MX5400 or MX6000?

Keadog

Member

Equipment
MX 6000
Dec 22, 2021
83
45
18
Ohio
Thanks again for the info.
My uses pretty much mirror yours (minus the NT drill….maybe some day!)
We have a 60 acre hobby farm also, main use will be collecting fire wood in winter, maintaining food plots, brush hogging fields and trails. I used to disk and plow but went to no till/throw & mow 4 years ago.
Grapple will be a huge help as I still have a lot of edge feathering to do along my fields, dropping a lot of trees into the fields. It will be nice to be able to grab the branches and tops with the grapple instead of having to drag them out of the fields by hand.
With the diff lock and 4x4 I am thinking the R14s would work great for me as long as I can fit them with chains.
Yes, I went no till this year after watching Dr. Grant's video series on his farm in the Ozarks. I expect it will be a little tough the first few years and still used glyphosphate this past summer but hope to get to no spray/no fertilize within 3-4 years. I ended up trading my Woods tiller and EA disc so the SAYA was almost "free". I planted about 3.5 acres in fall food plots and everything came up pretty nicely. I had read that the SAYAs sometimes come poorly assembled so I asked my salesman to make sure it was ready to plant. Luckily for me he's a "real" farmer and he and the shop manager went completely over it and it was just a matter of filling with seeds and planting. He even drilled some left over soybeans for me at my place to show it was working.

Grapple is almost a must. I needed one "NOW" after the tornado went through in June so I bought what my dealer had in stock, which was a Tar River (Chinese) model. It works OK but I wish the bottom tines were a bit longer. No doubt it saved me countless hours of work over cutting and hauling branches and definitely paid for itself already.

For our needs I couldn't be happier with the R14s but I plow with a Boss hydraulic 6' plow on the Ranger so the MX is almost never in snow unless I have a deer in the bucket.

BTW, I went to the barn yesterday and put the grapple back on as I'm getting ready to cut down a dead 30' Scotch Pine. I checked and I did the 50 hour service right at 50 hours in September and now have 59.6 hours on the machine. It will almost certainly outlive me lol.
 
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Heehaw

Member

Equipment
MX5400hst Kubota Z726X
Oct 4, 2022
77
51
18
Michigan
Yes, I went no till this year after watching Dr. Grant's video series on his farm in the Ozarks. I expect it will be a little tough the first few years and still used glyphosphate this past summer but hope to get to no spray/no fertilize within 3-4 years. I ended up trading my Woods tiller and EA disc so the SAYA was almost "free". I planted about 3.5 acres in fall food plots and everything came up pretty nicely. I had read that the SAYAs sometimes come poorly assembled so I asked my salesman to make sure it was ready to plant. Luckily for me he's a "real" farmer and he and the shop manager went completely over it and it was just a matter of filling with seeds and planting. He even drilled some left over soybeans for me at my place to show it was working.

Grapple is almost a must. I needed one "NOW" after the tornado went through in June so I bought what my dealer had in stock, which was a Tar River (Chinese) model. It works OK but I wish the bottom tines were a bit longer. No doubt it saved me countless hours of work over cutting and hauling branches and definitely paid for itself already.

For our needs I couldn't be happier with the R14s but I plow with a Boss hydraulic 6' plow on the Ranger so the MX is almost never in snow unless I have a deer in the bucket.

BTW, I went to the barn yesterday and put the grapple back on as I'm getting ready to cut down a dead 30' Scotch Pine. I checked and I did the 50 hour service right at 50 hours in September and now have 59.6 hours on the machine. It will almost certainly outlive me lol.
One of your previous posts about your Saya NTD got me thinking about going with the MX6000 instead of the MX5400 in case I ever do get NTD, which has been on my wish list.
Which style of grapple to get is another thing I’m trying to figure out. A friend has one that has a very short bottom jaw where you basically open the grapple tilt it forward and drop down over whatever you are going to pick up and close the jaws instead of one with longer bottom tines, he said he likes it. More things to think about!
 

DVR

Active member
Premium Member

Equipment
Kubota MX5400, L3560LE, L3301
May 8, 2020
108
64
28
Columbia, SC
Yes, good idea. The MX cab is similar to the Grand L cab but more heat (and noise) comes up through the floor and fender areas on the MX then the Grand L. I might do the Dynomat reflective myself. Another area is remove the plastic cab roof completely and do the inside, and also the plastic A/C ducts.
Similar yes. Both are cabs.
There are lots of differences, lots.
I own both.
 

Keadog

Member

Equipment
MX 6000
Dec 22, 2021
83
45
18
Ohio
One of your previous posts about your Saya NTD got me thinking about going with the MX6000 instead of the MX5400 in case I ever do get NTD, which has been on my wish list.
Which style of grapple to get is another thing I’m trying to figure out. A friend has one that has a very short bottom jaw where you basically open the grapple tilt it forward and drop down over whatever you are going to pick up and close the jaws instead of one with longer bottom tines, he said he likes it. More things to think about!
I would like (at least I think I would like) longer bottom tines for scooping under branches but the one I got saved a TON of work during the storm clean up, so I'm not going to complain. I added 2"x4" wire mesh to the top and bottom tines to help keep smaller sticks from sliding through. It worked "OK" and didn't cost anything as I had left over wire from screening the 5 pear trees I planted this spring.
I guess (and I'm no expert) the longer lower tines would require you to get under things while the short tines I have allow you to tilt the grapple down and go straight down on top of something. I can see where both may have their place. Maybe I should just add one with longer bottom tines.
 
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