Compact or sub compact tractor?

[Justsaws]

You get more capability (bigger hydro output) with the b series, it is taller and wider. The 3 point control can lower the implement to the same height with the lever selector. The 3 point on the bx does not have that function. You just eyeball it.

I preferred the lower center of gravity on the smaller bx series, I would have enjoyed more capability but the b series tractor just did not fit the established aspects of the property.

B series tractors are easier to find used, sometimes even seem to be a good deal.

 

[U&A]

With tractors,

IMO, get the biggest one you can afford within reason.

You will almost never complain about haveing to much capability.

 

[Mustang71]

With tractors,

IMO, get the biggest one you can afford within reason.

You will almost never complain about haveing to much capability.

I agree with that but my property lay out limits the size of the tractor too. That's y I think a small compact will work best for me. The sub compact would be fine but I'm making an investment on something I plan to have for the next 20+ years so I don't want to wish I bought a compact over a sub compact in 5 years. I think with the mower deck and FEL they are pretty close in price. My other thing is if I buy some more property some where down the road in life I might have to do some clearing or brush hogging or whatever else and I don't want to have to buy a bigger tractor at that point.

 

[fields_mj]

Late to the party but here's my recommendation. It's what I've done, and has worked out well. Buy a used comercomme grade ZTR for the yard. Expect to pay $5k for that. Forget mowing the yard with anything you'd be able to drag logs with. You will need loaded ag tires to make the tractor work, and those are hard on a yard, especially in the spring.

Then buy the biggest used tractor you can get. $10k will get you a late 80s early 90s (pre EPA crap when most companies still built good machines) 25-35hp 4wd tractor with a loader in really good shape and at least one other implement (bush hog, tiller, box blade). If you're patient and know what to look for, you can get a 4wd tractor with a loader for $5-$7k or a 2wd unit for half that. For what its worth, the cost of shipping one is around $600.

A couple of things I will say about buying a used tractor. Make sure it was produced for several years so that parts will be available, and make sure it already had the type of tires you want on it even if they are heavily worn. Tires are expensive, but not as expensive as the rims you need if you're swapping from turf tires.

As far as compact vs sub compact, get the biggest thing that will fit into the places you want to go, the find a used trailer (another $3k) big enough to haul it and a bush hog.

Either way, you can do a lot with a $20k budget unless you insist on buying new. Then you just have to pay the stupid tax and move on.

 

[U&A]

With tractors,

IMO, get the biggest one you can afford within reason.

You will almost never complain about haveing to much capability.

^^
This is still my opinion when buying a tractor.

But I thought I would add the perspective of somebody that is borderline in need of one. Over the years I have accumulated the small power equipment such as a ZTR, snowblower, Rototiller. all of those kinds of things that could be attachments for tractor. Every year I have projects that need a tractor for sure and I cannot do them without one or the attatchments that come with it. For all of those projects I wait to do a few of them at once and rent a tractor localy. I usually end up renting a bobcat or a tractor 3 times a year and work with it for 2-3 days non stop with little sleep.

Most everything else that I do that could be done with the tractor I do by hand ...hard labor. Im young and still have the energy to do it all by myself. I have 20 acres of woods and all of my wood gathering to heat our house is done with just my saw my hand pullwagon that The bucked logs come out of the woods with and my axe.

I completely understand this is not an option or choice for everybody. If I could do it again I would hold off as long as possible and buy one piece of equipment to do everything. ..... tractor.... I’d much rather spend time maintaining one thing extremely well versus trying to maintain a bunch of individual small power equipment things.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I had a Kubota BX2660 with a 4' bucket, 60" belly mower, 48" tiller, potato hiller, potato digger, 12" single bottom plow, 3ph carryall and I even built a set of disk harrows for it. It was a fantastic wheelbarrow with the loader. The carryall was great for bringing firewood up to the house from the wood shed. Marvelous mower with that 25.5hp diesel. You might go too fast and leave uncut grass behind you but the engine would never change tone. As for the rest of it, well, it isn't a tractor. It didn't have enough ground clearance to dig potatoes once you hilled them. It would plow, but the low gear was painfully slow, high gear was too high for plowing, and the ground clearance issue left the belly scrubbing the edge of the furrow. The little subcompact tiller was built light but that was its downfall. It was too light to get very deep. Forget tilling unless you plowed first. It didn't dig at all. Second, even if you did plow, it still didn't have the weight to get into the soil. The first 4" would be powder but deeper wasn't happening. Another problem was the power steering. The hydraulics were down at ground level between the front tires. I had sticks pop up and tear hydraulic lines. Another design issue was that the transmission cooling fan was mounted around the driveshaft just forward of the transmission. It was plastic and unguarded. Sticks were famous for poking up and taking the fan blades off which resulted in an overheated transmission. Luckily, replacing that inexpensive piece of plastic was so easy. Since the drive shaft was one piece, all you had to do is take the engine mounting bolts out, disassemble anything in the way that would keep the engine from moving forward (radiator shroud and who knows what else) and move the engine forward to get the drive shaft out. If it had been a telescopic driveshaft, you could have just taken one end loose and collapsed it a bit to replace the fan. There was a guy on a tractor forum that was printing two piece fan halves that you could bolt on without taking the driveshaft out. There was talk of custom making a steel fan stout enough that it would just chip any unlucky stick that made it up there.

