Tractor VS. ATV/UTV?

As of a few days ago my wife and I put our house up for sale. We are still shopping for a new home but we know for a fact we will be buying a house with a minimum of 10 acres. The house we are currently trying to purchase is on a little less than 30 acres on a mountain.

For those of you who live on acreage - what equipment is a must? I will not be using the property for "farming". However, I will be managing the property for whitetail and turkey hunting....I will want to maintain fields, clearings, brush, trails, and of course food plots. Would it be best to buy a tractor first? If so what attachments should I buy with it? Or could I get away with buying a cheap ATV/UTV with some basic attachments (pull behind mower/tiller)? In most cases the atv/utv route requires attachments.

 

A small tractor is a must, along with a UTV/ATV for toting stuff around. Sounds like a blast!!! Wish we were doing but could not find anything we liked so back to a small town in a nice clean neighborhood. Good luck and enjoy!!!!!

 

@ColoradoTJ should have some good advice here.

I say Kubota tractor is a must for that acreage.

 

Most ATVs aren’t made for pulling stuff and don’t have much torque. I’ve tried pulling big trees with mine and it wouldn’t move it. Check for proper HP/torque for what you are using it for.

 

How much of the acreage is fields that will need to be maintained? The reason for asking is this will impact my response on tractor horsepower. I would purchase a 30HP tractor with a brush hog, backhoe, grapple bucket and a tiller or disc (depends how rocky). Then get a UTV.

I went the route of an ATV with a pull mower and it was the worst 3 years of my life. I mowed 5 acres and it would take a weekend. Sold the DR brush mower and put that down on 45HP tractor and couldn't be happier. I am now saving up for a UTV, but the Tundra will be its substitute.

Hopefully you get the property! You will love it

 

The dealers I would purchase from are close to the property. The John Deere and Kubota dealers are less than 5 miles away. A warranty sounds appealing...but so do used prices. The amount of already "cleared" acreage is about 3-5. I would have to guess 2-3 would be considered a clearing/yard. From what I can tell there are existing trails made. Oh and I forgot to mention the driveway is paved but extremely long. ≤ 100 yards. It snows here but not often. In many cases it does not accumulate. When it does accumulate it is usually in .5-4 inch range.

 

A Kubota 2601 or a John Deere 3032 sounds almost perfect for you. I’ve got a hundred plus acres and moved up from a 38hp to a 75hp and couldn’t be happier. One piece of advice Is get a Loader!!! My smaller tractor didn’t have a loader and I couldn’t do 3/4 of my projects. I’m currently looking for a Small Sub-compact tractor for smaller tasks and mowing around the house. Kubota and JD have great warranties and great financing rates right now.

 

Update: the house on <30 acres has been crossed off the list. It did not meet the wifes code. So now we are leaning towards a different property. This property has 8acres.....which is 85% fields and 15% woods. The driveway is a 300yd graveled surface. ATV or UTV with attachments? Or Tractor? My known work load remains the same. Food plots, mowing, light earth moving, and snow removal.

 

I would still go tractor. The utility of them is really hard to beat. I am not sure your price range but if I was purchasing again I would get a 40-45 HP with a 3rd function valve, brush hog, land plane, tiller/disc, and a 3pt sprayer.

Then I would save up and get a UTV with a plow for snow removal.

 

My family has over 10 acres, mostly wooded. We have an ATV, UTV, and a Kubota BX25D. The BX has a loader, backhoe, and mid mount mower. It has been a great machine. Much of the property has hills and 4wd is absolutely necessary. The BX does everything from pushing snow to processing firewood. We also have a gas powered hydraulic log splitter.

 

UTV Kubota 1140 diesel 4x4 with hydraulic dump bed and changes from 2 seat to a 4 seat. The best to pull and do many things with. I have had one for 4 year now and the best investment ever. I also have 5 acres with cows.

 

I would wait until you actually have a contract on a house/property. Otherwise your list of needs for equipment may change.

 

You are absolutely right. I will not be purchasing anything until after we move in. We currently have on offer in on house with 8acres. The current owner has an older Kubota he would like to sell to the next buyer. I am not sure of the model or year yet.

 

So I worked for Deere for 8 years and now currently work for Kubota. In a completely unbiased opinion anything 100HP or less Kubota builds it better than Deere. Think of Kubota as the Toyota of the tractor world. They don't have a crap ton of fancy shit but they are reliable. They still use a lot of old school ways of building their equipment to where it lasts, like a cast iron rear end where Deere went to alloy to make it cheaper. And by the way, do not buy the damn backhoe. I cant stress this to my homeowner/ small land customers enough. You might be excited thinking about those one or two jobs that you can do with it. Then what? Nothing. Unless you are in a profession (plumbing/ electrical) where you will use it a lot it is going to sit there. Save yourself the 8-10k and just rent a mini excavator on the weekend that you have a big enough digging project. Any questions between the brands feel free to ask.

