Bartley
New member
About a year ago I wrote a post asking the general question of what kind of tractor I needed. This was the first time I asked the question here; but I had been debating this question for over a year before posting.
To be honest I didn’t even want to buy a tractor, or at least spend the money on one. My wife loves horse, a love that I do not share. Spending thousand of dollars for “hay burners” did not excite me. Other than happiness, pet horses do nothing but cost a lot of money. But seven horses, a barn, and 20 acres, meant that I needed a tractor.
Anyhow, after that post, some of you (like “tc35dforme”) could tell that I was a reluctant buyer. Basically I was told in the replies of some to shut up, decide what I needed to buy, and get it done. There was no getting around it.
Here is the point of all of this, you guys were right. I looked the rest of the summer, while I suffered without a tractor, and this fall I got mad and bought a tractor. I should have done it two years ago.
It has made life so much easier, less dangerous, and less time consuming. It was a manner of time until I tore up my truck, or myself, trying to do things I needed a tractor for. I have done things in mud, that I would have had to waited weeks to dry out before, including pulling my stuck four wheel drive truck out of the mud. And to think I am this happy and only have 5hrs on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like spending the money, or making the payments. But 3 months later I can already say it is worth it.
So for those of you that need a tractor and have not bought one, JUST DO IT. Decide what you need, find it, and buy it, you will not regret it. For me that was a Kubota 3830. I looked a lot and that was the best tractor for the money in my area, which would best serve my needs.
In the end what made me decide, was how good and close the dealer was. I looked at several good brands that I think I would have been happy with. I ended up buying for a dealer less than 5 miles of my house. The other brand dealers were a lot farther from my home.
The other thing that I learned fairly fast is not to pay to much attention to horsepower that they claim the tractor has. When comparing brands of tractor, look at net horsepower and pto horsepower, not just gross horse power that they advertise. I wanted around a 41 hp 4x4 tractor, several tractors that they say are 41 hp, have less net and PTO horsepower than my 38hp Kubota does.
The other big factor for me was weight of the tractor, don’t be fooled, just because your hydraulics can lift 2300lbs, a 2800lbs tractor will never lift that weight on either end. I feed round bales and I looked at smaller tractors that would lift them at the 3pt, but you would have had to put 500lbs on the nose to do so.
Anyhow, thanks for all of the past help.
Bartley
To be honest I didn’t even want to buy a tractor, or at least spend the money on one. My wife loves horse, a love that I do not share. Spending thousand of dollars for “hay burners” did not excite me. Other than happiness, pet horses do nothing but cost a lot of money. But seven horses, a barn, and 20 acres, meant that I needed a tractor.
Anyhow, after that post, some of you (like “tc35dforme”) could tell that I was a reluctant buyer. Basically I was told in the replies of some to shut up, decide what I needed to buy, and get it done. There was no getting around it.
Here is the point of all of this, you guys were right. I looked the rest of the summer, while I suffered without a tractor, and this fall I got mad and bought a tractor. I should have done it two years ago.
It has made life so much easier, less dangerous, and less time consuming. It was a manner of time until I tore up my truck, or myself, trying to do things I needed a tractor for. I have done things in mud, that I would have had to waited weeks to dry out before, including pulling my stuck four wheel drive truck out of the mud. And to think I am this happy and only have 5hrs on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like spending the money, or making the payments. But 3 months later I can already say it is worth it.
So for those of you that need a tractor and have not bought one, JUST DO IT. Decide what you need, find it, and buy it, you will not regret it. For me that was a Kubota 3830. I looked a lot and that was the best tractor for the money in my area, which would best serve my needs.
In the end what made me decide, was how good and close the dealer was. I looked at several good brands that I think I would have been happy with. I ended up buying for a dealer less than 5 miles of my house. The other brand dealers were a lot farther from my home.
The other thing that I learned fairly fast is not to pay to much attention to horsepower that they claim the tractor has. When comparing brands of tractor, look at net horsepower and pto horsepower, not just gross horse power that they advertise. I wanted around a 41 hp 4x4 tractor, several tractors that they say are 41 hp, have less net and PTO horsepower than my 38hp Kubota does.
The other big factor for me was weight of the tractor, don’t be fooled, just because your hydraulics can lift 2300lbs, a 2800lbs tractor will never lift that weight on either end. I feed round bales and I looked at smaller tractors that would lift them at the 3pt, but you would have had to put 500lbs on the nose to do so.
Anyhow, thanks for all of the past help.
Bartley