Bottom line is if you need a landscape maintenance machine for mowing in areas that need 4wd, hauling mulch and bags of top soil and the like (the bucket did a great job of stripping sod off) then the subcompact tractors are just the trick. If you need a tractor, buy a tractor.

 

[Mustang71]

I had a Kubota BX2660 with a 4' bucket, 60" belly mower, 48" tiller, potato hiller, potato digger, 12" single bottom plow, 3ph carryall and I even built a set of disk harrows for it. It was a fantastic wheelbarrow with the loader. The carryall was great for bringing firewood up to the house from the wood shed. Marvelous mower with that 25.5hp diesel. You might go too fast and leave uncut grass behind you but the engine would never change tone. As for the rest of it, well, it isn't a tractor. It didn't have enough ground clearance to dig potatoes once you hilled them. It would plow, but the low gear was painfully slow, high gear was too high for plowing, and the ground clearance issue left the belly scrubbing the edge of the furrow. The little subcompact tiller was built light but that was its downfall. It was too light to get very deep. Forget tilling unless you plowed first. It didn't dig at all. Second, even if you did plow, it still didn't have the weight to get into the soil. The first 4" would be powder but deeper wasn't happening. Another problem was the power steering. The hydraulics were down at ground level between the front tires. I had sticks pop up and tear hydraulic lines. Another design issue was that the transmission cooling fan was mounted around the driveshaft just forward of the transmission. It was plastic and unguarded. Sticks were famous for poking up and taking the fan blades off which resulted in an overheated transmission. Luckily, replacing that inexpensive piece of plastic was so easy. Since the drive shaft was one piece, all you had to do is take the engine mounting bolts out, disassemble anything in the way that would keep the engine from moving forward (radiator shroud and who knows what else) and move the engine forward to get the drive shaft out. If it had been a telescopic driveshaft, you could have just taken one end loose and collapsed it a bit to replace the fan. There was a guy on a tractor forum that was printing two piece fan halves that you could bolt on without taking the driveshaft out. There was talk of custom making a steel fan stout enough that it would just chip any unlucky stick that made it up there.

Bottom line is if you need a landscape maintenance machine for mowing in areas that need 4wd, hauling mulch and bags of top soil and the like (the bucket did a great job of stripping sod off) then the subcompact tractors are just the trick. If you need a tractor, buy a tractor.

Yes just the property maintenance stuff no farming. My garden is to small for a tractor I have a rototiller. I just don't want to hit the limit of a sub compact doing whatever around the house when I could have had a compact for a few dollars more.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

If it's just property maintenance and you really don't plan to use it for a garden tractor, then get the subcompact with a bucket and throw away your wheelbarrow. Awesome little machines. I would make or buy a counterweight for the 3pt hitch so if you end up moving heavy stuff like gravel, or wet dirt/sand with the bucket, you aren't so front heavy and end up tipping forward. I had a counterweight that was 200 or 300lbs that I put on for ballast occasionally, usually for moving buckets of landscape rock for the ex-wife. Wet manure for the garden is also amazingly heavy.

 

[fields_mj]

For what it's worth, this is what I'm using. It's a 1983 Ford 1710. The tires are filled with one set of weights on. The log is green (wet) locust about 2' across, 7' long, and weighs just over 1,000 lbs, and it's all I can do to move the log on level ground without loosing traction on the rear end. Admittedly, this is a pretty big log, but I wouldn't spend money on anything much smaller for firewood.

