What do I get?

[workintheland]

OK! I am looking to purchase my first and hopefully last tractor. I have been researching tractors and reading all of your comments in these forums for about a month now. Now it's time to get down to the bare bones of it. I have 40 acres of which 30 are woods and 10 are sand and small trees. We are looking to sell the current house with 5 acres and build a new one on the sand area. I need something that can dig out roots, haul and push sand around and general wood cutting work. I have narrowed it down to two tractors and need your input to help decide.

JD 4320 ($34,600)
NH TC45DA ($32,600)

Both will have a cab, FEL (price above) and a backhoe. The backhoe though I think is going to be a Woods BH-90X. The Woods dealer is checking to see if they can mount it to the sub-frame because I don't want it attached to the 3point hitch.

These two tractors are pretty much at my limit for money so I can't go much higher.

Now it's your turn to give me some words of advice.

 

[Soundguy]

How much you really gonna use that backhoe? Lots? then buy it. Little? Rent a backhoe to do the big work...

If you buy a backhoe.. DO get a subframe unit.. the 3pt ones are not great for heavy duty use due to the stresses on the tractor frame.

soundguy

 

[workintheland]

I have about 100 tree stumps that have to be removed and need to move some sand hills, make the drain field and prep for the basement of the new house. I like the Woods backhoe for the hydraulic thumb capability. Even the JD dealer told me that would be a great backhoe for the stump removel.

 

[woodlandfarms]

How big are your stumps, what kind of trees where they, and how much time do you have? It may make more sense to hire a larger excavator and operator... It took a guy 15 minutes to rip this bad boy out. Took him more time to move to the next stump. Also, once you got them what are you going to do with them? Burn Bury dump?

That said, I am not saying no to the back hoe. It is a great implement to have....


edit--- Aww heck.... The stumps shown are different. They are / were the same size but different so I am kinda fibbing... but you get the idea...

 

[workintheland]

My stumps are from popal trees no larger than 6 inches in diameter and in sand. I have about 2 years to work on all of this before we would be ready to build a new house. I also have to clear out a drive way about 700' long through small trees (2-3"). I am also planning on building a 3 acre pond on the rest of the sand lot, which would require sand removal and laying some clay down to line it with.

 

[Richard]

Could you buy a used industrial backhoe/loader at an auction for say, 10K or 15K...use it for a year and then sell it for a more traditional tractor?

(that's what I did but I've kept the backhoe since it's so much fun AND so darn handy... JCB 1550B)

 

[putt_putt_green]

Poplar trees in sand should pull or push out real easy.

 

[studor]

I struggled withh the same issue about five years ago when I bought a property that needed a lot of work after being logged and neglected. JMHO but I would probably skip the backhoe and look at buying other implements first like box blades, mowers etc.I found that given you are not in a rush you can usually get guys with heavy equipment to do things like dig ponds, clear stumps, move boulders etc for very reasonable prices -- especially when you consider the amount of fuel and time it takes you with a tool not really designed to do those things. Don't get me wrong -- I still use my tractor to do all those things -- usually after my wife decides that we really should have something changed from when the guy with the Cat was here
The things I have had done (pond dug, new road using my own gravel pit, moving landscape rocks bigger than the tractor, trenching for electrical lines to the outbuilding, burying an old refuse pile etc, were done in short order and with better planning on my part could have been done even cheaper. As it was I think the total probably came to a lot less than the price of you proposed backhoe. I have discovered that my neighbours have an amazing array of equipment and love to use it when somebody else has already got the permits and such so they just get seat time . Look around -- you may make a bunch of new friends in the process and they can help you with your tractor as well!

 

[RWolf]

Something that I found recently is if you get the NorthernTool catalog they have used equipment (dozers) for a fraction of original cost. Again like someone else said use then sell when done.

Good luck.

 

[PA hayseed]

I agree with alot of the other posters about buying - using - then selling, but I also bought myself a 45hp tractor to do some of the same jobs you are going to do. The big jobs still get done by others, but at a much lower price. If a guy can come when he wants, dig it and leave, and I backfill and grade, it makes it easier on him and cheaper for me. Some other projects I tackle myself.

If you have copious amounts of free time, then buy big and do it all yourself, until you run into something you can't tackle with that tractor.

I probably didn't help you, oh well, good luck on your decision.