Gotcha ... I started a thread if you want to see more about the Vizsla and pics of my 2 year old female ,,,
I farm 3000 acres so I have been around my share of tractors and tractor buying. For a yard tractor I have a Hydrostatic drive Kubota L3700 with a backhoe and a quick detach bucket (for other farm field work we have 5 different JD tractors all the way up to large articulated 4 wheal drive with gps autosteer, the reason for that is about having the right tool for the job and doing it the most efficiently because of the scale we are working on ) if you go to a JD dealer they will tell hand you a brochure and say "look at the specs on our 27 horse tractor compared to the specs of the kubota 27 horse tractor and they blow them away" and if you compare them that way they look more attractive and you might fall for the pitch BUT don't be fooled into looking at it that way ask for the price of the JD (say its 20,000) now in sted of looking at the 27 horse JD go look at what kind of Kubota you can get for the same 20K its more like a 39 horsepower.....now compare the specs of that 27 horse JD to the 39 horse Kubota and you will see that the specs of the Kubota are going to blow the JD away in evry regard Compare dollars and specs of JD to the equal dollar amount of the Kubota and you will not fall for the sales pitch, its much more apples to apples p.s. I love my Kubota
Here is a link for buying tractors and equipment. http://www.tractorhouse.com/ Here is one for comparing specs of tractors. http://www.tractordata.com/
I've got a 30hp Bobcat. I looked at Kubota, JD, New Holland. When I bought mine, Bobcat had some pretty good promotions, so I saved about anywhere from 4-7 thousand. So far I've been happy with it. I wouldn't want anything less than 30 hp, and would gladly take more if I could get it. I would suggest to get a bucket, and get a quick attach so you can take the bucket off easy, and put on pallet forks or what ever else you want. That's one upgrade I didn't get and wish that I had.
We have a 27HP 4WD LG that is the cat's meow. Front end loader, back hoe attachment, post hole digger, log splitter, rear blade, rotary cutter. I have 2 bars that slide on the FL that we use to unload hay from the truck and put it in the barn. Wife drives the tractor and I stack. I still have to work on her stacking and let me drive. RC
Great links, Greg! Thank you LOL... I can see us fighting over it already :D ... seriously, I can't think of anything I would use more .... You.know you are getting older when a tractor gets the juices going more than a hot girl :D....of course I have a hot girl as a wife and I don't have a tractor....yet
My step father has a larger 4 x 4 Kobota with all the goodies...I have borrowed it several times and its the cats ***...easy to use and intuitive. He has had zero issues with it....so for what's its worth he has been happy with it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Tony, I have the Kubota BX24 and love it. It has done everything I've asked it to do plus some I wasn't sure it could. Having said that.....I would definitely get the biggest one you can afford. Especially if there's expansion in your future.
Im not sure how "small" your looking for but my family owns a New Holland Tc40a and it is incredible, no problems with it, tons of power, great great machine.
I bought a new NH TT60 about three years ago and love it. It is a lot of tractor for the money and I have not had a single issue with it. I had tried a couple of older, used tractors that I had constant repairs on and decided to go with a new one with warranty. New, it was still less money than a lot of older JD tractors of the same size. Worth a look.
jd does make incredible machines, we have an old 4020 that is on its third.....clock , the clock does not roll over after 9999 hours it just stops and its not like they got changed right away either, that machine likely has 40,000 hours on it routine maintenance is key to any machine.
this is what i do for a living.............I've sold both Kubota and John Deere. If you want better quality control, ease of attaching or unattaching the loader, mower deck, 3pt. attachments[/B](trust me here.....nothing is easier than deere), smoother engine, more reliable diesel motor, way more reliable 4wd trans/front end, more room and better thought out tractor operating platform,...............cost of ownership taking care of the tractor, resell value being 35% more on a average...............I could go on...............Get a Deere. You can PM on here for some advice. I will be more than happy to talk to you. If you do i will give you my office # and can give you some idea on pricing. Maybe you can save a little. Not cracking on Kubota here, because they are a good tractor, but when you have sold them both now for 13 years.....u know the difference.
What kind of beds are you looking to make Tony? Raised beds with plastic mulch and drip tape? Or just tilled up and planting on flat ground? We have a Ford 2120 42hp but its too small for what we want to do with it anymore. We pick up a 2009 JD 5083 with only 175 hours on it in a couple weeks, but that would be overkill for what you want to do. Unless you are looking to pull a bed shaper that lays plastic mulch and lays drip tape, you probably don't need anything over 30hp.
Right.now we need both type of beds .... I am putting some raised beds above my leech field for my veggies .....tilled beds in the back for cuttings, liners, etc. Moving topsoil, composts, sand, and mulch with a shovel and a wheelbarrow is backbreaking for her and me... there is so much more ..pallet jack and a post hole digger would be awesome as well So a bucket, tiller, post hole digger, back hoe, and pallet jack should be goo for now :D
**Update** Pulling the trigger today or tomorrow ... the wife doesn't want a monster tractor and since she will be using it as much as me ... (hopefully she lets me on it that much :D) We are looking at the John Deere 1 series at 25.2hp with a bucket, PHD, and a tiller to start. New Holland Boomer is in the running as well ...Kubota is not out of the picture, but Deere has an awesome promo going right now .... pics to come! Any last minute thoughts would be appreciated Christine, I am guessing the hubby wants to keep yours?
Tony, we're still not sure what we'll do with it. I do know that I'm going to need it for at least another two or three weeks while I get this place picked up. There are fences and gates and moveable chicken coops that need to be taken down. Not to mention mowing and yet more mowing. So don't wait on us. (besides, I'm kind of attached to it and wouldn't sell it for less than $11K) I carried a 12' stock gate around the other day and pulled a back muscle so bad I could barely stand up the next day. Pretty dumb when I have a tractor but it was faster to just grab it by hand. I'm not lifting another fence panel/gate without the tractor.
My JD 1023 is awesome. Have the bucket, tiller and blade for it. Even thinking about trading my JD ZTR 960Z for a mower deck, backhoe and auger.
What size tiller are you going to be running? I have a 30hp and run a 58". It does great unless the ground is wet, then it gets all stuck up inside and bogs down. I say that because you might want to consider a little higher HP. Keep in mind that you are probably not getting 25.2 hp to the PTO, more like 17 or 18. I get 22 hp to my PTO. Just something to keep in mind, you never feel like you could get away with less HP, but you always want more. I wish I had gotten the 35hp model. Here's a picture just for fun of my tilled food plot. 1 pass on the left and 2 passes on the right.
