Hobby Farm.. Small Tractor or Backhoe??

[crashagn]

Just like buying a car, go to the dealers, ask your questions, and take your test drives.

If you are going with a tractor do your research. Most of the time they will come with 2 hyd remotes. If your planning on running alot of hyd intensive attachments look for the gpm on the tractor. Also look at if its shuttle, powershift, Hydro, geared. All of these have there ups and downs. Hydros are "shiznit" for loader work but dont expect to be pulling 15,000 pounds up a long hill without doing some damage or even tearing up the pump. They wernt made to do that like power shift or geared rearends. Parts availability is a plus. Front wheeled assist? It would be nice.. but gotta look at the terrain and how your gonna use it and justify the cost. You will hear people that go by the make and brand and have a favorite.. Orange, white, or Green or Red. Really its down to that certain piece of machine that will do the job required efficiantly and effectively

 

[Mud23609]

Well I own a few regular farm tractors and a cut. Personally I would go with an older utility tractor if I could only have one. In your shoes I would also get one big enough to handle round bales. Much nicer to drop one of those in pasture every once in a while than to deal with feeding squares all the time.

My two big tractors get used only for making hay, and I will use one of them in the winter for moving bales to the cows because the case has a cab. other wise they are two big (both are 100+ hp)

Otherwise I use my old 3020 John Deer or my iseki CUT (great for raking hay and narrow trails. uses almost no fuel) around the farm and house for most tasks. Had a backhoe. A 680 H case to be exact. Sold it because I never used it enough and it was pretty expensive to fix comparatively speaking to my farm tractors.

I also bought a used three point backhoe for those odd jobs. Mounts on my 3020 and while it wont dig like my old 680 did for the two grand I have stuck into it, I think it dose just fine. Only gets used for popping stumps and burying cows anyway.

If I could only keep one tractor it would be my 3020 hands down. Big enough that in a pinch I can run my round baler on it (small for the job though but I do make 1800 pound bales). Small enough that it can be used around the woods for firewood although it is a bit large for that.

One thing to note though I am talking about the older 70 hp 3020 john deers. (mine is a 68) I have no experience with the new plastic ones that they make now.

Figure on spending four to ten grand on a good used utility tractor in the 40-80 hp range. I paid 5 for my 3020 but I pretty much stole it. The guy had no idea what it was worth.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Having both I will say that the tractor gets much more use around the farm. The backhoe is good for digging and pushing, but thats about it. It spends most of its time parked. While the tractor with FEL can push snow and manure as well as skid logs, mow, plow, disk, plant, cultivate, etc.

 

[RRSsawshop]

Having both I will say that the tractor gets much more use around the farm. The backhoe is good for digging and pushing, but thats about it. It spends most of its time parked. While the tractor with FEL can push snow and manure as well as skid logs, mow, plow, disk, plant, cultivate, etc.

Nice backhoe but get prepaired for the ribbin from the guys for letting the wife play with itopcorn:

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Anytime she volunteers to clean the manure out of the barn in the middle of the summer, I gladly accept.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Well I'm at the point where I'm planning on getting some type of equipment on my 10 acre hobby farm.. We have 2 horse on about 2 acres of pasture/field(filled in swamp) the rest is forest.

Notice the filled in swamp comment. Forget about a backhoe, to get around decent on that type of ground will require either tracks or a 4wd backhoe, both of which aren't cheap. Backhoes are not much more than a headache on wet ground, too much iron and not enough tire, also the torque converter transmissions on most of them do not pull real well when the going gets tough.

I wouldn't buy one of those small tractors, their a joke for much work. I might buy one for the boy to drive out to the sand box, because thats about all they are is a toy. Not good for 80% of the work you'll want to do. ANd they are damn expensive. Either get a older IH utility tractor with loader for about 4-5K that is capable of doing hard work or buy that backhoe, they are handy too. But I use my skidsteer the most for my needs

I agree, a decent used smaller "farm" tractor in any brand will do well for you. If you find an older one you think you like, ask around to see how the local dealer is, a bum dealer for any piece of machinery is no good, and will only make you hate that piece of equipment. Also do a little research on the internet on the model you're interested in so you have an idea what weak spots to look at when you go to check it out. The forums at www.YTMag.com are a great resource for older and smaller iron.

I like playing with tractors (GASP) more even than I do chainsaws, and on most of the older stuff, a good set of hand tools, a shop manual, some stout jacks, and a cherry picker, and you can do most all the repairs yourself.

 

[time warp]

Go buy a skid loader with some attachments & be done with it. My neighbor has a backhoe & 2 tractors but still borrows my bobcat at least once every 2-wks. It can get in the tightest places & with the rubber tracks on it goes anywhere.

 

[davec]

My little JD790 (yes a CUT) does just about anything I need to do around my place. The loader is great. Won't fill a dump truck in five passes, but I don't fill many dump trucks. It does move the rocks, dirt, grass, trees and such that I need to move. I started with a box blade and a mower as my attachments. I have added a blade, landscape rake, and a lifting arm to them. I am always using one. Put on a quick hitch for the 3 point. Makes changing implements a 5 minute job.

A little more horsepower would be nice but not mandatory. Things I can't do, I wait and rent a large tractor for a weekend and get several out of the way at a time. A backhoe would also be nice to have. But, it seems that in order for it to really do some digging it needs to be a fairly large tractor - again for the few times I need one, I am better off renting one.

Hal

If it's the one in your Avatar, it don't look too "compact" to me... Now you won't be haying the entire West side of Iowa with it, but for someone with 10-40 acres, it looks like it covers 99% of anyones needs.

 

[A. Stanton]

TJ,
I would look at the Kubotas. Get a sub compact like the BX series or the next step up. You can drop the hoe and put a wide array of implements on the back. The tractors coming thru with a stock back hoe already attached have a heavier frame and are more beefy. A good used BX 24 are now selling for 12k-13k. Attached is a pic of my BX 25 with the hoe off. The other is an earlier model the BX 23 which I traded in with the hoe attached.

 

[TJ-Bill]

Wow thanks Guys for all your input. I'm still on the fence. I can see the usefulness of a Tractor and I can see the benifits of a backhoe. I guess I'll have the winter to think about it. I'd love to have something before the snow flies but with a little one on the way it's not in the budget right now.

 

[jerry wayne]

35-45 H.P. tracktor

Well I'm at the point where I'm planning on getting some type of equipment on my 10 acre hobby farm.. We have 2 horse on about 2 acres of pasture/field(filled in swamp) the rest is forest. Before you get to excited we're the 2nd owners and he land is pretty picked, I have a couple dozen or so good sized trees but nothing to write home about. I'm thinking about getting a tractor, I was set on a farm tractor with a front loader until I talked to my neighbour. He has it all.. a couple of farm tractors with implements. a old backhoe, a dozer and a 3 ton dump truck.. plus much more... Anyway I'm young and I've gotten to the point where I understand that I should learn and take what I ca from my elders.. He's telling me that I need a backhoe instead of a tractor.. I see his point, but I weas thinking of maybe getting a newer 25-30hp tractor with a loader and then hopefully geting a BH attachment later. ( who know how much later) He says I'm wasting my $$ on a small tractor and that I Should spend the $$ and get a good used Backhoe..


I guess my question is to you guys out there with a small tractor with the hoe attachment,, does it work well? is it powerful enough? I realize after typing all of this I've already made up my mind... Backhoe..:greenchainsaw:

Tracktor dude tracktor

 

[gink595]

Tracktor dude tracktor

Backhoe or skidsteer dude!!:greenchainsaw: