How much tractor?

[maxreloader]

Hydro pass, want a backhoe? buy a real one that can do more than plant tomato plants. Sorry but the tiny backhoe attachments are just hilarious.

You want to dig for real get a real item. Seen to many who bought less and felt screwed later

Spent a day and a half digging out a 36"+ white oak stump with my buddy's mid-sized Kubota. Figga my time was worth more so spent 17K on a Cat 416 and that thing is a BEAST compared to the Kubota. Used Bangor Peavy hooks on a grade 8 chain to pick up a granite boulder that was 4 x 4 x 3 (roughly 7,000 lbs) with ease. We already have a small Deere with a 57 loader on it and attachments that clears the dust the Cat stirs up. Into everything for 22K and will last my lifetime because I run them hard enough but not too hard. A good eye and a little knowledge will go a LONG way in buying a nice piece of used equipment anyplace, anytime. Find someone that is knowledgeable with used machines and take them with you on the hunt... Good Luck!

[BD]

If you are looking for a tractor for the traditional uses of a tractor, plowing, cultivating, dragging, even rototilling, gearing and hp at the pto are the primary considerations. If you are primarily interested in the FEL and a backhoe, weight of the machine and its wheelbase along with the pressure and gpm of the hydraulic pump are the primary considerations. You can have all the HP in the world but your tractor can still only lift weight equivalent to it's own equivalent counterwieght behind the pivot point. Hydrostatic drive uses about 3% to 5% of your hydraulic capacity, and the newer HD tractors typically have more hp in a smaller package to compensate for this. Doesn't men they can do more work though. Gear driven tractors use none of their hydraulic capacity to travel. Tractors were traditionally designed around their ability to drag an implement through the soil. "Remote" hydraulic attachments came later. The "strongest" hydraulic arm on most traditionally designed tractors is the rock shaft, not the FEL, and it was traditionally designed to be able to use the total of the hydraulic capacity without any effect at all on the pulling ability of the machine. I can pull out much larger rocks and stumps with my rockshaft than I can move or lift with the FEL or the backhoe on my 870, largely because with gear drive I can run the pump at max capacity while in the lowest gear traveling only 1-2 mph. This is why you can easily flip a tractor over backwards by fetching an implement up on something immovable while in gear. The basis of most earth moving equipment on the other hand is the largest most powerful hydraulic pump that the engine can power, with some capacity bled off to move the machine when necessary. This is why you can stall a skid steer or loader while trying to lift and travel simultaneously. Very few farm style tractors have anywhere near the digging ability per horsepower of something like a loader or a excavator. And most earth moving equipment, (other than bulldozers), has very little ability to pull a load. If I was looking for a farm style tractor, with FEL and backhoe primarily in mind, I'd go for one of the industrial L series Kubotas, as they are designed around the FEL and backhoe. I think the older L35 was probably the most capable compact tractor ever built in this regard, a durable workhorse with the ability to do some real earth work, something like 17 gpm from the hydraulic pump, (compared to around 10-12 on a typical 30hp compact tractor, and 20+ on a 40 hp mini-X) and they are extremely durable. A used one in good shape is still worth about what it cost new in 1999.

[Leslie Sapp]

I live on 165 acres that is primarily timberland. We have a JD 5103 (50 hp)with a loader and an older 3 cyl. diesel JD 820. You've mentioned moving logs a couple of times. If you are moving saw timber sized material, don't go smaller than a 50 hp. If all you need the loader for is cleaning up brush and the occasional fallen tree, the 40 horse will suffice.
Get a 4WD model if you can afford it. It's hard to believe how much difference having the extra traction under the front end when the bucket is loaded makes until you've experienced it.

[Blanket]

Not a Hydro fan and prefer weight and hp over anything. Have set on a bunch of tractor seats over the last 50years and have a 9000 lb 77HP JD 2640 with a FEL and gears to do my playing

[jonp]

Not sure. Will have to see how it goes with traction and stability.
Not buying till fall at the earliest so have time to change my mind about the transmission. Also might upgrade to the 5010 if the price is good enough.

