HELP, I need a tractor
 

Having moved to Tennessee and having about 7 acres of grass to mow I need help from the brain trust here. I need a tractor. I have been partial to John Deere and I have found some used ones but I am not sure what to get.

I think that I need a full size one and have found a 2014 5075E with a cab and an MX7 rotary cutter that only has 70 hours but he wants 41K for it. I can't find any free sites that tell me the values of used John Deere equipment.

Any advise you guys can offer would be awesome.

Dave

You're on the right track.

Do not buy new machines!

I don't know about Deere. My machines are Orange. Start watching Craigslist and dive into Tractorbynet.com for starters.

You will find new John Deere tractors are only slightly more expensive than used for the smaller machines. A 5075 is way too big for 7 acres. Look at the 2 series machines with a belly mower. Rear mounted rotary cutter will not leave a nice finish.

I think you will be happier with a mid mower, not a pull behind gang reel, or 3 point mower. I have a much smaller John Deere 955 (4x4 35 HP)with a 52" front end loader, and a 72" mid mounted mower. With the foot controlled hydrostatic, and the power steering, it is almost a pleasure to mow with it (especially compared to most riders or garden tractors).

The 3 point mower takes some getting used to, and planning to mow up close to objects in the yard....whichever way you steer the front tires, the mower goes in the opposite direction, and is big anough no to care what it chops down. The gang reel mowers are great for wide open areas with no trees or obsticles.

There are so many nice used outfits out there to choose from, let somone else take the big depriciation hit.

+1 to the above comments. 7 acres is mid compact territory.

Are you really going to mow 7 acres, or do you want to whack it down a few times a year? If you want to mow it, consider that after a year or two you will change your mind. If you want to keep it under control, you need a bush hog (rotary cutter). For 7 acres I would have at least a 35 hp tractor and 6 foot cutter. You pay a premium for John Deere paint. I would get a Kubota. They are less money and just as good if not better.

Kubotas have more American parts than Deeres. 35hp minimum. NOBODY hardly ever trades down. So don't be them. Go big. Danger is you'll fall in love with dirt and bushes and grass and pole barns and whatnot.

I changed gears from Porsche to Kubota and have NOT saved any money.

If you are ONLY going to mow, you don't need a tractor. There are zero-turns and other much more efficient and fast mowing machines.

If you want to shove dirt around, plant/harvest something, do some landscaping, maintain a road or whatever else you'll want a tractor.

There it is.

If it is just grass there are much better options.

Sounds like there is more, though. Clue us in!

I have lived this dream, as have others, and we are all happy to help guide you directly to our equipment prejudices!

Not prejudices, experiences.

MachineryTrader.com | Backhoes for sale, skid steers, excavators, dozers.

and

http://www.tractorhouse.com/

As far as tractors, it really depends. LS makes/made tractors for several companies. Theirs seem to hold up. Stay away from Chinese and Russian. I know good and bad deeres. Small ones are made by different companies. Open the hood to see if you are buying a Yanmar/Fiat/LS/other. Some Case/NH are good, others are made in Turkey and have a bad reputation. I like the older Masseys if you are good with working on equipment. The old Perkins diesels and gas engines were tops.


What are you really needing to get done on 7 acres?

Just mowing? Zero turn hands down.

You can get a VERY nice commercial Hustler zero turn for less than $10K new. I am partial to Hustlers, have two. If you REALLY want overkill get a Hustler 104 for about $28K new.

Need to mow mainly and want to put in fences or otherwise later? RENT a skidsteer, no need to pull maintenance just buy fuel and pay for the hourly use.

Do you have hills? A zero turn is MUCH more stable on hills! I sold 60 acres which was mainly hills. Tractor was scary!!!! We mowed with zero-turns. 10 acre horse pasture is mowed with zero turns.

For information, 200 acre and 80 acre farms. One JD with 105 HP at the PTO (family), HATE it. One Case 60HP at the PTO, love it. Two Hustler 60" zero turns, one Big Dog 60" (family). 15 foot batwing, 8 foot and 5 foot pull behinds. We use the zero turns for most of our mowing needs. Easier to drive, stable on hills, MUCH cheaper to operate, less fuel. For the 200 acres of cow pasture I hook up the 15' batwing as there is just no other way.


IF you are dead-set on a tractor get a front end loader. Know what your weight requirements really are. Some tractors cannot safely or otherwise handle the weight of a round bale for instance. Tractors are horrible in comparison to using a skidsteer for putting in holes. It all depends upon what you will be using the machine to accomplish.

