Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

The Junk Drawer is for those Off Topical discussions where we can ask questions of the community that we feel might have the ability to help out.

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BadDog
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by BadDog »

Yeah, ZT is just for relatively flat (well, smooth/even more than flat, like a golf course) lawns and such. But with the L, what would you really need attachment wise? If you really need a cart, I'm sure you could rig a wagon to tow behind the ZT, or just walk with it. I've got one of those HF expanded metal wagons that I drag around to haul stuff like my paint spray rig (with 2x5 gal buckets) and big yard bins. Also use a HF big wheel dolly. I don't much care about having it towed. If it's too heavy for that, I'll use the Kubota bucket or something. But on soft loamy sand soil like N Florida, if you run R1 (Ag) tires on the lawn you'll be fixing it. Turf tires would address that, but may leave you stuck in your field when wet, and won't push the bucket for ground work very well. I've got both R1 and Turf (came with it) for mine, but never use the Turfs since I got the R1s. R4s are a industrial multi-surface compromise that might suit, but still don't deal well with mud.
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by SteveHGraham »

BadDog wrote:Yeah, ZT is just for relatively flat (well, smooth/even more than flat, like a golf course) lawns and such. But with the L, what would you really need attachment wise?
If you mean the garden tractor, I don't know much about attachments. I know they make stuff which would be useful for small garden plots. I am not anxious to plow or till by hand.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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BadDog
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by BadDog »

Yes, I mean for the garden tractor (aka lawn mower). They make attachments, including stong-arm mini-3-point hitches. But with the L, why would you waste effort or money on less useful yard tractor attachments? But for the L, you can get just about anything you might ever want, except for stuff to do small jobs conveniently. But even for a 1/2 acre garden plot, the L will do anything and everything faster and easier than trying to do it with a garden tractor.
Russ
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by SteveHGraham »

I don't really see myself doing half an acre, but I may be wrong. I was thinking of maybe 50 x 100. Also, the implements for a real tractor are expensive and take up room.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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BadDog
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by BadDog »

You don't have to buy huge stuff, and I'm not even in an agricultural hub, but from what I've seen the lower end of "real tractor" implements is pretty similar to machine tools. The tiny sub-Cat-0 implements (garden tractors with manual or light hydro lift 3 points) that are functional bring more than a Cat 1 implement. I saw a smallish sears single bottom turning plow on craigslist a while back for something like $200, and a much more significant Cat-1 1 or 2 bottom turning plow will cost only a little more. Seems like lots of folks want the little stuff for little gardens, which makes sense if you don't want a real tractor. But if you already have a real tractor, which you seem most certainly to need, then it makes no sense to spend money on that little stuff. But that's me. I've accumulated a pretty good collection of Cat-1 implements for very little money, and all are vastly more functional than their typical Cat-0 varieties. Not to say there are not good Cat-0 options, like those meant for the Cubs and little JD tractors (and such) that have a light duty hydro 3-point hitch, but unless things are very different than my native AL or here in PHX, you'll likely spend a lot more for less function that will take up just about as much room. Besides, with the acreage you are talking about, a few hundred square feet for implements likely won't be an issue. And you can pull a 2 bottom behind that L going to whatever depth you want in one pass what would take 6 or more (3 x 2) with a little garden tractor to get full depth. Maybe not so much in sandy loam once you get the roots broke up, but when I was growing up I spent a lot of summer time helping my grandfather work a <1 acre garden with one of those big Sears "garden tractor" (Simplicity?) with manual 3 point. My little B would have turned that whole plot to depth in an hour what we spent most of a sweaty back breaking day trying to turn with that little tractor. And the full size will pull a rotary tiller (that L a fairly large one!) where we had to run a tooth jarring 5 HP front tine tiller over, again, for HOURS in the hot AL sun. Again, N FL soil is not as hard to work as AL loamy clay (always too dry and hard or too wet and slippery/gummy), so maybe it won't matter as much? I don't think you can even get rotary tillers for those little garden tractors that don't have a PTO (maybe with a long belt PTO?) So once you get started, I think you'll find that L is the better choice, just as you found that only doing modest home shop work that big lathe made a lot of sense vs what most would recommend for a home shop. Sometimes the economies don't always pan out the way that would seem to make sense.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by SteveHGraham »

The garden tractor implements look a lot smaller to me, and the turning radius of the big tractor is 8 feet, as contrasted with 2.2 feet for the garden tractor. I think the garden tractor would be a lot easier on the lawn, which is where I would want to grow things. I don't want to walk a hundred yards to get a tomato.

It's true; I will have a lot of room for storing implements, if I want to leave them out in the rain. I would rather not do that, though.

I am thinking I should put up another building, just for machinery. Nothing fancy. Just weather protection.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
spro
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by spro »

I agree with Russ so much, there is little to add. Perhaps a little story:)
Bought a little 3 acre place and was offered the super IH Cub Cadet for 2k . I declined. They sold it for 2.5k. For around 2K I bought a 154 IH Cub Lo-Boy and found it very useful for heavier mowing. I went through about seven lawn tractors during that time. Either free or cheap, each one required piles of time to run and then the cheaper sections just plain wore out. It gets old after a while. One needs steering fixed, another a transmission, Good engines going to waste, tires going flat etc. Batteries ..! don't ask. In the end (almost), I learned a lot about lawn and garden tractors. The heavier Ropers from Sears, the Simplicities, Jacobsens and of course MTD variants. All this and more doesn't cut the freaking grass!
The punch line is that they had a IH Farmall with attachments and sold it before listing the property. They never maintained the whole area with only a lawn/garden tractor, no matter how good it was.
spro
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by spro »

The upshot of this; In the sheds and garage were many parts of the Farmall. Those flat heads didn't change too much, There was Chains which fit my Lo Boy AG tires Brinley plow and more ignition stuff than I would need...( although, about time for some new points). Head gaskets, linkages and other stuff. These great sons of the finest woman, told me a lot about the property. I let my commination lapse by being involved with my partner. She was my present and the future. The future is grass, trees, cut/recycle or pay for someone else to do it.
spro
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by spro »

Stuff doesn't work out exactly how you plan it. I love trees, in a tree way. They require some attention or they fall and take you down too. That is about the quickest thing that trees do. That is the end of their tree life. At that point, cut up like they never happened when they actually do tell about their birth age and different seasons. The reason is they just got old and died. I have a dead maple right here. It is not so tall that it would take down a power line. I can cut it down to the stump its partner was and from those roots a new Maple grows. Cycles. A fairly large Cherry Blossom tree had probably sucked all the moisture. It was so tiny when I planted it. It will die or become injured by its proximity to things and the whole time, the Crimson King Maples will rise again..
spro
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by spro »

I keep forgetting that I cannot delete this crap. Let's pretend it didn't happen. Right. I know the IH154 is barely near a real tractor too. It is just stuff that served well. Compared to the newer compact tractors, it is lacking but I like old stuff and 3-6k in the bank too.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by SteveHGraham »

Still nothing going on with the machines. The seller has been wonderful about the house. Replaced two insulated windows we didn't even ask him to fix. I guess he would do us right on the machinery as well. We shall see when I get a number out of him.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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SteveHGraham
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Re: Tractor/Cart/Mower Advice

Post by SteveHGraham »

I finally got a price. They want $11K for everything. Tractors, bush hog, E-Z-GO gas-powered cart, plus whatever. I still don't know how many hours the machines have on them. I feel like it's hard to go wrong. The cart and mower have to be worth three or four grand, and the bush hog is probably worth around a thousand.
Every hard-fried egg began life sunny-side up.
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