Posted: 2/14/2008 12:54:49 PM EDT
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The family wants to buy a small (20-25HPish) tractor for use around the property. Things like digging trenches, moving material, backhoe, grading gravel driveways, pulling logs up slope to an open area to cut them, etc. There are a bunch of brands and places to buy them. We need some help. The last tractor we had was an old Rhino. Well, many of you probably know the story with those. At least when it gets recycled, some of the metal will be heading back to where it came from. Our main requirements are: - 3 point hitch along with the detachable backhoe (we have a few attachments that we want to still be able to use that are in good shape) - Power steering, or a reasonable facsimile of (hydrostatic or whatever else they can call it, I'll get my arm workouts at the gym, thank you! Actually, my father in law isn't as strong as he used to be.) - Reliable (Nuff said!) I thank you for your input in advance. Living near Portland, we have a myriad of places to go looking and buy, but customer service is king with us. Any suggestions about who to go talk to are appreciated. |
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I have a 4 year old John Deere 32 hp front loader blah, blah blah...It does lots of work for me. I put on about 90 hours a year. Too much to describe here. I live in the Puget Sound region. If you live in the area I would be more than happy to demonstrate the implements I've got and show you what the Tractor can do for you. IM me if you are interested. From my limited knowledge I used to think that Kubotas where comparable to John Deere's, I no longer believe that...I am sure that will get me flamed, but I like my John Deere.  |
I live in Washougal, East of Vancouver, but I appreciate the offer. We've always had John Deere riding mowers, still do. The tractor will be for much bigger projects the mower can't handle. It has been a great mower, and it better be for what the JD mowers cost! |
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Go with the J.D., it will fit your needs and parts are easy to come by if anything happens. With that said my dad has a small JD tractor with the back hoe attatchment/ back blade/ snowblower on the front and or course the front bucket. Its a nice little do all kind a tractor. If it were me, I would get a JD 410G w/ wobble sticks/extenda boom and the 4:1 front bucket. That is what I operated this last year, and it is one versitile machine.
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Where is this? The JD small tractors are not even built by JD, They just get the green paint. I bought a Kubota last year, not looking for any specific brand did serious homework for 2 months and the kubota is the most expensive but I feel its also the best value b/c there isn't a tractor out there with higher resale value. Look anywhere and people want (and get) stupid money for used Kubotas. |
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No advice or experience with tractors. I know some family of mine have a medium size Ford that is still going strong after about 27 years. It has had some major service though I believe. I saw this while browsing some web sites though: tractorco.com/ ...in case you want to go used/reconditioned. |
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www.bobcat.com/utility_machines/tractors/ct230 I like my Bobcat dealer so as you can imagine I have three bobcats. I have not seen their tractor in person. But parts for my machines are always a phone call and a day away. I have heard that if you get a used grey market kabota the dealer will not order you parts for it!!! |
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Well, after visiting the JD and Kubota dealers twice, we settled on the JD. Same price and similar warranty, but the JD had better features, like ease of removing front loader assembly and three point hitch assemblies. It delivers Tuesday. If anyone needs any bodies buried, we have five acres, a seasonal pond, and a new tractor. IM for a price quote. 
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This is at an underground mine. Biggest problem seemed to be caused by downshifting on a grade resulting in a break in the transmission linkage. SRM |
out of curiosity where is the underground mine located and what are you digging for? How are these little tractors of help in a mining operation? |
Diesel tractors in a confined underground environment? That has bad written all over it. I hope there a serious ventilation system. |
If you do your research this is 100% correct, which is why I went with a Yanmar 3110D from EFCconstruction.com. It is a grey market import tractor co. If you look around/research you will see that Yanmar makes all of the motors for JD and others up to about 75hp I think. This is for all kind of motors, marine, farm, etc. I am very happy with mine esp the cost of the tractor vs say a JD or Massy and the cost of the replacement parts and no it is not hard to get parts for it very easy as a mater of fact. My step-dad bought a JD smaller than mine brand new and paid about 3X the price I did... ouch! FWIW I own a small pear orchard so the tractor is used for plowing snow in the winter, mowing, towing a sprayer and moving bins of pears around. I also have a back hoe and FE loader. I put on about 200 hours a year. and yes I have owned JD and others. best question, would I buy one of these again?... in a heartbeat! |
Diesel is required by MSHA (it is much safer than gasoline!). Depending on the mine, you'll see 988 and 992 cat loaders, D9 or greater dozers, 19g graders and 40 ton plus trucks underground. Tractors, diesel pickups and the like are usually no more than about 30% of the diesel used. Mine vent systems will run anywhere from 50000 cfm to several million cfm. Anyone wanna know why the price of ammo is so high? SRM |
I get the feeling that the leetle 35 HP JD tractor we are buying is not the same as what you are using to shuttle people and materials at work. You must be using something that is commercially "rated" from the manufacturer. I am not using the tractor we are buying for a "commercial" purpose. Thanks for your input anyhow, any info that I didn't have beforehand was better than the almost nothing I had. ETA: The big reason we went with the JD is the dealer: We have always gotten great service from them, and have no reason to expect that to change anytime soon. |
FWIW- I have an Uncle up in Stevens Co with a 40 acre cattle spread. he recently replaced his 1973 Alice/Chalmers with a Kubota after about 2 years of research, compare/contrast. |
The kubota and the JD were comparable, and both dealers were willing to deal on price to sell us a tractor. In the end, with comparable machines at practically the same price and warranty, we picked the Deere on features and a known level of service from a dealer we had already used. While I had never heard a bad thing about Dan's Tractor in Dollar's Corner, we hadn't heard bad things about Clark County JD, either. Maybe I will now? The JD's front loader assembly was very easy to remove, and didn't even require you to get off the tractor once the hoses were uncoupled, which was done right after lifting teh front tired off the ground using the loader. The same for mounting it back on the tractor, pull up to the loader, couple the hoses, move forward, throw a couple of levers from teh drivers seat, pick up the loader, and go to work. The kubota front end loader required the operator to get on and off the tractor a couple of times, and had more difficult to use attaching points, and required tools. The three point hitch assembly is also easy to remove, replace, adjust, and use on the JD, the kubota we were shown required tools. To the use of diesel engines underground, I'd rather be trapped in a ventilated cave with a diesel tractor than a gasoline engine one. There is some nasty shit in todays gas, I imagine that in "off road" equipment, there would be no catalytic converter installed on the exhaust, and I wouldn't want to be underground with the exhaust from a gasoline engine if I could avoid it. A well running and maintained diesel engine would be easier to live with if there was decent ventilation. |
IM inbound..... just kidding... very funny though and congrats on the new purchase... S |
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I agree that the JD front end loader does appear to come off easier. Tonight(on my kubota) I did take off my post hole auger and put my backhoe on, it took a 14mm wrench and less tha 20 minutes for the whole show. Doesn't get much easier than that. Congrats on your purchase, I can't believe how much I use mine. |