 

[Mustang71]

That's what I stole from work a month or so ago to stone my driveway. It was the small 80s Ford I think a 1710. It did a great job but was real tippy with the loader. But that physical size tractor was a good fit for me. But hydrostatic would have been great.

My ex's dad had a 2 family John deere and he made a counter weight for it with concrete, it looked like a block, which is what I plan on doing.

 

[Mustang71]

If it's just property maintenance and you really don't plan to use it for a garden tractor, then get the subcompact with a bucket and throw away your wheelbarrow. Awesome little machines. I would make or buy a counterweight for the 3pt hitch so if you end up moving heavy stuff like gravel, or wet dirt/sand with the bucket, you aren't so front heavy and end up tipping forward. I had a counterweight that was 200 or 300lbs that I put on for ballast occasionally, usually for moving buckets of landscape rock for the ex-wife. Wet manure for the garden is also amazingly heavy.

And I agree that a sub compact would be perfect for my needs but then I ask myself is there any reason not to spend the little bit extra money and get a compact tractor. No one has said so far that buying a compact over a sub compact was a mistake.

 

[Justsaws]

As long as it fits in the yard and under any overhanging obstructions I would go with the b series. The width, turning radius and height ruled the b series out for me. Lots of good machines in that size of tractor both new and used, it is a whole different can of worms.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

The only thing that might get old is driving a comparatively large compact tractor every week to mow the lawn, especially if you have anything tight to mow around. If your yard is open and uncluttered, no problem. After owning the BX, I said that if I were to do it again, I would step up to a B, the first actual tractor frame, but at the time I was missing the ground clearance and trying to use the BX as a small tractor.

 

[Mustang71]

The only thing that might get old is driving a comparatively large compact tractor every week to mow the lawn, especially if you have anything tight to mow around. If your yard is open and uncluttered, no problem. After owning the BX, I said that if I were to do it again, I would step up to a B, the first actual tractor frame, but at the time I was missing the ground clearance and trying to use the BX as a small tractor.

My wife used the rider for the first time today and mowed the whole lawn. About 3 hours of her time while I was at work and she said she loved it. I used to like it but I have to much to do and to little time so I figure I'll end up letting her mow the lawn when I'm tired of doing it with a tractor.

I bought a dewalt 20v trimmer so she could trim and haven't trimmed grass since. She does it every time. Now if I could get her to cut and split wood...

 

[fields_mj]

That's what I stole from work a month or so ago to stone my driveway. It was the small 80s Ford I think a 1710. It did a great job but was real tippy with the loader. But that physical size tractor was a good fit for me. But hydrostatic would have been great.

My ex's dad had a 2 family John deere and he made a counter weight for it with concrete, it looked like a block, which is what I plan on doing.

Use a bucket or a small barrel as a form for that concrete weight. That way, if you don't have equipment available, you can still roll it around by hand when you need to move it.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I used a metal military rocket box and filled it will wheel weights. Welded reinforcement patches on the sides for the 3ph studs to bolt through. What I had wouldn't be enough by far for a real tractor though.

 

[rancher2]

I would go with a compact with a loader, front wheel assist and would make sure if you buy used that it is new enough to to have hydrostatic drive. I have a agco that I run a 60 gallon sprayer on spot spraying in and around fields and the hydo trans and front assist makes that tractor. I use that tractor so much on the farm I sold my gator to a friend that wanted it. I do have a mower for mine but we have a grasshopper so the mower never gets used. I bought it used in 2005 at a farm sale the first owner only mowed with it. It has been a great tractor with only regular maintenance. I have put 1500 hours on it since I bought it.

 

[DSW]

Around here 10k won't get you 4wd, a loader, and any size bigger than a lawnmower. It just won't.

And this is farming country with a low cost of living.

 

[Mustang71]

Same here. For 6 grand you can get something from the 60s and for 15 you can get a used sub compact with no deck. A tractor around here is the one in the field or the one driving down the road to the field not something in someone's yard doing work. New seems the only logical way to go.

 

[DSW]

I shouldn't say it's impossible but it's not common. It'd have to be a deal.

I saw a spotless one owner bx go for $6500. Babied, bucket looked new, turfs, with an extra set of ags already mounted on a set of wheels, new as well, manuals, etc..... Sold in a day or two.

That's a deal price. $9k, high hours, lots of wear, bald tires. That's the going rate I see.

Just using the subcompact as an example.