Re: Tractor buying advice

Posted by 2002sliverado on March 21, 2018 at 08:12:51 from (216.16.75.34):

In Reply to: Tractor buying advice posted by PapaRoo on March 21, 2018 at 05:18:46:

The question you raised is a good question and you are likely to get as varied of answers from every one who responds. I grew up on a farm and have been around farm equipment my entire life. I still farm part time, but the farm where I crop farm is about half an hour from where I live. I do live on a rural farmstead and need a tractor for my place. I have no idea as to what you are looking to spend. When I bought my place, I didn't have a great deal to spend, but needed something for snow removal. I bought an older 656 Farmall with an older style loader. The loader was not heavy duty, but it worked decently for 10 years and it didn't cost me a lot of money to perform repairs and maintenance on that tractor. I was able to perform all the service and repair work on that tractor in the ten years I had it. I traded it in on a tractor which was 15 years newer, comparable in horsepower and size, had a hydrostatic drive, diesel engine (needs block heater plugged in to start in cold weather), and a much heavier built front end loader. I opted to buy a snow blower for snow removal on this tractor, which has made my winters much more painless after storms. I am also on my second lawn and garden tractor for mowing duty, which is a superior model over what I had to start with, too. I started out with a "lower budget" to make these purchases, but have upgraded substantially in the past 4 or 5 years. The current tractor and lawn/garden tractor were not "in my budget" when I first started. So, with that, I am not sure what your position is with respect to your budget. For some people I have seen, the availability/access to money to spend is not a big concern. For me, a skid loader would be nice at times, but I cannot justify the investment for the amount of time I would use it on my acreage, my front end loader will take care of most of what a skid loader would or could do, and if I did need a skid loader for a given task, I could rent one or hire a neighbor to come over and help me with that task. I have only needed a skid loader on one occasion for about 20 hours of use in 15 years.

Being more on the "fiscally challenged" side, and looking at the chores/tasks you have cited, and I was in your position, I would certainly look for a tractor of 50 to 70 horsepower in size with a well built front end loader. I would want that loader to be easily detachable. Mine I can remove in about 10 minutes or less, and likewise, I can put it back on in about the same time. There are certain tasks where having the front end loader makes this tractor kind of clumsy and awkward. I have a grapple fork attachment for picking up brush when I cut down trees. For mowing in "rough areas," I would look at some sort of a rough cut mower, which most people refer to Bush Hog and some call it a Brush Hog. Bush Hog, as I recall, was a brand of product known for these types of mowers. For the lawn, I prefer to have a dedicated mower. I prefer the tractor style, while others may prefer a zero turn. My wife likes to mow the lawn, and something like this is easy for her to use. She spends about 4 to cut all of our lawn at one time. We generally put 70 to 90 hours per year on our current machine. Ours has all wheel steer, power steering, hydrostatic drive, liquid cooled engine with 20 horsepower, 54 inch mower deck, and can have an assortment of attachments put on it. We have a garden cart, pull type sprayer, and a 5 foot wide spike tooth harrow (drag) we use behind it. It is capable of attaching a rear mount roto tiller, but for our small garden, I have a walk behind Troy Built, which my wife can handle with relative ease. I also have a 3 point mounted grader style blade on the rear of the tractor, which can be used for leveling aggregate or soil around the place in landscaping needs. For installing posts, a rear 3 point mounted post hole auger would be nice, and it could be used to auger holes in the ground for planting new trees for an orchard, too. Removal of stumps, well I leave that to those who have stump grinders to come and do that every few years when I need them ground down. If you are thinking you are going to use a backhoe attachment to do this, I have a friend of mine who thought the same thing. He actually had a backhoe tractor and spent nearly $20,000 repairing it after he used it to remove an old grove of trees. One of those "backhoe attachments" isn't even of the same caliber of a true construction duty backhoe and tractor. Prepping foundations for buildings? I suspect you are looking to build only a few buildings, which is what I have done or will continue to do. I have left that to professionals to dig out for foundations. Small buildings such as a yard shed, I will probably do either slab on grade or pole type construction. I didn't start out with all the equipment and attachments I have today. I have filled those needs and wants as time passed, along with replenishing the bank account between my purchases. I started 15 years ago with the tractor and front end loader, along with a lawn and garden tractor with 18 horsepower engine.

I shared my thoughts, based upon what you cited, and how I would fulfill my needs, and this is just how I would start out and have eventually fulfilled my needs and wants. I first prioritized the needs and how I could best fulfill those needs based upon what I could spend at that time. Once those were fulfilled, I then started to move on to the wants and improved my lineup. I now have a very well kept and maintained lawn and garden tractor, which is 20 years old, and a tractor which is 40 years old. I am in no rush or need to replace either, and they should continue to last a long time with normal maintenance and upkeep. I don't have a fortune sunk into all this, and when the time comes I decide to upgrade again, what I have will not diminish in value much either, whereas new equipment will diminish rather quickly in those first few years. Again, this is my opinion, and you may opt for a lineup which is newer.

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