Sounds like your snow duties aren't substantial. If they were a cab might be a consideration - which might lean you towards Grand L or LX (no factory cab on the standard L).
A backhoe should be enough ballast, although to my mind it's kind of crappy ballast because it's slow and painful to attach, and I think you have to take the 3ph off? You could try borrowing a heavy implement from someone (a rotary cutter is often a good choice because they stick out so far).
But you may not have all that much weight on the front axle if you have a backhoe on the back - perhaps you just need more air in your front tires?
Rear mowers are preferred by a lot of people. I have a MMM personally. Thoughts on rear mowers are:
- They put a lot of weight on the rear, depending on the machine you may need to mow with the loader on. I personally don't like doing this, as it makes the machine pitch a lot more - you now have a heavy weight way out the back and a heavy weight way out the front, and every bump makes you rock
- They go really well for long pulls in a straight line, and you can get a wider RFM than you would get MMM. I always figure a given amount of HP can mow a certain number of acres per hour. That can be really fast with a narrow cut, or quite slow with a wide cut - but the amount of grass getting cut stays the same. Slow with a wide cut can be a lot more comfortable on your body than fast with a narrow cut
- You can back a rear mower under things
- Rear mowers swing funny, they're annoying along fence lines and around some obstacles
- Rear mowers can be a disincentive to your significant other mowing. Depends on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing
- The L2501 doesn't have a lot more power than the B2601. It's a big capacity engine tuned right down, so it has a lot of torque, but it won't mow much faster than a B, irrespective of being a rear mower. You could consider stepping into the L3302, which is a bit better machine and would pull a bigger mower, especially if you have hills - once you're lugging around the mower plus the loader plus a bigger tractor, you may need more power to mow at the same speed as the B did
The L would lift a lot more on the grapple. It would move more firewood. It would do ground engaging tasks a lot better (dirt work you mentioned), it would definitely pull a brush hog better so making trails would likely be better. It would be a bit less manoeuvrable, and quite a bit heavier if you ever need to trailer it.
I guess the question is whether any of the things you currently do you feel lacking on the B, other than the firewood you mention? One question is how big you need to go to comfortably lift a full IBC cage (or would a full IBC cage break - is it too much weight for the cage?) That might make your firewood process more efficient.
