I bought a 2501 gear drive, in early 2021. Package deal from the dealership: boxblade, fel, and brushhog. Also bought some pallet forks outside of the package deal.
The main intent with the purchase of the tractor was that I'd bought a 2 acre piece of property that needed a bunch of dirt work- irrigation berms and ditches, as well as putting in a pasture on the back 1 acre. The dirt source for all the irrigation berms became a seasonal pond at the far back of the property. It also was used to build (and now maintain) a 175 yard gravel driveway. It was used for various one-time projects, like putting in the sprinkler system, moving a 20x50 carport, digging a ditch for the drainage pipe for the gutter downspouts, spreading gravel, unloading palleted building materials, and as a lift for trimming trees and installing siding, etc.
Now that the bulk of the dirt work is done, its repeating tasks in the winter are taking the two dumpsters out the pavement once a week, as well as processing firewood and shuffling around all the palletized wood. Pretty sweet to just move another pallet of firewood onto the porch every couple weeks. As for summer work, it's mostly a glorified lawnmower. About 1.5acres of the property is in pasture grass, and it gets cut every 8-10 days, coinciding with the irrigation schedule. I also rigged up an atv weed sprayer using the power source under the left fender, and a small wooden frame on the box blade for the sprayer to sit on. The boom gets gets me a 14 foot wide path, and the gun lets me target the edges. Can spray the entire two acres in about an hour-takes more time to fill and mix the 16 gallon sprayer 3 times than it does to actually spray. 2-4d bout every 4 weeks in the summer.
I also dig the pond a bit deeper each year in the late winter when it's completely dry. It mostly serves as irrigation overflow, but I would like to get it deep enough to hold water year round. Excess dirt bulks up and repairs the irrigation berms.
Overall it's been a great little tractor, and does all that I need it to and more for my little 2 acres of paradise.
As for the service and maintenance...
I was good on the 50 hour, getting it done right on the money @ 50 hours, which worked out to 15 months after I bought it. Looking at my receipts, that 50hour service at 2021 inflation rates, cost $115.29 from the local dealership. That was: 1 gallon and 1quart of 15-40, and an oil filter and a transmission/hydraulic fluid filter, and 1 gallon of super UDT2.
Around 75hours I looked into the front axle gear oil, and found I was a little over a quart low, so I added 80-90 gear oil. Which left me with a roughly 4:1 mix of the factory UDT2, and the 80-90 that I had I added to get it up to correct level.
The tach cable failed in May of 2023, at 170hours, so I ordered a new oil filter with the new tach cable to save on some shipping. I replaced the filter on the premise of time vs hours on the machine.
I finally got around to draining and flushing the factory coolant last week. I know the manual recommends every 2 years so I was quite a bit late on that.
And then two days ago I essentially did the 400hour service, even though I'm only at 285hours. For anyone curious, it ran me $303.40 from my local dealership. That was for both the engine and transmission/hydraulic oil filters. As well as 6 gallons of UDT2, and 1 gallon and 1 quart of 15-40. At the same time I also decided to drain the front axle and go 100% 80-90 gear oil. Just went with O'Reilly stuff for this. Not necessarily needed til 800 hours per the manual, but didn't feel so great about the mixed fluids. I also greased the zerks while waiting on all the fluids to drain.
Took me bout half a day for this most recent service, a large part of that was waiting for the various oils to drain and then transferring all of that into jugs to take to O'Reilly. Sure is easy to work on, everything fully accessible and just convenient to get to, relative to a highway type vehicle.
I know that there's lots of debate on fluid change frequencies about time versus hours on low-usage tractors like mine. @ 5 years since the last oil change I felt like I was quite a bit overdue, despite not hitting the 400hrs on the hour meter. I know there's quite a few with the mindset of "change the oil once a year" and in a perfect world, I'd probably do that. The internal conflict I've got is knowing that I'm only putting about 40-45hours per year on the tractor.
