Hi, I’m new to this forum. I have 50 acres, 15 pasture, 35 wooded. We are starting construction on a new home, 1400 foot driveway. Right now I am focused on LS
MT347 cab hydro with bucket, plow, box blade, brush hog. Am I on the right track? Up until now I have only had garden tractors. Thnx, Barry
I have a purchased new, LS M2-25s open station with loader and in the last 2 years of ownership had zero problems and I really like the engineering, component selection, and creature comforts it possesses.
I also have a 65 HP Branson with cab and loader that I bought new in 2007 and haven't had any problems to speak of over the years. Between those extremes I have 4 45-50 hp older model tractors that are open station with no loader; 3 are Fords and one Case-IH.
If you are doing things out in the weather...moving snow or haying, the cab is the way to go. If you are doing anything else the open station is the best choice. If you do a lot of getting on and off with what you are doing, a tractor that supports that process is a necessity and open station is the ticket.
I am convinced that you can't be all things to everything you are planning to do with one machine. What I would suggest is to buy older tractors having the attributes that were akin to what you wanted to do.....buying older you can get more tractors for what you would spend on a new "single function" (more or less) new one.
On dealers, in 45+ years of owning my farm, the only time I went to a dealer was to buy parts that one can easily get online from dealers everywhere today regardless of their location. Unless you aren't mechanically inclined, with zero tools, you don't need to live next door to a dealer!!!!!!!!!!
The LS dealer was 250 miles from me and delivered the new tractor for free and picked up a couple of older tractors I had, that I didn't like, in trade.