What series to buy ?

[BlackMountainFarm]

Hello, I am new to this forum and am thinking of buying some level of Kubota tractor. I have an 80 acre farm/woodland area in rural Appalachia. It has 700-1000 feet of elevation and is 70% wooded. I am needing a machine for lawn mowing, ditch digging, and moving pallets around. My neighbors have a full size tractor that we do all the brush hogging, post digging and larger jobs like hauling logs to my woodmill.
So i am mainly needing something for " medium" sized maintenance stuff.
I am an auto mechanic and am fine with getting older models.
Just wondering what i need to lookout for and if you think i need to go with a B or L series.
Thanks for any advice you can give.
Craig

 

[PaulL]

Lawn mowing is the big decider. Questions that go with that:

• Do you want mid-mount or rear mower? Often whether your better half will drive it influences - mid mount can be easier for those who don't drive tractors often. L doesn't have mid mount (well, Grand L can, but that's a big lawn mower)
• How fussy about your lawn are you? If you're quite fussy you won't want a large tractor driving around and ruining it. But that can be a compromise in terms of capacities for other tasks - for an 80 acre farm usually an L would be the starting point and maybe an M
• How much mowing? If you're mowing 5 of your acres, then a bigger machine with a large rear finish mower is the deal, if your mowing is fiddly and around an acre, a mid mount is good
• If you're not super fussy about your lawn, and want to do a bit in your pastures too, a rear flail mower can do a bit of both in a reasonable way - you can treat them mean more than you can a finish mower, but you probably wouldn't mow brush with one. GP outdoors did a video on his youtube channel of a flail mower on his small B
  

Moving pallets - on the front or the 3ph? If the front, you probably want a quick attach. They're not as common on older machines. I personally use a 3ph mounted set of pallet forks, and they do most stuff fine, I just can't lift pallets high (like off a truck - but I can with a loading ramp...)

Ditch digging with a backhoe, or ditch digging with a FEL? Lots of opinions on back hoes and whether they're good value for money.

Cab or not. Snow plow or not. Those are important questions.

With elevation turbo models can perform better, but you're not that high really. Or you could get a higher horsepower model to start with.

Taking a stab at all that, I'll guess you're not trying to make a bowling green, so a small L with a rear flail mower, a set of rear pallet forks, a FEL. Consider a grapple if you're moving logs and tree trimmings. Borrow or rent a backhoe if you really need to dig ditches - it's not that often usually and sounds like your neighbours have machinery you can use.

Consider an L2501 (a new machine). They're good and not too expensive, they may be price competitive with an older but slightly larger machine. If you're a mechanic I'll assume you can fix things, but that doesn't mean you want to fix things....

 

[D2Cat]

You might also consider stating your desired budget. We can spend it all, we just to need to know how much!!

 

[miketrock]

Tractors under 26hp dont have all the exhaust emission stuff, so thats something to consider, too. Like mentioned already, the B series and new LX (replacement of the bigger B tractors) have a mid PTO(for a mid mount mower, front snow blower), the L's dont. Most guys want to stay away from the emission stuff so most would go for the L2501 or B2650 (or its new replacement LX2610) .... there is also a smaller B2601 but with 80 acres and not much more money a B2650( or LX2610) has more capacity than a B2601.

 

[BlackMountainFarm]

Thanks for all the advice. I think my budget depends on the model and what the financing options are. I see that Kubota is offering some sweet longterm no interest deals now.
I saw this model for 8600 OBO and this looks like it could fit the bill.

Kubota L2350DT with LA450S Loader
4WD
25 HP
683 Hrs. since new
PTO: 20.5 HP
Turf Tires

Thoughts?

This seems like a good price and enough power to do the stuff i'm needing

 

[WKUalum]

seems like a good deal to me. I wanted a backhoe for mine so I ended up taking advantage of the financing and really like my B2601 so far, but I only have 10 acres. If I were you I would consider the B2650. Great machines when I reviewed them.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Thanks for all the advice. I think my budget depends on the model and what the financing options are. I see that Kubota is offering some sweet longterm no interest deals now.
I saw this model for 8600 OBO and this looks like it could fit the bill.

Kubota L2350DT with LA450S Loader
4WD
25 HP
683 Hrs. since new
PTO: 20.5 HP
Turf Tires

Thoughts?

This seems like a good price and enough power to do the stuff i'm needing

I could be wrong but I don't believe Kubota offers any finance incentives on used equipment, in fact I'm not sure if the even finance used equipment.

Last one I bought, a used M9000, I went through my commercial finance company, Ag Direct.

if I were you and looking used, I'd buy the biggest unit you can afford and a pre Tier 4 unit as well.

My philosophy is, it's never enough power.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Shooting from the cuff, I believe that is why there are so many low hour smaller units on the market all the time. People go small and the outgrow them or find out they are limited in scope and then trade in or sell outright and get a larger one.

My dealer's entire front row of used ones are all smaller and all have low hours and most are almost new too.

 

[PaulL]

My theory is that there are lots of them because they sell lots of them - it's the highest volume bit of the market. I think there's lots of guys with 3-4 acres who buy one (which is a good idea). They sell the property for one reason or another, and the tractor ends up for sale second hand. Because new ones have such attractive financing, it's hard to move a low hour machine that's not all that old - if you're within 25% of new then a lot of people would rather finance a new one with new warranty etc.

In my part of the world it's quite different, there aren't so many sold, and they're very hard to find second hand, particularly ones that have been well looked after.

 

[dochsml]

The best advice I got was to figure out what tractor would do all the tasks that I have and then go up a size (or two). Maybe not today, but I'm sure with 80 acres you will find something where a B or a small L is not enough.

 

[UpNorthMI]

I am fortunate to have several units L3200, L3901 and MX5800, the 3200 and 3901 are good for typically 5' wide attachments, the MX5800 is a much larger machine and runs 6-7' wide attachments (brush hog, finish mowers, rotatillers etc.).

You have to think about your use and also lifting capacity if you have a FEL. My L3901 struggles to lift half of what my MX5800 FEL can lift. The L3200 & L3901 are great for light work such as spreaders, sprayers, chippers. The MX5800 is great for a large heavy disk unit, a 7' heavy cultipacker.

If I had to just have one I would buy as much as I could afford, realistically more horse power makes the jobs easier. The L range with 30+ HP is the minimum I would suggest. If you want to work the ground and lift loads over 1,000lbs with your FEL go up to the MX range.

Just my thoughts, good luck with your selection.