I wouldn't do it until I played around with it first

[15meter]

I like my 6000 lb. hydraulic jack.



For the safety patrol: This shot was taken before I put oak 8x8 under the front wheels and lowered the mower.

For the price, I couldn't justify getting anything bigger/more elaborate. I bought this in 2003, a friend came to me and said a widow at his church had two old tractors that had belonged to her late husband at her mother-in-laws house and the M-O-L wanted them gone. He had looked at them and told me he didn't think they were worth anything, they didn't have a motor in either of them. I went and looked, climbed up on the first tractor turned on the ignition switch and stepped on the starter--instant ignition. He almost went through the wall of the barn when it fired up, scared the carp out of him. He had never seen a two cylinder before. One was the one "60" in the photo. The other was a 1949 "A". Bought them both. Sold the A, Dad and I did a spiff up/repaint on this one. Less than $2000 after a sandblast/repaint/rebuild loader cylinders/new clutch/new radiator core/rebuild power steering pump/tuneup. Nice thing about this tractor is I can work on it my self. Parts are cheep and available. The only thing I would like is a hydraulic bucket, much more controllable that a trip bucket, but for the money, I can do all I need. I take off the bucket and put on an eight foot wide blade on the front during the winter to keep my mother's yard clear. After using back blades and front blades I would only push snow with the front blade. Way easier. The bucket during the summer to clean up around the buildings and clear brush. Log chain has pulled every dead tree that I have dropped. Doesn't have 3 point hitch but the rockshaft is there if I ever got that ambitious. And it makes a great hydraulic jack.

[BD]

On the construction equipment debate, I'm pretty sure that every skid steer and excavator I've been on in the last 15 years had a hydrostatic transmission.

[rancher1913]

they use a pump and a motor, close but not a true hydrostactic, but very close. my trackhoes and skidders I can work on and change a bad component easily, a true hrydrostatic has all the stuff, including the throttle all in one package and requires a lot of know how to make work together. I have a kubota with a hydrostatic drive and I have been trying to fix it for years, it goes but not much power. I have followed all the manuals and still don't fully understand how all the components tie together. my skidder and trackhoe have a pump on the motor that runs through a series of valves that control the oil flow to the drive motor, the more rpms the more strength, easy to work on and understand.

[snowwolfe]

Thought I would update this thread since I started it. Finally completed, signed, and handed over a deposit to seal the deal today. Tractor is a Kioti 2018 NX4510 hydrostatic 4x4 with FEL, backhoe, canopy, filled tires, and free 50 hour service including no charge for pickup and delivery. Not in a hurry to get it and told dealer we will complete the deal in October/November. That will give me time to find a box blade as well.
It will be an interesting next 12 months as my tractor and backhoe experience is zero! LOL.
Appreciate the advise. My wife is more excited than I am as she will not ever have to dig a hole for a berry bush, tree, etc again!

[Fishman]

Have fun and above all, be safe. It’s easy to mess up with tractors.

[Chad5005]

ive got a kabota m5030 4x4 and a m9540 4x4 the m series is a little heavier built than the l series but both are good tractors the 5030 is 52hp and id never buy another one smaller than that for what we do, unless just a 2wd mow tractor both of mine have fel,but in all reality 40hp should do all of what you need,just have to really work it on bigger jobs

[BD]

My advice to anyone who has never used a backhoe oe excavator is to go someplace some distance from anything you can damage, then dig a hole and fill it in a few times. Get it under control before you get near anything that matters.

[Elkins45]

My advice to anyone who has never used a backhoe oe excavator is to go someplace some distance from anything you can damage, then dig a hole and fill it in a few times. Get it under control before you get near anything that matters.

That’s good advice. I would also advise that for the first couple of years you own it that you carry a damage/accident policy on it. It would be terrible to roll or otherwise crack up a brand new tractor accidentally and then have to eat 100% of the loss. I bought a policy through Kubota for around $300/year when I bought my new one. My primary worry was theft, but some drunk slamming into it on the trailer during transport was also a worry.

I would carry it for the first year for sure because that’s when it books for the most, but mainly because your chances of breaking something are pretty good when you’re learning to use it.