Another Newbie Contemplating a New Purchase

Rdrcr

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L2501 w/ S2T Turbo Kit = 35 PTO HP (Current), B2601 (Sold)
May 7, 2021
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WA
As others have suggested a Grand L minimum, an MX, or M. The standard L isn’t heavy enough or have the power you’ll need (in any trim) for the implements you’ve mentioned.

All things considered, I think the MX would be the best choice.

Mike
 
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Arachnophobe

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May 17, 2022
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East Texas
Here are a some pictures showing primarily the embankment surrounding the lake. These are the areas that I'm most reluctant to cut with the ZT mower, lest I tumble into the water!

Embankment 01.JPG Embankment 02.JPG Embankment 03.JPG Embankment 04.jpeg
 

PaulL

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B2601
Jul 17, 2017
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Here are a some pictures showing primarily the embankment surrounding the lake. These are the areas that I'm most reluctant to cut with the ZT mower, lest I tumble into the water!
Photos are always deceiving. The flatter parts of that look like you could mow fine with a tractor with belly mower, or brush cutter. The steeper parts look like you couldn't mow with anything, because there's no flat land above it.....unless you're driving your tractor in the lake and have the mower up the bank!!

I'd be tempted to start with the tractor + brush cutter (or maybe even rent or borrow one), and see what you can comfortably do.

If you use a belly mower you wouldn't need much ballast. If you are using a rear implement you'll want front weight - the loader may be enough, or loader with a bucket of gravel.
 

XSpecBx

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B2601, Artillian Pallet Forks, Woodmaxx MX-8600, LP BB1248
Apr 3, 2022
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Ledyard, CT
Take a look at tractor time with Tim. He run an attachment called a brush tiger that he runs on an LX3310. Sounds like w something that might fit the bill for your embankment and trimming trees.
 
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WDF

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Kubota L2501 HST/FEL
Jan 4, 2021
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Central Florida
What did you decide?
Upon review of your photos I recommend a gun with snakeshot for that swampy water.
 
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bsd

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L4060HST-LE, IH S300 ('55)
Jan 18, 2022
41
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49229
That's a big question I have: How to best avoid a situation where attaching/swapping an attachment is more trouble than it's worth? For example, if it takes me an hour of sweating, lifting, and cursing to put pallet forks on for a 15 minute task, then the pallet forks aren't really worth it.
All of the front, quick attach, are just that, quick attach. The 3 point? Takes quite a while to get some attachments, attached. Sometimes it takes me two people, and about an hour. The LXX60-LE turnbuckles for the 3-point stabilizer are a waste of time and money. My dealer didn't show me how to use these, and I did it wrong, they bent in the first week of use.

I recently asked a similar question, https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/size-doesnt-matter-since-when.57035/
I bought the L4060.

I suggest you do the same as I did, and make a list of attachments, source them!
I didn't source them, paid list for a few attachments, you can do better.
Use the attachment list, and back in to the right tractor, go larger than you think you need.
There's no replacement for displacement; go for the horsepower, you won't be disappointed.
 

woodman55

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L6060HSTC, RTV 1100
May 15, 2022
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canada
Lots of good advice has been given here. I would look at a small excavator over a tractor mounted back hoe. No hooking/unhooking, 360 swing instead of 180, far more maneuverable, easier to get on and off of. A excavator with a slightly smaller capacity would be more productive than a slightly larger back hoe. A used one with 1k-2k hrs on it would probably serve you well. You can also get mower attachments for them, so that could be your boom mower, thus allowing you to get a slightly smaller tractor. A LX3310 with a smaller batwing mower would be great for mower those larger areas. Just ideas for you to consider. A set of pallet forks is one of the most often purchased attachments and one of the most used.
 
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Arachnophobe

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May 17, 2022
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East Texas
Details/quick review?
Sorry for the delay, gang. We're only out there on the weekends to maintain and upgrade the property and during the week we're back in town, getting our current house ready to sell. With a multi-hour drive in-between, it's an exhausting pace.

Fortunately, the weather cooperated enough this past weekend that I was able to fly my drone around the lake for a brief a bit. I'll update this thread shortly with some stills.

(As an aside, I priced out a configured MX6000 and the price didn't make too much of my hair turn white.)

Here are some stills from the drone flight. The most overgrown area is the NW section. There are so many trees that I was reluctant to fly too closely. I didn't want to hit a branch and send the drone into the water.

The east end of the lake has the most mower-friendly banks. The south and southwest bank has some pretty steep parts. Too steep for me to comfortably tackle with a ZT mower. I'm worried about hitting a hole and rolling it.

If budget reasons delayed a tractor purchase, I could probably cut most of the east end and north side with the ZT and hire someone with a brush hog setup to knock down the rest. That would buy me some time. Possibly, too, I could then see additional areas that are safe to mow with the ZT but that were simply too overgrown previously to make a determination.

Or, heck, maybe the thing to do is hire a bush hog person to just take care of the entire perimeter this once and then reassess.
 

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Njtool

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Lx2610 HSDC. BH77 backhoe
Jan 1, 2021
216
279
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New jersey
Details/quick review?
I have a Digga DDD I believe.

its great. It’s impossible to see where it contacts the ground so a second person is helpful but not necessary. As it’s going down I have to back up a little to keep it vertical.
the ability to reverse the screw if it get caught is a huge advantage.

