Compact Tractor

[Tom M King]

Around here, tractor speak uses Category size as a general term for tractor size, and what it can do. For instance, the 70hp John Deere, in the picture above, is a "low end Category 2", and the 117hp MF is a "category 3". Yes, they do tell the size of the 3-point hitch, but hp sometimes overlaps the category sizes, so talking category just tells the general work that a tractor can do. Around here anyway, a compact tractor is not called a Category 1 tractor, but simply a compact even though the 3 pt. hitch can fit Category 1 implements.

Of course, there are many factors to consider in a purchase, but without information, that decision is limited.

[Joe Bradshaw]

I had been thinking of getting another tractor. This thread inspired me to bite the bullet and visit my local John Deere dealer. I am now the proud owner of a John Deere 1025R compact diesel with FEL. Besides, it was a birthday present to me.
Joe

[Tom M King]

Nice toy Joe! You'll love it. Time spent on a tractor is very satisfying. I've known people who bought a larger piece of property just so they could work on it with tractors.

There is a guy here that makes a good part of his living with a 1025 and belly mower. He gets jobs that are a little too rough for the yard cutters to want to put their Zero Turn mowers on, but too small to get someone with a tractor and bushog. He does landscaping, and such too, but I talked to him a while back, when he was doing some work for my 101 year old Mother, and he said he'd done enough work with that tractor to pay for it in a couple of years.

[John K Jordan]

Time spent on a tractor is very satisfying.

A friend would come and play on my tractor, bobcat. He called it his "dirt therapy".

[Ronald Blue]

Here's the category sizes and horsepower overlaps.

Three-point hitch specifications

Category	Hitch pin size		Lower hitch spacing	Tractor drawbar power
upper link	lower links
0	17 mm (5⁄8")	17 mm (5⁄8")	500 mm (20")	<15 kW (<20 hp)
1	19 mm (3⁄4")	22.4 mm (7⁄8")	718 mm (28")	15-35 kW (20-45 hp)
2	25.5 mm (1")	28.7 mm (1 1⁄8")	870 mm (34")	30-75 kW (40-100 hp)
3	31.75 mm (1 1⁄4")	37.4 mm (1 7⁄16")	1010 mm (40")	60-168 kW (80-225 hp)
4	45mm (1 3⁄4")	51 mm (2")	1220 mm (48")	135-300 kW (180-400 hp)

[Dave Lehnert]

I had been thinking of getting another tractor. This thread inspired me to bite the bullet and visit my local John Deere dealer. I am now the proud owner of a John Deere 1025R compact diesel with FEL. Besides, it was a birthday present to me.
Joe

You move a lot quicker them I do. Enjoy!

[Jerome Stanek]

You can not just go by the horsepower of a tractor. look at the Ford 8n it could do a lot of work and it was only 21 horsepower. We had a tractor pull and an old 9 horsepower steam engine pulled more than the 90 horsepower modern John Deere.

[Matt Meiser]

I could write a book about what I learned from my years owning a compact tractor. You need to buy the right size tractor for your needs. Too small and you are going to be limited or at least its going to be less efficient. Mine, if I'd have gone 1 size smaller it would have meant 20% less back blade and brush hog capacity. Too big and its going to be difficult to maneuver. Buy it from a full service local dealer who can get the parts you need fast and service if needed. And buy the right implements for the jobs you want to do. A loader can technically remove snow but it does a poor job for example. I was considering a blade or snowpusher attachment for mine when I sold. Similarly, a box blade can be used to maintain a gravel drive. But there's a tool specifically for that purpose that does a lot better job. And a heavy rear attachment can act as a counterweight for a loader, but an 8' long brushhog and clamp on bucket forks makes for a loooonnnnnggg machine.

[Bill Dufour]

With FEL power steering is needed.
Bil lD

[Ole Anderson]

I'm not a tractor person as I live in a subdivision, but my son living on 3 acres five minutes away is. He bought a heavily wooded lot and built a house. Before the house was finished he bought a used Kubota B2910. He absolutely loves it. It came with a front bucket. He has since added a back blade, a york rake, a brush hog and a grapple.

IMG_2327.jpg

[Ronald Blue]

Revived thread but still good info here. Still using my 32 hp Cub Cadet/Yanmar and loving it. The only thing I wish it had was the skid steer bucket attachment system so I could have some forks. I'm not interested in clamp on the bucket style. I might convert it sometime. There are yt videos on doing it. Since retiring and losing a fully equipped service truck with welder and torch though I would probably end up paying a welding shop to do it. I agree that you shouldn't get a compact or subcompact utility tractor if all you want is to mow conventionally. If you need a brush hog or post hole digger or similar attachment then they are the ticket. Backhoe attachments in my opinion aren't worth it. They are also hard on the tractor if you use it much. Rent a mini excavator or hire someone to do the work. I needed a 120' trench for water and gas line. Hired a backhoe and it only cost me $175 for him to dig it. I back filled it.

