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Tractors
Mar 28, 2022 0:35:29 GMT
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Post by oldone on Mar 28, 2022 0:35:29 GMT
We've lived on our small hobby farm for almost 32 years. My husband has now decided we need a tractor. He wants a scoop on front & a back hoe on back. We have 2 donkeys & a horse & a few goats. I pay someone to use their tractor to scoop out my barn. He wants to use back hoe to do something with our pond. There are some other things we like to trench. Husband is 74 I'm 63. What size do you suggest & what kind. It will have to be used. I would have loved to have gotten this in 1990 when we moved here. Not so sure now. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks
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Post by allenw on Mar 28, 2022 18:21:57 GMT
I would think you could hire it done cheaper then buying a tractor. Check the reach and depth capabilities of the backhoe to see if it would be adequate to do the pond work.
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Post by oldone on Mar 29, 2022 0:06:25 GMT
The pond was here when we moved here.He just wants to do edge work. I think it would be cheaper to keep paying for it but he wants a tractor.
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Post by mogal on Mar 29, 2022 11:23:30 GMT
We have a Mahindra that's about 35 HP, I THINK. It has on demand 4 wheel drive. We had some attachment options when we bought it that included a bucket and a backhoe. We already had a blade and brush mower from an antique Ford tractor that fit it. We started to get a backhoe for it but decided that our use there would be pretty limited. Since we have a neighbor we could hire who has one, we decided to save our money. We also have a pond we inherited when we moved here...
It's as easy to drive and maneuver this tractor as a nice passenger vehicle. It has very responsive power steering. Forward/reverse is controlled via a foot pedal on the right--push down with your toe and you go forward, down with your heel, you back up. You steer with your left hand, operate the bucket "joy stick" with your right hand, forward/reverse and brakes with your right foot. When you start the tractor, you depress the clutch with your left foot as you turn the key. With our mower on the back to serve as a counterweight, we've used a borrowed bale spike to bring in half ton round bales and lift them to set one bale on top of another. I've gotten it stuck in mud and used the bucket to push or pull myself out. We've driven T-posts with the bucket--not recommended from a safety standpoint but widely done.
The biggest negative to this tractor is not with the tractor but with the dealer. As soon as they sold all the Mahindra units on their lot, they no longer carried them or any parts or performed any service on them. Instead of having them come out from 20 miles away, the next dealer is in a town closer to 50 miles away.
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Post by stickinthemud on Mar 29, 2022 15:54:49 GMT
Bil has a Mahindra and is very happy with it.
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Post by oldone on Mar 29, 2022 23:22:42 GMT
Thanks I'll look it up. If we have to have a tractor which he thinks we do. I want used. I would have loved to have one when we moved here in 1990
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Post by mogal on Mar 30, 2022 2:16:06 GMT
Oldone, since we've had our tractor, we've often said how nice it would have been to have had it earlier. We had a 1950 Ford Jubilee that had passed through many hands. DH always grumbled when we needed to use it because it had been modified so many times. Sometimes it started, sometimes it didn't and it was a bear to drive--no power steering and a regular shifting mechanism. Of course, we had no owner's manual for it but I'd bet that would have been totally useless with all the changes different owners had added.
If you do get a used tractor, please, Please, PLEASE get one new enough to have a roll over protection system with a seat belt then use the seatbelt to keep the driver in place should the tractor turn over or roll over. One day DH had a log hitched to the blade on that old Ford tractor. The log got caught against another tree and the front end of the tractor came well off the ground from having been stopped so suddenly. Had the blade not been on the tractor to stop that motion, it would have flipped over backwards on DH. Since it didn't have the ROPS, DH would likely have been seriously injured if not killed. It took me a loonnngg time to get my heart out of my throat after that episode.
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Post by oldone on Mar 30, 2022 21:48:15 GMT
It will have roll bar if we get one. Thank you
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Post by Jolly on Mar 31, 2022 1:05:36 GMT
Hire out the pond work. A backhoe attachment is handy, but it seems like it's never on the tractor when you need it or it's on the tractor when you don't want it. If you are buying anything just a few years old, anything over 26hp will most likely have a regen cycle and possibly also use DEF. The L2501 is probably Kubota's most popular tractor, because some of the Tier 4 emissions don't apply. Check it out: www.kubotausa.comYour husband is 74. I assure you, the older you get, the harder it is to climb up on a tall tractor. Check out the L series I linked, but also look at the B series. Have him climb on them and see how they fit. Tell the salesman what you want your tractor to do and see what he thinks fits you. You don't have to say you're looking at used, you're really just gathering info right now. Then, compare the Kubota you like against similar John Deere products. Those two brands hold their value better than anybody else. After that, it becomes pretty dealer specific...A good dealer makes a difference on any tractor, but especially past orange and green. Mahindra, New Holland, LS (which makes the small New Hollands) and Massey-Ferguson (Iseki), all bear looking at. There are other brands such as Branson, TYM, Kioti, Rural King (made by TYM) and Bad Boy (Kioti). Now, for the bad news... Tractors are a lot like buying cars right now. New ones are not as plentiful as one would like, dealers don't want to haggle and good used tractors are bringing top dollar. Good luck, and God Bless...