Are you going to cut all 7 acres?
I have 23 acres and I only cut about 2.5 around my house.with a 54" JD lawn tractor, cost $5K new.
I bushhog the other open fields twice a year with my mid-size white/Fiat tractor, cost $6K used that came with a bunch of implements.
To me for a hobby farm tractor you don't need a cab, although it's nice if you use it in the winter.

Try SearchTempest: Search all of Craigslist nationwide & more Set it for 450 miles. Look in "Farm and Garden" and use keyword "tractor". I would buy a Kubota, Ford, or Deere. You'll find a lot of Fords in the central valley, which are OK, but you'll have to tow it over the grapevine. You might also call the rental yards such as US Rentals, Hertz, or Pape. Bakersfield is actually ground zero for construction equipment auctions. Used construction equipment capital of the world. And there is a large Ag equipment show going on right now in Tulare, CA. And if you are in an area that has grass fires, I'd disc the field, not mow it. And get a box scraper to make fire breaks closer to the house. You want to leave zero fuel for at least a 60' fire break.

Nice, David. Hope all is well. Shoot me a PM.

I have a total of 14 acres. 7 are field that the prior owner bush hogged. 1 acre is grass and I have riding mower for that. I figured that with the woods and the other things I plan on doing I would need a loader on the front. The neighbor told me the the prior owner bush hogged every other week. There are some small elevation changes but nothing outrageous.

I don't want to spend 5 hours mowing that is why I figured at least a 6 foot rotary cutter.

Thanks for all the help and input.

Dave

Yep. I agree with OP.

You do need a tractor.

I'd look at the jd 1025. I have 8 acres with lots of woods and big grade differences and it's been great.

Some of the fields I have I stopped mowing and let go wild. The trees are coming in nicely...

You are absolutely on the right track. Good luck, and have fun.
I would start planting trees to minimize the mowing of the 7 acres, but I'm lazy. I planted a 1 acre native prairie to eliminate some mowing and do something interesting. It looked great (to me - the neighbors called it my weed patch) but after about 10 years the goldenrod took it over. I mowed it down and have been mowing it ever since.

I cut 5 ac. with a Kubota with 72" mid mount deck. Takes about 2 hours. Also have a FEL, bush hog for cutting trails to tree stands, 60" front snow blower, forks for the 3 pt. hitch. I put about 100 hrs. on mine a year and it does all I want it to do. Can barrow other implements for the 3 pt. hitch from the neighbors. Something that you can't do with a zero turn. A FEL is the best wheel barrow you will ever have! Can even get the wife to cut the grass every once in a while!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487251033.jpg

I can echo Von's post.

When I bought the farm here, there was already an old tractor with a bush hog. I bought two diesel mid mounts and put a FEL on one. The mowing deck is 70 inches on both.

We mow about 7 acres as well.

My recommendation is to get something like Vons has. The larger tractor that came with with the farm also had an FEL. I have never owned a Kubota but have heard great things about them.

Here is Jack ten years ago on the smaller MF:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487251790.jpg

Looking over the FEL:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487251822.JPG

Both still run great at 1600 or so hours each.

Yes, you are authorized to "need" a tractor. A belly mower will give you a much nicer cut than a brush hog. Notice the tires Von has on that Kubota, important for a nice lawn.

Get a FEL, you will use it all the time. I used mine to load a motorcycle into a pickup when I sold the bike last week. New owner was happy not to mess with a slippery ramp in the snow. Check out the "Do I need a Tractor" thread here.

Duh
 

Or you could go au natural and get a herd of goats...

My tractor thread may be helpful.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/866682-do-i-need-tractor.html

I ended up with a new John Deere 1025r because buying used wasn't much cheaper than a new one and they offer 0% financing.

A JD5075E is made in India as are all of the smaller Deeres.

I bought a Kubota M7060 in 2013 and it is the real deal. It handles a 2000 round bale no problem, runs a 14' haybine, a 530 baler, a post pounder, has a 7' bucket on it, and runs a bale buster just fine.

I also have an old Ford flail mower I use with it.

Do whatever makes you happy, but.....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487275960.jpg

If you decide to shop for a new compact tractor you must compare the way John Deere and kubota set up their hydrostatic foot pedal assy. The Deere uses the tip of your foot for fwd and rev. Two separate pedals side by side. Kubota uses one single pedal, push toe to move forward, push heel to go backward. You cannot push with your heel. It's ridiculous and I have no idea why anyone would buy one after even a short test drive. I own a Deere 2320 and today at work borrowed a new kubota from the rental co next door for some parking lot maint and could barely walk on my right leg after 20 minutes in it.

