Thinking About a Tractor

Besides, what I really need is an 84"+ finish mower for my parcel. Best to sell the Massey to buy that.
 
Tractors are use specific. One for each job. Ford 5000 for the heavy duty stuff. Farmall H with FEL for medium duty. Farmall B strictly for trailer use. Ford 8N for general all purpose light duty. JD 450C with 4-way bucket for really heavy duty work, and Farmall Regular for kicks. Each is used according to its capabilities. Of course you gotta be retired with plenty of time on hand, and plenty of room for shelter. I'm fortunate enough to have both. Old tractors are like military jets. Half your time is spent getting them ready to use. Not a big deal if you got the time. Otherwise, I would have something like Kubota L39. Did I mention I like fartin' around with old stuff.

Noah W
 
Ted DuPuis said:
While I do kinda want to keep both, I end up having to change implements anyway. Got half a dozen or so implements for the 3-point.

The only negative is that the front end loader really messes up forward visibility.
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Yep, if you have a lot of tractor work to do, you want one without a loader. It's not just visibility or swing room either. Unless you have a FWA front axle, the un powered ones don't seem to take weight of a loader very well. You have a loader and a tractor right now, you might as well keep it that way.
 
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I like messing around with old stuff just fine, the question is more how big of a fleet I want. My plan is/was to have a one tractor fleet. But, I've got my 8 acres or so to mow. So, point taken. Worthy of consideration...
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I like messing around with old stuff just fine, the question is more how big of a fleet I want. My plan is/was to have a one tractor fleet. But, I've got my 8 acres or so to mow. So, point taken. Worthy of consideration...
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If mowing is all you are doing, a zero turn 72" diesel mower is the way to go.

When I was mowing OKH I mowed 13 Ac, in about 6 hours, that's mowing around aircraft and lights.
 

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Ted DuPuis said:
I like messing around with old stuff just fine, the question is more how big of a fleet I want. My plan is/was to have a one tractor fleet. But, I've got my 8 acres or so to mow. So, point taken. Worthy of consideration...
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Also remember that to truly have a one tractor fleet, especially when running old equipment, you need to have a spare anyway.:lol:
 
A loader on a tractor is not very handy to mow with. Especially around trees. I'd keep both for awhile and maybe try mower on both. I have a loader for my tractor but don't have it on much. Only takes 10 minutes at most to put on though. I mow my lawn with it and it's not good around building or house with big bucket out front. I'm upgrading from a John Deere 6400 to a 6420 in next few weeks. I use a 110 inch finish mower on the back.
 
Henning said:
Also remember that to truly have a one tractor fleet, especially when running old equipment, you need to have a spare anyway.:lol:
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Not far from the truth...two that can run a baler, and if at all possible, a spare baler too. And it's axiomatic they never break down unless there's a storm cloud on the horizon.
 
As with anything, much of your equipment needs depend on dispatch requirements. If I can't get my tractor started, worst case is the lawn won't get mowed or driveway won't get plowed. So less reliability is fine, not making my living off of it.

The right tool for the job is another question. I realized I had the bucket too high yesterday and saw much better driving it today to the end of the driveway and back. However, I could see mowing with it being a real pain. So that would make the question of keep the Massey for mowing etc., or else sell it and our 54" Snapper in favor of a 72" zero turn. Then use the tractor for front end loader, brush hog, blade, gravel rake, etc.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
As with anything, much of your equipment needs depend on dispatch requirements. If I can't get my tractor started, worst case is the lawn won't get mowed or driveway won't get plowed. So less reliability is fine, not making my living off of it.

The right tool for the job is another question. I realized I had the bucket too high yesterday and saw much better driving it today to the end of the driveway and back. However, I could see mowing with it being a real pain. So that would make the question of keep the Massey for mowing etc., or else sell it and our 54" Snapper in favor of a 72" zero turn. Then use the tractor for front end loader, brush hog, blade, gravel rake, etc.
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You can reconfigure most loaders to be a 'quick hitch' system so you can get rid of and attach the bucket in a few moments. That way you only lug around the bucket when you need it.
 