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Tractors
Mar 31, 2022 23:00:41 GMT
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Post by oldone on Mar 31, 2022 23:00:41 GMT
I keep telling him we ñeed to hire people like we've done all along. Much cheaper. Thanks for your advice
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Post by Jolly on Apr 7, 2022 15:42:11 GMT
Well, y'all been lookin' or did y'all get over the fever? 😄
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Post by oldone on Apr 12, 2022 20:31:55 GMT
Well he's seen a few price tags. I think it will be us hiring the help when we need it. He just called today about getting the lane graded & gravel put down. It's probably been 15 years since we've done that. We have a few farms in the neighborhood we can hire to do things.
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Post by Jolly on Apr 13, 2022 12:55:26 GMT
Hire out what you need, but keep looking for a used tractor with a front end loader, preferably a B or L series Kubota without Tier IV stuff. Never know what you might find...
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Post by Tim Horton on May 2, 2022 4:43:19 GMT
I follow these small tractor forums.. greentractortalk.com orangetractortalk.com tractorbynet.com They are a lot of good information on compact, smaller tractors..
It is a very bad time to try to buy a small tractor.. Availability is low, long waits for orders to come in, prices are high.. Even more so it seems for good used equipment..
Being an old guy myself.... Agree... Hire the work you need done..
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Tractors
May 2, 2022 21:41:48 GMT
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Post by oldone on May 2, 2022 21:41:48 GMT
Thank you for the info. I had to laugh cause he brought it up again today about tractors. I said you can look at used. Remember the sticker price of new? He said that's right. We'll hire the help. We have a guy coming next week to grade our lane & put down gravel. We'll ask him about a few other things around here. Thanks
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Post by Tim Horton on Jun 6, 2022 0:12:49 GMT
2022-06-05..... It is change of season here in the north bush... I took the snow blower off the tractor a couple weeks ago.. Need to get it greased and put away.. Need to get the brush hog mower out, greased, and ready to go..
I put the sub soil shank on the 3point.. I cut a big tic-tac-toe pattern around some trees and berry bushes in the big pasture to help collect all the snow melt and rain as possible.. It works well as the grass along where I cut the last trenches is always greener and taller than the rest of the pasture..
I don't have a manure spreader, so I dump chicken house, rabbit barn, donkey barn cleanings in the thin spots of the pasture.. Then spread it with 2 side by side sections of chain link drag harrow.. This is a lot cheaper than a spreader and works well..
I will install the brush hog mower at first sign of thistle.. Also mow to push back bush brush that tries to overtake the pasture..
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Post by Jolly on Jun 6, 2022 20:50:35 GMT
Six foot box blade on the back of mine right now. Need to swap it out for my rolling cultivators. Those aren't mine, but they're similar. Those are Lisston cultivators adapted for one row operation, although he might have them a bit narrow. The picture is of a cub. My tractor is a 40hp Mahindra. After I get the garden cultivated, the bushhog goes on and will probably stay that way for the summer.
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Post by Jolly on Jun 6, 2022 21:05:15 GMT
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Post by mogal on Jun 6, 2022 21:30:22 GMT
This is off topic but I'm gonna tell this story anyway. Years ago, DH bought me an IH 1950 model manure spreader for my birthday. Okay, how many women do you know who want a manure spreader for their birthday?
When I called the number in the regional advertiser to set up an appointment, a little girl said that Mama and Daddy are at church and will be home around 8. Well, I'm not a mama but I'm a doggone good mama bear, very protective of youngsters. I said "Oh, honey! Never, ever, ever tell anybody, even someone you know, that your parents are away. Tell the caller that your folks are busy or can't come to the phone right now. You just take the caller's number and ask your folks to call back later." I also offered that the explanations I gave wouldn't be lying, just not telling the caller something that was none of his business. So, we borrowed a big trailer and went up to get the machine. THE VERY FIRST THING this man said to us was to thank me for my admonition to his daughter about phone safety. He said they'd preached it, preached it and preached it again but it hadn't sunken in. By my giving the same warning, he said it really made an impression on her. She also told her dad he hoped he'd sell it to us because I was "such a nice lady."
We have a bucket on the front, a pair of clamp on pallet forks that we have used a lot but not yet for moving a pallet, a heavy duty mower, a blade on the back and a pole gizmo that goes on the back. Can't for the life of me remember what it's called but we've set heavy things into the truck or trailer with it slick as a whistle.
Tim Horton, very clever way to use that subsoiler!
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Post by oldone on Jun 7, 2022 23:12:13 GMT
Glad it sank in the little girls mind when you told phone safety. So many BAD people in the world. We just hired a man to dig the pipe a the end of lane put in new pipe grade our lane & gravel. Cost us $2550.00. lot cheaper than buying a tractor
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