I've had enough of playing with vintage tractors. I just want to get stuff done, I don't need another hobby. I presently have a small fleet of Simplicity/AllisChalmers tractors. One with a plow blade for light snow, another with a belly mount deck, and another that I switch between 52" snowthrower and a DIY johnny-bucket for moving stuff around. I want to be able to borrow all the Cat1 3pt hitch attachments that my buddies have (auger, chipper, splitter, tiller, etc) so I'm looking at orange tractors.
First to solve the mowing/blowing, I found a GF1800 with 48" deck and 42" blower with 350hrs. From the pictures it appears to be 4WD but maybe it's not possible to tell. $4200CAD. The 42" blower is a little smaller than the 52" I'm used to but I'll live. I only use the snow blower when we get heavy snows or to clean up the piles that build up from steady plowing. My current snow-thrower doesn't seem to care much about the occasional bit of gravel and on the rare occasions where it does, the belt just slips.. So I gather that I'm going to have to be more careful about gravel with this blower?
As far as grass goes, I only have about 1/2" acre of grass so I feel that the 48" deck will be plenty.. The yard has a bit of a slope that has been a problem in the past with my 2wd simplicity when the grass is a bit wet so hopefully the GF1800 is 4wd. If not, I can cross-cut the steep sections.
Ideally, at some point, I'd be able to pick up or fab a vacuum attachment for the deck just to pickup the thatch in the spring.
Thoughts?
As for other general tractoring; I use the johnny-bucket for moving aggregate around for my wife or being lazy by piling my chainsaw/gerry can/bar oil/sharpener/PPE/etc and driving down the hill into the forest to take out my frustrations on some deadfall... My biggest peeve with the johnny-bucket I built is lift capacity. The geometry of the mule hitch on the AC720 doesn't really lend itself to picking up a lot of weight so I've always been limited to about 250lbs of lift. In my research, it looks like the FEL on a B2320 would do nicely. There are a few B2320's on the used market around here including one at the dealer with 39hrs at $14k+tax CAD. There's another with more hours and a BH65 for $21k CAD but I can't afford that. I'll probably come to regret that but I just can't do it. A co-worker says I should consider a BX25 because they occasionally come up in the same sort of $15k CAD neighborhood with FEL and BH but I gather that "BX" means "lesser tractor than B"? Also, not sure how long I can camp out on the used market waiting for the ideal tractor.. The summer project list is fairly well established and there's a lot of topsoil/gravel in the plan... Some backhoe'ing too but my buddy can come by with his mini-hoe and it just costs me some beer and a steak.
Thoughts?
First to solve the mowing/blowing, I found a GF1800 with 48" deck and 42" blower with 350hrs. From the pictures it appears to be 4WD but maybe it's not possible to tell. $4200CAD. The 42" blower is a little smaller than the 52" I'm used to but I'll live. I only use the snow blower when we get heavy snows or to clean up the piles that build up from steady plowing. My current snow-thrower doesn't seem to care much about the occasional bit of gravel and on the rare occasions where it does, the belt just slips.. So I gather that I'm going to have to be more careful about gravel with this blower?
As far as grass goes, I only have about 1/2" acre of grass so I feel that the 48" deck will be plenty.. The yard has a bit of a slope that has been a problem in the past with my 2wd simplicity when the grass is a bit wet so hopefully the GF1800 is 4wd. If not, I can cross-cut the steep sections.
Ideally, at some point, I'd be able to pick up or fab a vacuum attachment for the deck just to pickup the thatch in the spring.
Thoughts?
As for other general tractoring; I use the johnny-bucket for moving aggregate around for my wife or being lazy by piling my chainsaw/gerry can/bar oil/sharpener/PPE/etc and driving down the hill into the forest to take out my frustrations on some deadfall... My biggest peeve with the johnny-bucket I built is lift capacity. The geometry of the mule hitch on the AC720 doesn't really lend itself to picking up a lot of weight so I've always been limited to about 250lbs of lift. In my research, it looks like the FEL on a B2320 would do nicely. There are a few B2320's on the used market around here including one at the dealer with 39hrs at $14k+tax CAD. There's another with more hours and a BH65 for $21k CAD but I can't afford that. I'll probably come to regret that but I just can't do it. A co-worker says I should consider a BX25 because they occasionally come up in the same sort of $15k CAD neighborhood with FEL and BH but I gather that "BX" means "lesser tractor than B"? Also, not sure how long I can camp out on the used market waiting for the ideal tractor.. The summer project list is fairly well established and there's a lot of topsoil/gravel in the plan... Some backhoe'ing too but my buddy can come by with his mini-hoe and it just costs me some beer and a steak.
Thoughts?