Here's a shot of the new tractor. Note the bucket has a straight front and spikes for picking up hay bales.

My son is giving it a good once over to make sure that it was a decent purchase. He approved. :)
 

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... or tractors.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Here's a shot of the new tractor. Note the bucket has a straight front and spikes for picking up hay bales.

My son is giving it a good once over to make sure that it was a decent purchase. He approved. :)
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Not meaning to rain on your parade, and I don't know what your budget was, but you will regret not having 4X4 on a loader tractor.

When it's wet, or if you try to back up a hill, when you load the bucket the back tires are just going to spin.

But any tractor is better than no tractor. :wink2:
 
Well, most of the use is going to be for plowing the driveway. :)

We also don't really have hills I'd be backing up, but that's good to know. This tractor also has wheel weights and I can always throw the brush hog on for more back end weight. And, cheap does matter, I need to save money so I can fly the 310! :D

I think it'll do fine for my uses. But I'll report back if I'm wrong. :)
 
txflyer said:
Not meaning to rain on your parade, and I don't know what your budget was, but you will regret not having 4X4 on a loader tractor.

When it's wet, or if you try to back up a hill, when you load the bucket the back tires are just going to spin.

But any tractor is better than no tractor. :wink2:
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I have found the same thing, a loader without an FWA axle is of very limited duty, since he's not hauling a 2000lb round bale across a rough/muddy pasture, it oughta do what he needs it for.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Well, most of the use is going to be for plowing the driveway. :)

We also don't really have hills I'd be backing up, but that's good to know. This tractor also has wheel weights and I can always throw the brush hog on for more back end weight. And, cheap does matter, I need to save money so I can fly the 310! :D

I think it'll do fine for my uses. But I'll report back if I'm wrong. :)
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Or chains if it gets icy in your neck of the woods. Cheaper if you make them up from bulk chains from the TSC store. Dirt cheap if you buy old chains from farm sales...get the rusty ones, you know they work.
 
When ever I gathered and stacked hay using the loader on a 2WD tractor, I always picked up the bale on the three point first.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Or chains if it gets icy in your neck of the woods. Cheaper if you make them up from bulk chains from the TSC store. Dirt cheap if you buy old chains from farm sales...get the rusty ones, you know they work.
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Better to use the chains that came with it - they're free*!

*with purchase of tractor
 
A man cannot have too many tractors. If you and Laurie get board you could have a tractor pull

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk
 
tmyers said:
A man cannot have too many tractors. If you and Laurie get board you could have a tractor pull
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We really need to get 3 more - that way the kids can get in on the fun!
 
Nothin' more exciting and fun than the slow tractor races at the fair....Cheering for that brave and intrepid last place finisher.
 
Talked to a friend of mine who mows with a front end loader on his 4x4 Kubota (a bit smaller than the D17). He agreed it sucks in every way, and advocated either keeping both or selling the Massey and Snapper riding mower in favor of a 72" zero turn. Laurie and I will have to talk about the options and also try it out in spring a bit. She likes mowing with the Snapper and I like mowing with the tractor, so there might be opportunities for double mowing. We'll see. Right now I should probably use my front end loader to flip the Massey's tire over so I can break the bead and change it.
 
You really shouldn't be mowing anything with a zero turn mower that you shred with a tractor and vice versa.

It's public ignorance marketing to market shredders as mowers. They cut completely different from each other.

If I had two acres I want manicured, go with the 70" zero turn. If I have 100 acres I want to 'mow' you go with a shredder and you'll still need a mower for up around the house to make it look clipped and pretty. Like this one...