 

If you are going to maintain a gravel driveway you will need a loader. For moving logs and brush a grapple is very handy. If you are going to mow a lawn with the tractor you are better off with one that has a center PTO for a belly mount mower. You can also use the grapple to pop roots out of the lawn. A grapple requires a third valve on the front of the tractor so there is added cost. Once you have the third valve you can add a front mount snow plow if you live where you need to clear snow. A backhoe is a luxury that costs plenty, but it is very nice if you are going to do much digging for landscaping or ditches. If you hang a backhoe on the back of the tractor it will make it awkward for mowing.

A big ATV/UTV will plow snow, but not do any of the other things I mentioned. An ATV/UTV is also useful for light hauling, hunting, rides in the woods, etc.

 

Check out a ventrac. Tractor. Little expensive but has all the attachments. And is 4x4. Take it over zero turn for cutting grasss any day. https://www.ventrac.com/. If a had choose. I’d go with kubota over ventrac over zero turn. . Changing attachments gets old

 

It was up to Kubota and Deere when we bought ours. The small Kubota just seemed like it was better thought out and built stronger than the small Deere. It's been a great machine. Owned since 2015 without issue.

 

It is official! We purchased an 8+ acre property. Property specs 5+ acres of fields 2+ acres of wood lot. The driveway is 230yds+ long.

The previous property owner has offered to sell me a 2001 Kubota b2710 4x4 w/ 1,170 hrs for $6,500 (see more details below). I was hoping to get the "tractor guys" opinions on this machine. Is it worth purchasing this 19 year old tractor? If so what should I counter offer? For obvious reasons I would prefer not to spend more cash. I do have concerns with this machine - 1 its age (even if maintained well) 2 I believe it was stored outside most of its life. Given the finance rates I am leaning towards buying new tractor for a few reasons. 1. 0% financing 2. warranty 3. I am new to compact tractors and would sleep better at night knowing immediate repairs are unlikely.

Kubota Tractor model B2710 HSD 4x4
Front loader Model LA402
BEFCO Cyclone Series C50 -rear 7ft. mower deck
Fathers day present in 2001
presently has 1,170 hrs. on it

 

I wouldn't be afraid of a 19 year old tractor if it was maintained and not abused. My parents have the same tractor, but its a 2000 year model I believe. Nice small tractor that you can easily tow with your tundra. They have a 5' bush hog, which I thought might be too big. I recently took it to my hunting lease where it easily mowed stuff nearly shoulder high in low range in one pass. No problem. 7' seems a little big for a 27hp tractor, but it might me fine. I love the hydrostatic transmission!

 

Well, I'm not a kubota guy, but their reputation is solid. a thousand hours isn't much. A couple of thoughts: you could probably resell it for that much after you see the needs exceed the ability. One difference I have with a previous poster is on a back hoe: The ability to do the job on my own time instead of racing a rental deadline has allowed me to do much. plus the "honey, dig me me a hole for this plant". I have a medium sized Deere (4520) And it takes me 5 min to attach or dump the hoe. The other thing that gets a lot of use: I have a set of pallet forks. I never pick up stuff more than one time.

 

First off congratulations on the property. Second I would not be afraid of an older tractor that has been well taken care of. I also have a 750 ft long driveway and believe me a box scraper is your friend. The box scraper will level the driveway while keeping the gravel in as you drive so you can keep straight edges on your driveway where a rear blade will continually let gravel go out.

 

Congrats! And I equate tractors to land cruisers. If they are maintained, they will literally last forever. Pre-emissions is a huge plus. I would offer $5000-$5500. New tractors are nice and I love mine but sometimes no payments is just a nice feeling. Especially, after just buying a new property. It will buy you a lot of time to figure out exactly would you need for your property. And trust me within 40hours of use you will know exactly what you like and don't like.

 

Thank you all for your input. It has been very helpful. I am going to purchase a new tractor. The amount of cash required for a used one is more than I am willing to shell out. Also, interests raters on used tractors is not what is on new ones right now. I am leaning towards a Kubota LX2610 w/ a front loader and 60 QA buck as well as 72'' mowing deck w/ R14 tires. Before I place an order are there any attachments or features that I should buy now vs later? such as a third function kit?

 

Congrats on the property!
I would still consider the used, non-emmissions tractor as an immediate option. I have a line of people waiting for my excavator, and willing to pay, just to avoid the tier-4 standards that neuter the new machines. 1100 hrs for that tractor is like 75k miles on our trucks.(My machine has 3700hrs and is still purring) I know you want new, but I also like the Karma of the " ole-mule" staying on the property, and continuing it's service.
Good luck!

 

I agree with about the teir-4 crap. Unfortunately, the used tractor has been sold....

 

Oh no!

Oh well, it's time to shop for a newbie!