Or an old Massey Fergy. A lot cheaper and very reliable.

Being a Kiwi; may I recommend 50 sheep instead :D

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487339025.JPG

Pepper agrees with Bill....

Maybe the problem is YOU cannot push with your heel. I have no problem at all with the "rocker switch" direction control. You put your foot on the pedal and press with your toe to go forward or press with your heel to back up. You never have to take your foot off the pedal. No need to switch from one pedal to another. Easy.

I too have never once experienced an issue with the hydro foot controls on my Kubota B2320. Its been a great machine for maintaining my 13.5 acres in PA.

This business about the forward/reverse pedals is funny because I have one garden tractor with the heel reverse and another with the deere type setup.

The only problem I have is getting in the habit of using one and then switching between the two tractors and screwing it all up. :D :D :D

I'll also add, that I haven't had many fatigue issues with the heel reverse either***.



***One issue I did run into was when I rebuilt the tractor with the heel reverse setup, the return springs are finicky and need to be set up right, or there is too much/little pressure on the pedal and it will not center in neutral correctly. If the poster with the heel reverse is doing a lot of reverse work, especially looking over their shoulder doing reverse 3-point implement work, I would look into either trying to get a better angle on the seat to see if you could get more leverage over the heel pedal, and look at those springs to make sure they are set up correctly.

I ended up removing my return springs (f and r) entirely because one was missing and the other was too powerful, and I could not get a replacement of the right tension to keep the pedal centered. Probably not entirely safe, but since I disabled all the other safety garbage, the tractor isn't going to be winning any Ralph Nader awards anyway. It works great now and really does reduce fatigue (My fatigue was from going forward against the full pressure of one return spring without the opposing spring to balance out the forces- and reduce the pressure needed to hit the forward pedal). Call it a poor man's cruise control. Safe? Nope, but I don't think the factory cruise control on my JD is entirely safe either, especially when mowing.

All the other tractors with the heel reverse I have owned (with the proper setup)never have given me fatigue issues. It was only when the springs were setup wrong that it gave trouble. Removed the resistance / effort needed goes down. But you didn't hear that from me!

addendumendummm.... Upon further deep pontification and serious introspective reflection, I think if someone is going to be doing a LOT of reverse 3 point implement work, that I would give a slight edge to the John Deere setup, but I'm talking about spending 3-4 hours looking backwards over shoulder at whatever they are doing behind the tractor. For predominately mowing stuff, I think it would be a wash. I would say this based on my experience. Results may vary.

The reverse heel is NOT a problem.

In fact, when doing reverse work, the heel pedal is less of a reach. Also, if the pedal is properly adjusted reverse is used as a brake.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1487349402.jpg

Thanks for all the help. I now am looking at Massey Ferguson. I'll let everyone know what I get when I get it.
Dave

A front end loader FEL is absolutely a neccesity on a small farm. I use mine to load firewood into the truck, or those really large diameter rounds onto my log splitter. I have spread out 60 tons of ground up pavement on my driveways and smoothed it all out(when they resurfaced the road out front), and have spread multiple truck loads of stone/gravel/dirt when we built our horse riding arena. Everyday, I am moving firewood to the house/hay to the horses/mowing 5 acres.

My JD 955 picks up 1200# with the FEL, and many times, I have to mount weights on the drawbar to keep the rear wheels (4x4) on the ground from so much weight in the bucket.

Massey's are nice Japanese made tractor. Not as nice as a Kubota but still pretty nice.

I went through an evolution concerning tractors on my property at the time I was building. First I bought a ten hp. lawn & garden tractor with a trailer to haul stuff around. I soon realized it wasn't enough tractor and looked around for a replacement. I then bought an old Kubota gray market tractor equivalent to the B7100 with 16 hp. It had a tiller, blade and a couple of other implements. They were handy, but I soon realized I needed something quite a bit heavier to get things done. So I ended up with a Kubota L frame from around the year 2,000 with a loader and rear deck mower. Nice thing was it only had 510 hours at the time. I sold the mower attachment for $600. So now I have a box scraper, landscape rake, rear forks, and a couple of other things I can use with it, but the FEL is the important thing. It's the tractor I should have started out with, but of course didn't have the experience to know that. I still have & use the small Kubota and love them both.