I have recently purchased a piece of property that has approximately 2 acres of rough areas to mow, about an acre of lawn. It also has a gravel driveway. I have been looking at a JD 1025 and the Kubota BX 2670. I am looking at the loader, belly mower and a blade for the driveway. Both of them seem more than capable to do what I need to do. It seems like the Kubota dealer is willing to deal more than the JD. The JD seems like it is a bigger tractor, but I haven't had them side by side.

One of the projects that I need to do it put down and 2 tandems worth of riprap for a sea wall and some erosion control. Are these small tractors able to easily move a bucket full of rock?

Also - anyone with experience (good and bad) about either of these machines would be great.

Thanks

How rough is rough? I don't know about Deere but the words rough and BX, especially with belly mower, don't go together well.  Consider a B?

It is a power line easement basically. I cut it once with my JD Zero Turn and got a flat tire - rough was probably an overstatement

I had to make the same decision earlier this year.   Both are good tractors.  In the end, I went with the Deere because of the quick attach mower deck, and I liked the way the loader attached.  I felt better with the JD dealer, and they are about 10 minutes closer too.  The price was within a couple hundred bucks of each other

Thanks for the reply. Assuming you have the loader - how stable is the tractor when you have it loaded? Did you get the ballast box?

Those size tractors are really just big lawn mowers and you are not going to be able to move much stone/gravel with them.  I assume you will be getting one that has 4WD, if not you won't be moving crap without a lot of ballast in the back.  I have a john deere 5310 and that takes some time to move any large amounts of material.  Have you considered buying a larger used machine?

I did alot of comparing, family had JD's since I was a kid so it was a hard decision on the first Kubota but I am all in now.
No regrets at all. The cool thing about a loader with a mower deck is the loader will lift the front end of the tractor way up so you can easily sharpen
the blades without taking the deck off. It is easy to take off anyway though.
I traded a BX2660 in for this 2670 this year, I put alot of hours on them so I keep them fresh.
The 2670 is a absolute beast, power to spare, comfortable to operate.
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We run 7 of these Bx's in the winter plowing, often with careless teens beating the living crap out of them
and they have been holding up great for years. They are very ruggid and trouble free.

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I have considered a larger tractor. The problem is that the smaller tractor will do about 95% of what I need done. I looked at the JD 3 series, which seemed like a lot more tractor. I live in GA and there are no used 1 and 2 series tractors for sale, but a lot of 5 series. That may be the way to go

Either one will lift the rear with a full bucket unless you have weight on the rear.   i was able to get a ballast box from my dealer for $150.   Wasn't planning on getting it at first, but the box is easier to deal with than a 5 foot box blade or other implement hanging off the rear.

I'll disagree on this point, HP is just speed when it comes to tractors.  You can move 1,000,000 yards of gravel if you want too it's just going to take a while.  I had a 1860 and BX25D and they were great but in the end I found I couldn't spend three hours on a stump or two hours mowing so moved up. YMMV.

What part of GA?

Macon

I'm a fan of the green ones personally.  That said, I would probably go with the newer BX2680 over the 1025R right now.  Lots of great features and will be cheaper.  

Personally I went with the new 2017 2032R.  It is a lot closer to the 3 series in terms of size and capabilities than the 1 series.   Was worth the added cost over the Kubota to get the features I wanted.  Definitely worth a look if you want to go that high on price.  Good luck finding one in stock though.  Im
already seeing Feb 2018 delivery dates for ones ordered now.

Pic just because 

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In my research I have been leaning away from the belly mowers.
The kubota dealer steered me away from it, and I have a family member that works at a Deere dealer and they are seeing lots of mower shaft ujoints breaking.

We have both a 1025R & a 3038e.  Both are good in their own way. The 1025R is the "house" tractor.  I have used the 1025R for moving gravel and stone a few times.  Generally I leave the backhoe on the 1025R for jobs like that as ballast, but you can make a "ballast box" pretty cheap & easy with a 55 gallon drum, some heavy rod & concrete.   No problem moving full buckets of crusher-run.

I did not go with a belly mower for the 1025R, I already had a 3Pt 60" finish mower that had been used with the 3e at the MIL's place so it is what I use around here.   I still use a spin-steer for trimming around the edges, but the rest is done with the 3 point mower.  It trails nicely & makes for a very clean cut.  It is a rear discharge, so no side chutes to snag on things.  The mower is actually a bit wider than the 1025R foot print.

Nick

Look at the new BX 80 series.  Lots of upgrades over the old 70 series and not a whole lot more expensive.  Around here, I'm about $1,000 cheaper than the comparable Deer.