B2401DT

[El Jefe]

On a small yard, especially if you have trees and a fence, I would recommend a mid mower. Rear mowers swing out on turns, and I have seen a bunch of torn fence, skint trees, and even dented cars due to that. If you will have kids driving it and training to be operators, that is even more important.

The advantage that a rear mower has is that you can mow under a fence line (bobbed wire) better, and you can back into corners. MM always leave rounded corners where fences are.

I have a 2601, and I am thrilled with it. I will suggest getting pallet forks. You can not imagine all of the stuff you can do with a set of them, whether quick attach, or the ones that bolt on the bucket. They will make your life a lot easier!!

While I understand what you’re saying learning how to operate your tractor with a rear attachment (without hitting things) is part of the deal. I can’t think of the last time I ran my b2401 without something on the 3ph. At the least I have my 54” box blade which coincidentally is almost exactly the same size as a 48” flail mower. Rotary cutters swing quite a bit when turning but are great at mowing under trees. Flail mowers are pretty compact but don’t really mow in reverse but you can get them with manual or hydraulic offset which is great for ditches and mowing fence lines. Get the mower that best suits your needs and be prepared for the learning curve no matter what you select. I still think that a lawn tractor or used zero turn for the price of a Kubota mid mount mower makes more sense but that’s me.

As for pallet forks I completely agree. Just get them, I use them more than a bucket. For me they’re a poor mans grapple but also handy for moving pretty much everything except gravel and dirt.

 

[DS524]

While I have zero practical experience (yet), I was already questioning the practicality of a MMM to reach many areas of my yard because of the fences, trees, & other obstacles not to mention dreading having to take it on and off regularly being one of the "features" that I'd decided I was going to have to be willing to live w/by going w/Kubota over JD who IMHO has a far superior system.

But, up to the point when @El Jefe suggested the flail mower (TY!), I hadn't even considered not buying the MMM but the light bulb went on & as soon as I looked into it, it seemed to make perfect sense to me that it was a much more practical mower for my yard, solved a problem I had w/Kubota, and was something I could potentially make money with mowing brush/hillsides/ditches whereas I'd have never been able to w/a MMM as I have zero interest in mowing anyone else's grass.

For better or worse, the only way I can justify the purchase of tractor to my wife to begin with is that I "need" it to mow my lawn so while the idea of a used zero turn makes sense, it's just not in the cards for me. Even then, the only way I could sell her on the idea of spending the $ on a TLB was that I could make $ w/the setup which I'm sure I can (I think I'll be busier than I want to be) and actually seems like fun (yea, I've watched TTT's vids and read his stuff on the subject). I'd closed my prev. business which if I reopen (I am I believe), I'd already decided I was not going to go back to running the day to day operations myself. I figured even if I do this "for hire" & even only make enough to cover the payments than I'd be happy.

Furthermore, since I'd then "need" a way to haul everything, I can then justify a trailer (be it open or preferably enclosed) to also use for my old car addiction whereas otherwise I really only need a trailer a few times a year and so I just rent them from U-Haul as necessary. I can also justify a dump bed insert for my truck and some cool attachments that I otherwise couldn't, given the very limited use they'd ever see on my property and it's then all a tax-writeoff.

BTW, I also 100% agree on and was already planning on a fork attachment. I already own forklifts in my business & use them for all kinds of stuff there besides warehouse work & may even bring my smallest one home but even then they cannot do what forks on a tractor can especially since I foresee using the tractor to move & lift stuff at home more so than for anything else.

 

[Stringy]

Well I am in the process of trading my b2401 for the b2601. The mmm and gear drive is a bad combo. Wish I found this forum before I bought it.