[Jack Frederick]

When we bought the place here, while only 1.3 ac, I knew I could not do the mowing and general maintenance on the place without a tractor. I just can’t do the heavy ground work any longer. The tractor can. I hung out at TBN and ended up with a Kubota 2660. I was interested in Kioti and Mahindra, but went with having a local dealer available as I had never owned a tractor. that has proven to be a good decision in my case. I have a loader, box blade, tiler, 60” mid-mount mower (mmm) and had a 48” bush hog. I also picked up a Rachet Rake, which has been very useful. After a couple years with the hog I had gotten the yard to where the MMM could handle the place so I sold the hog. The BX was just to small for that mower. It is never a good thing to wonder if the tractor is in control or the implement. My mistake in buying the 2660 is that I decided that I would rent a backhoe if needed, so I didn’t buy it up-front with a BX25. A couple years later my daughter told me of a neighbor who was leaving the area in a hurry. Something about his shoice of crops. I gave him $3500 cash for a 400 hr BX23 with FEL and backhoe. Digging with the 23 is like emptying Lake Tahoe with a tablespoon, but it get the job done and is a really fine machine. I welded up a set of forks which will fit on either tractor. I added a plywood hopper that sits on the forks for carrying leaves etc in some quantity, but as Jim pointed out, you change the dynamics with a lot of weight way out front. I drop the FEL and Box when using the MMM on the 2660. Without them the tractor can mow on the steep back slope. With the loader and box on the center of gravity is to high and your just have your heart in your throat, which is not where you want to be on a tractor. I also welded hooks on each bucket ion line with the lift arms and put a ring in the center for rigging. I am going to sell the tiler this year. Hmmm, perhaps that Domino… I don’t like the hard sub-surface it creates. I’m welding up a sub soiler for the 2660. As to size, I’m content with the BX’s. It will not do everything, but I can take my time and work with it. The issue with tractors is power vs weight, or more correctly power & weight. If you don’t have the weight you cannot put the power to the ground. Get the weight and you tear up the ground you don’t want torn up. There is a balance there somewhere. I bought new from Kubota on the first one. Their 5 yr, 0% PLUS their required insurance on the finance is in my view and experience an excellent deal and takes the glow off buying used, well unless like me you can steal a BX23. Fourteen years in, I’m really happy with my Kubota’s.

[Edward Weber]

Been a few years since the OP started this thread, I hope he found what he was looking for.
I have a MF 1635 and have been very happy with it.
Finding a small tractor can involve a lot of homework, as there are so many brands these days. Some good, some not so good, it just makes finding the right one for you more difficult.
I'll add a +1 for https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/, for those who may not know exactly what they're looking for. Great place to learn the lingo if necessary, also the common questions and issues that you might need to know, before and after purchase.

[John K Jordan]

My cumulative experience on this subject:

I have a friend with a BX series Kubota with a belly mower. A small bush hog works ok but the mower is so slow.
I use two Kubota 25HP diesel powered zero turn mowers at my farm. each with 5' cuts. They will mow rings around the small tractor. I keep one for grass and the other for rough - it will cut things so rough I sold my bushhog.

mower_ZD1211_20190807_153226.jpg

My friend uses his smaller tractor sometimes to tension a steel cable for cutting trees and haul log sections out of the woods. The tractor barely has enough power and because of the lighter weight it doesn't have enough traction - we have to cut the logs into short pieces.
I have a mid sized Kubota L series (about 40 horse) which has far more power and can skid heavy logs. I usually lift one end of a long log off the ground with a skidding tong attached by chain to hooks welded on the FEL and drive backwards. I put a heavy yard box on the back for counter balance if needed.

I have an other friend with a large tractor. He mounted a backhoe on the 3 point hitch. It eventually broke part of the casting of the tractor and the repair was prohibitively expensive. I've read other horror stories about 3-point-hitch backhoes. Moral of the stories: don't do it. One with a sub frame won't hurt the tractor.

I bought a backhow for my L3830 tractor. Instead of mounting on a 3-point-hitch it has a strong subframe that extends far under the tractor and bolts securely to the underside. It uses a hydraulic pump driven by the PTO and will easily dig ditches, footings, and stumps and it will supposedly dig deep enough to install for a septic tank. From experience it will easily dig deep enough to bury a horse. It lacks the power of a real backhoe but is still useful. The dealer said it can be attached in 5-minutes - it takes me at least 20 minutes.

stump.jpg

I bought an excavator a couple of years ago and will try to sell the backhow since I'll never use it again.
The small excavator easily trenches, takes down trees, and can lift and move a 2-3000 lbs log or rock.

trackhoe_20190916_190256.jpg

If doing dirt work I use three machines:
- the excavator to break into hard dirt and put it in piles - it will spread and level dirt but it's very slow,
- a 65hp skid steer which has a terrible time digging into hard dirt but is very fast for spreading piles and doing rough leveling.
- and the tractor - first with the yard box for smoothing and then with the landscaping rake to prep for seeding.
I don't do this for money but for around the farm and to help out a few selective neighbors close enough I don't have to trailer equipment.

I used the tractor and skid steer for the ground prep for my shop:

Clearing_2012-08-09_19-32-4.jpg


If I were rich I'd have:

A compact tractor for tight places like between the trees in the woods and for light jobs around the farm.
A midsized tractor like my 40 hp Kubota
A large tractor for heavy duty things
A skid steer with tire since it is fast and flexible
A larger skid steer with tracks
A relative small excavator for tight places - the Kubota KX033 is perfect
A larger excavator with more power and a 6-way dozer blade
The two zero-turn mowers and a smaller stand-behind for tighter areas
An equipment shed big enough to keep everything out of the rain.
A huge diesel fuel tank with an electric pump.

[Jim Becker]

Tomorrow, I'm actually moving my BX-22 here to the new property. Finally. Overkill for sure, but until I deal with a shop building, I'm going to keep it so I have the Big Orange Power Tool to use to deal with things without having to rent something, at least within its capabilities.

John, I probably mentioned this earlier in the thread years ago, but I originally did have the big 60" belly mower for this thing. I hated it because taking it off and putting it back on was a royal pain, especially with no pavement to help with the process. I bought a ZTR for mowing (SCAG Freedom-Z) and sold the deck. The FEL and BH are more or less permanently on the tractor.