Good little machine. I don't regret purchasing it one bit.
The main intent with the purchase of the tractor was that I'd bought a 2 acre piece of property that needed a bunch of dirt work- irrigation berms and ditches, as well as putting in a pasture on the back 1 acre. The dirt source for all the irrigation berms became a seasonal pond at the far back of the property. It also was used to build (and now maintain) a 175 yard gravel driveway. It was used for various one-time projects, like putting in the sprinkler system, moving a 20x50 carport, digging a ditch for the drainage pipe for the gutter downspouts, spreading gravel, unloading palleted building materials, and as a lift for trimming trees and installing siding, etc.
Now that the bulk of the dirt work is done, its repeating tasks in the winter are taking the two dumpsters out the pavement once a week, as well as processing firewood and shuffling around all the palletized wood. Pretty sweet to just move another pallet of firewood onto the porch every couple weeks. As for summer work, it's mostly a glorified lawnmower. About 1.5acres of the property is in pasture grass, and it gets cut every 8-10 days, coinciding with the irrigation schedule. I also rigged up an atv weed sprayer using the power source under the left fender, and a small wooden frame on the box blade for the sprayer to sit on. The boom gets gets me a 14 foot wide path, and the gun lets me target the edges. Can spray the entire two acres in about an hour-takes more time to fill and mix the 16 gallon sprayer 3 times than it does to actually spray. 2-4d bout every 4 weeks in the summer.
I also dig the pond a bit deeper each year in the late winter when it's completely dry. It mostly serves as irrigation overflow, but I would like to get it deep enough to hold water year round. Excess dirt bulks up and repairs the irrigation berms.
Overall it's been a great little tractor, and does all that I need it to and more for my little 2 acres of paradise.
As for the service and maintenance...
I was good on the 50 hour, getting it done right on the money @ 50 hours, which worked out to 15 months after I bought it. Looking at my receipts, that 50hour service at 2021 inflation rates, cost $115.29 from the local dealership. That was: 1 gallon and 1quart of 15-40, and an oil filter and a transmission/hydraulic fluid filter, and 1 gallon of super UDT2.
Around 75hours I looked into the front axle gear oil, and found I was a little over a quart low, so I added 80-90 gear oil. Which left me with a roughly 4:1 mix of the factory UDT2, and the 80-90 that I had I added to get it up to correct level.
The tach cable failed in May of 2023, at 170hours, so I ordered a new oil filter with the new tach cable to save on some shipping. I replaced the filter on the premise of time vs hours on the machine.
I finally got around to draining and flushing the factory coolant last week. I know the manual recommends every 2 years so I was quite a bit late on that.
And then two days ago I essentially did the 400hour service, even though I'm only at 285hours. For anyone curious, it ran me $303.40 from my local dealership. That was for both the engine and transmission/hydraulic oil filters. As well as 6 gallons of UDT2, and 1 gallon and 1 quart of 15-40. At the same time I also decided to drain the front axle and go 100% 80-90 gear oil. Just went with O'Reilly stuff for this. Not necessarily needed til 800 hours per the manual, but didn't feel so great about the mixed fluids. I also greased the zerks while waiting on all the fluids to drain.
Took me bout half a day for this most recent service, a large part of that was waiting for the various oils to drain and then transferring all of that into jugs to take to O'Reilly. Sure is easy to work on, everything fully accessible and just convenient to get to, relative to a highway type vehicle.
I know that there's lots of debate on fluid change frequencies about time versus hours on low-usage tractors like mine. @ 5 years since the last oil change I felt like I was quite a bit overdue, despite not hitting the 400hrs on the hour meter. I know there's quite a few with the mindset of "change the oil once a year" and in a perfect world, I'd probably do that. The internal conflict I've got is knowing that I'm only putting about 40-45hours per year on the tractor.
Good little machine. I don't regret purchasing it one bit.
Last edited:
