased our 1705 to backfill, level grass seeding areas, plant grass, landscape and all that. The tractor performed great. I use it to mow, bush hog, move logs, chop up downed trees for firewood, recently built a pistol range, driveway maintenance along with other tasks. It might take me a bit longer b/c its a smaller machine but thats the joy of it. I purchased it in the spring of 2016 and I believe i have 350hours on it.

A guy told me that I should buy a lawnmower to keep the hours off the tractor but my thinking is if it can do the task then why waste the money on another piece of equipment. I plan on keeping this tractor for along time. My dad has a kubota that he purchased in 1995 for his small landscaping business. Basically we would just put out grass for new construction homes. We didnt get into the whole idea of the typical landscaping idea as that can be back breaking work. Anyway he still has that tractor and uses it often for bush hogging and general maintenance around the home. He has always kept it inside a building when it wasn't on a job site. Mine is garage kept so i expect the same longevity. Ill be changing oil this december, along with the axle and transmission. Its pretty easy tractor to maintain.

Edgarrian, nicely put. When I started looking for a tractor, I came here and read everything I could. Starting out, I was looking at 25-30 HP tractors in the Kubota B series size. After reading for weeks, I thought I needed a bigger tractor because everyone told everyone "get the bigger one!", so, I wound up with a 40 HP LS along the size of an L series Kubota.

While I've enjoyed the size and been able to do some things I never considered needing to do (move fallen trees, lifting a lawn mower to change blades, etc) I have also torn up my yard in several places (and learned how to fix ruts...) because I was not used to having a 4000 lb machine running around the yard.

I think the B series size would have sufficed for my current needs, but I now have room to grow, and good thing too, because we just bought land to build a house on!