 
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Ted DuPuis said:
Talked to a friend of mine who mows with a front end loader on his 4x4 Kubota (a bit smaller than the D17). He agreed it sucks in every way, and advocated either keeping both or selling the Massey and Snapper riding mower in favor of a 72" zero turn. Laurie and I will have to talk about the options and also try it out in spring a bit. She likes mowing with the Snapper and I like mowing with the tractor, so there might be opportunities for double mowing. We'll see. Right now I should probably use my front end loader to flip the Massey's tire over so I can break the bead and change it.
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Remember.... When installing the tire.. have a can of starting fluid handy...;)
 
At my house here in Nebraska I have used about everything. Started with Deere garden tractor 318 and think 54 inch mower. Took about two days. Went to bigger tractor. Deere 4720 and 72" mower. Lot of dirt blowing around and still took long time. Then Deere 1145 front mount and it was pretty good but wore it out. Tried the Deere 997 zero turn and a diesel kubota. Hated them both. We're really rough riding and dirt in my face on both but really bad with kubota. So then went to cab tractor with a/c and 100 inch finish mower. Works pretty good and pretty fast. In Florida I have a Deere 1600 wide area mower. Think it mows 11.5 ft. Probably the best mower of them all.
 
Joe, I think your situation is most similar to mine, and part of why I've been hesitant about the zero turn. We don't care about having a perfectly manicured lawn - this is farm country. Speed is more important than quality. The ground is mostly flat, but also not smooth in all places - I far prefer riding on the full-sized tractor than on the riding mower. Hence leaning towards the finish mower for the more open areas and then leave the tighter spots to the riding tractor.

Or just sell the Snapper and buy another tractor. :D
 
A good finish mower on the back works darn good. I mow half mile swaths as my driveway is half mile. Works good around house and if I need to trim, I usually use roundup and maybe 10 min with string trimmer. I have noticed on finish mowers a lot have 13000fpm blade tip speed and they don't do as good a job as the ones that get closer to 18000fpn speed.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Talked to a friend of mine who mows with a front end loader on his 4x4 Kubota (a bit smaller than the D17). He agreed it sucks in every way, and advocated either keeping both or selling the Massey and Snapper riding mower in favor of a 72" zero turn.
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I have a kubota bx with the 60in belly mower. When I mow, I take off the FEL. Takes about 5min to detach. It is not as fast as a zero turn, but the zero turn cant do any of the other stuff a subcompact tractor is useful for. To do anything with the loader, I drop the belly mower, again a 5min job.
 
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Ted, we also have a yard that would be mowed much faster with a zero-turn. ~2.5 acres with ~25 large oak trees and my blueberry bushes. The reason I've kep a "tractor" (as my wife calls it, really just a slightly-overgrown lawnmower) is that it's so much better for pushing snow and I don't want to have 2 lawnmowers taking up space at the house.

my mower is only 60in, it would be nice to have something bigger but this little thing with wheel weights pushes as much as ~18in of snow so well that I haven't found the need to go bigger.
 

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This is one of those old time front end loaders, which looks like way more than 5 minutes to detach, but I'll check it out to see the possibility.

I think the real tractors are way nicer to drive on the property given the bumps. I don't even like driving the Snapper around here. My wife does, but I'm pretty sure she'll like driving a real tractor once she does that. A zero turn I think would be bumpy, too.

Another option would be a belly mower on a smaller tractor to replace the Snapper...
 
JHW said:
Ted, we also have a yard that would be mowed much faster with a zero-turn. ~2.5 acres with ~25 large oak trees and my blueberry bushes. The reason I've kep a "tractor" (as my wife calls it, really just a slightly-overgrown lawnmower) is that it's so much better for pushing snow and I don't want to have 2 lawnmowers taking up space at the house.

my mower is only 60in, it would be nice to have something bigger but this little thing with wheel weights pushes as much as ~18in of snow so well that I haven't found the need to go bigger.
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That lawn tractor looks almost identical to my Ariens one.....
 
Ted DuPuis said:
This is one of those old time front end loaders, which looks like way more than 5 minutes to detach, but I'll check it out to see the possibility.

I think the real tractors are way nicer to drive on the property given the bumps. I don't even like driving the Snapper around here. My wife does, but I'm pretty sure she'll like driving a real tractor once she does that. A zero turn I think would be bumpy, too.