I bought it from Everything Attachments and I got the rock bit as opposed to the regular bit and I’m glad I did. When I come down on a rock or stone I can hear it scraping.

the RPM is listed at about 100, based on their chart.
 

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minthral

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Kubota L47
Nov 22, 2021
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We have about 100 acres mostly wooded land (it was tobacco farm than many years turned to pine tree farm). I mainly want equipment for construction projects ands also shaping land (for the projects or maintaining trails). I started with L3301 with backhoe and IMO that is the smallest tractor I’d want. It ended up being too small for the stuff I wanted to do so sold it and got an L47. The L3301 would get the job done, but slowly…the L47 is just so much faster and easier doing the same things. People always say small tractors can do work of bigger equipment, but take longer doing it. As a newbie, you don’t fully understand what that means because you're just thinking "I just need a tool that can get the job done and I don't care if it takes longer." Once you get experience and sit in the tractor some days, you realize you want to go faster and will want bigger. Sure an L series can move a round bale, but slowly and carefully in less than ideal conditions...an MX just grabs it and runs. To get an idea of what working slow versus speed, see how a 100 HP skid steer tosses dirt around like it's snow versus a BX tractor struggling with it.

In tractor world, bigger and heavier is better for everything basically (power, comfort, stability, speed, safety)...up to the point of course where obviously an MX tractor is out of place in a suburb. All large tractors will have to be driven like tractors meaning lots of forward and reverse turning...steering radius of 8,9,10, or 12 feet is a wash as they're all as large or larger than a car and turn like one (ain't no zero turn or small garden tractor maneuverability). Yes if you're in a 1-3 acre lot, the tighter turning BX is at home and capable of projects there. Sure the BX can still work on 20-30 acres, but it's going to be really slow at getting any decent work done. Many people who have tractors also have full time jobs and don't have all day to do projects slowly.

End of the day, it's a question of cost. Normally 2x bigger is 2x the cost and then it's about how much are you will to spend to get work done faster. In some situations where you got ~30 acres of pasture to mow, it's just not unreasonable to cut it with a 60 inch bush hog as by the time you finish, you'll have to mow again where you initially started. In reality it's a grey area though of 'how slow can you tolerate.' I think people probably think it will take less time than it really does to get jobs done.

After some practice, it takes 20-30 min to change over from backhoe to 3 point or visa versa. This is a considerable time in a realistic work day of 6 hours. Still for many people they rather put up with that than the cost of multiple pieces of equipment. If you own land, there are many reasons you want a tractor with PTO, but not so much a mini-ex or skid steer as they would sit idle a lot.

IMO, aside from specific applications and unless you got a skid steer alongside the mini-ex, a TLB is faster than a mini-ex getting general work done. Similar weight mini-ex and TLB has similar digging force, but the TLB has less reach and swing radius. The TLB is so much faster and stable to move around to get into position also not tearing up turf. It can clean up the mess made so much faster and cleaner. Then you can till your garden or mow your field with it. Mini-ex is really slow and single purpose...I think of it more of like crane.

In summary, I'd say get a grand L or MX with backhoe. You can probably also get by with L series, but it will be too slow. L47 (70k) is only a bit more than MX. With the TLB series, you get better backhoe/construction tool versus farm tool (PTO HP on the ag tractors). M62 has everything including PTO HP, but the thing is giant and expensive (~85k reasonable price)...it's not too popular so you want find hardly any around as at this size and price, many people rather get a full size JCB, deere, or cat TLB.
 

mcmxi

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***Current*** M6060HDC, MX6000HSTC & GL7000 ***Sold*** MX6000HST & BX25TLB
Feb 9, 2021
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I have a Digga DDD I believe.

its great. It’s impossible to see where it contacts the ground so a second person is helpful but not necessary.
I bought a lightly used Land Pride HD25 and it has the option to hang the PHD either from the center of the SSQA adapter plate or from the end so that you can see where the auger bit is.
 

GreensvilleJay

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BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
Apr 2, 2019
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Greensville,Ontario,Canada
Whatever you decide to use as a 'grass cutter' be sure to ONLY cut from noon to say 3, when the green stuff is DRY !! neighbour loved to cut in morning...so grass is wet, he slid his $$$$$ ZT INTO the pond. He was lucky to get out(muddy bottom),even luckier that after $200 worth of filters and oil, that the ZT actually ran again. he NEVER ever cut within 100' of that pond after that......
I'd cut a 'strip' or two, then assess how steep/damp/soft the edges are. If 'ok', then cut another strip or two, then reassess again. Also the more often you cut, the dryer the land will get...
Sure is real purdy !!!
 
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Arachnophobe

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May 17, 2022
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East Texas
Whatever you decide to use as a 'grass cutter' be sure to ONLY cut from noon to say 3, when the green stuff is DRY !! neighbour loved to cut in morning...so grass is wet, he slid his $$$$$ ZT INTO the pond. He was lucky to get out(muddy bottom),even luckier that after $200 worth of filters and oil, that the ZT actually ran again. he NEVER ever cut within 100' of that pond after that......
I'd cut a 'strip' or two, then assess how steep/damp/soft the edges are. If 'ok', then cut another strip or two, then reassess again. Also the more often you cut, the dryer the land will get...
Sure is real purdy !!!
I'm concerned that the ZT might hit a rut or a soft spot and roll into the lake with me pinned under it. Definitely not how I want to depart this realm.