Another option would be a belly mower on a smaller tractor to replace the Snapper...
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You can get (or make) a 'quick hitch' latching system that will allow you to pick up and drop implements from the loader arms or the three point as well. Saves a lot of skin off the knuckles if you are swapping implements a lot. Really pretty simple to construct and not that expensive to buy. I would seriously advise for the bucket since it looks like you have a really heavy rig out with some hydraulic clamp?
 
JHW said:
i doubt it. the yanmar is little but it still weighs ~1100 LBs
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I have the bigger Ariens Hydrostatic drive one..... I did remove the 14 hp Kohler and stuff in a new 23 HP Vanguard V twin.. All I need to do was cut the frame rial a little, fabricate and machine a new motor mounting plate, machine a custom drive attachment to couple the flywheel to the drive shaft that turns the hydraulic pump under the seat..

Man does that thing cut grass and throw snow now...:yes::):)..

The reason I said the comparison is because the Yanmar and mine have the identical front axle, wheels, frame, seat, rear body section and other stuff... I assumes that maybe Yanmar had Ariens build the unit and Yanmar installed their diesel motor in it....:dunno::dunno:
 
As I've mentioned before, a ZT will beat just about any tractor in quality of cut and time saved, until you start using really large finish mowers (like 8'+). They are obviously much more maneuverable, and can mow at a faster ground speed without having the cut suffer.

When you have rough terrain or any significant grade, the ZT starts losing its charm quickly.

It all just depends on how much you want to keep looking well-manicured, and how much just needs to be kept manageable. If you are like most with acreage, usually the 2-3 acres around the house is kept nice with a ZT, and the rest is cut with a finish mower or even a brush hog depending on how high/thick the rest of the property is kept.

We have 2 4x4 tractors and a ZT, but could probably get by with one of the tractors. The newer B-Series Kubotas (and equivalent models from JD/NH/etc) are usually big enough for a decent FEL and can still run MMM or 3-pt finish mowers with relative maneuverability. We happen to have an L-model Kubota which is a little bit large if all we were going to do was just mow 8-10 acres, but Dad bought it for a song. The L-model is primarily used for box blade work, tilling, angle blade/snow removal, and occasional brush hog work. The older B7000-series with the 60" MMM was his initial tool for mowing ~2 acres around the house before he bought the Bad Boy 60" ZT. The Bad Boy is much faster than the tractor, and is just easier to run, in general, especially under/around trees.

So, my recommendation is to get a ZT for the area around the house, and get/keep a medium size tractor (30HP minimum) for the FEL and running larger implements like brush hogs or large finish mowers.
 
N801BH said:
I have the bigger Ariens Hydrostatic drive one..... I did remove the 14 hp Kohler and stuff in a new 23 HP Vanguard V twin.. All I need to do was cut the frame rial a little, fabricate and machine a new motor mounting plate, machine a custom drive attachment to couple the flywheel to the drive shaft that turns the hydraulic pump under the seat..

Man does that thing cut grass and throw snow now...:yes::):)..

The reason I said the comparison is because the Yanmar and mine have the identical front axle, wheels, frame, seat, rear body section and other stuff... I assumes that maybe Yanmar had Ariens build the unit and Yanmar installed their diesel motor in it....:dunno::dunno:
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I'd guess it's the other way around. Yanmar builds small machines in lots of colors. Most of the john deere diesels <50hp are yanmar tractors painted green

Mine is a bit of a problem, it was actually made by yanmar for the US market but they sold very few of them. OTOH there were tons of illegal grey market yanmar's sold here, so much so that today, 30 years layer, parts for the grey market machines are plentiful and parts for ones like mine can be hard to come by
 
As I said, having a really nice pretty cut isn't much of a priority out in middle of nowhere farm country. We didn't even care about a super nice manicured lawn in the city. So, speed and comfort are priorities.

I'm liking the idea of a medium tractor with a belly mower to replace the Snapper. Amounts to the same thing only more comfortable. I have a brush hog already and so maybe I use that for the outer acres if Laurie and I are both mowing. Could get one in a Ford or Farmall style to expand the collection.
 
What you need to do is build yourself a lawn mowing Roomba out of the Snapper.
 
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