Sub-compact tractors, thoughts?

Well, Topside, sounds like you are closing in on what you want...just tell you my situtaon and you take it for what it is worth. I bought a B7510 Kubota new few years ago. My reasoning was new would prevent me from being "taken" by a bad deal on a tractor I was unprepared to wrench on. It was had a belly pto so I could run a 60 inch belly mower as you are thinking, has a FEL, bush hog, box blade......bought the geared style not the hydrostat...save a bunch of money and it is no bigie for me to shift when I am moving mulch pile. Bought a 16 foot trailer so I could take it places. started collecting used implements. Got a deal on a 5ft blade, an oold tool bar with some hillers, etc, boom pole I'll probably not use, a disc and a single moldboard plow....OK NOW what I think today. The 21 HP diesel is not big enough....Kubota is quality and safe so it has been forgiving on my lack of experience and abuse I heap on it. The small size is great to maneuver around but I am finding much to do on my 5 acres that a larger cat 1 tractor would better for.....never did buy a belly mower, my land is bumpy enough it probably would have chewed it up. A four ft bush hog just takes too long when I need to knock down some greenage. The tractor is not heavy enough to pull some things even with liquid filled tires, I wish it was bigger so that the FEL would be more useful to make it easier to get close to a truck or trailer for loading and I often exceed its limits. I borrowed a Massey ferg 4x4 from a neighbor to do some plowing recently about 1/4 acre...the heavy clay was too dry and I had a tough time with 40 hp let alone my little kubota at 21 hp.....I suppose I leave a lot out....I like my tractor it is great and has some strengths being so small, but in the end I think it is a bit too small to be good for some things I want to do and a bit too big for other things I want to do...hope these thoughts help you flesh out your decision.

All your time and pointers are well taken, after digesting the above posts I've concluded that a slightly larger used tractor is in my future. Any other advice would also be appreciated......Topside

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TOPSIDE FARMS

Id advise to test drive a gear tractor and a hydrostatic (automatic). If the gear seems suitable for your needs it can save you alot of money especially on the used market. They are also a biit more ruugged and will get a bit more usable power to the ground for the same hp. If you will be doing alot of loader work or have alot of varied terrain an hydro may be worth the money

I have a Mahindra also, a 4110. It's a happy medium between too big and not big enough. It's heavy and at times I wish it were lighter. It's been a rock though, bought new I've had it 7 years and it still has the original battery. It runs a baler, it picks up decent sized round bales. It has never let me down. I would give two thumbs up to Mahindra.

Carol K

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Midhill Dexters
http://www.midhilldexters.com/

what kind of price. how many horses

a stick is superior on steep going a hydro can slip.

For sure and wear out faster. By varied terrain i ment more that he needs to go fro, 6mh to 2 mh to 8mph all the time. A gear tractor will make that tiresom doing it all day. I pretty much transport in 7 (8 is too fast) mow in 4 or 5 and ground implements in 1-2. My only real complaint on the gear is when in low range the reverse is SO SLOW that i have to shift ranges everytime i want to back more than 10' if im operating in low.
Ive also noticed that riding on comparable tractors the gear seems stronger for the same hp rating. I think the hydro has a much higher parasitic loss. I can not understand why the lawnmower crowd demands a hydro in the <1500$ range even though to meet that pricepoint the hydro is a timebomb

I'm a fan of an HST as I do a fair amount of loader work and brush mowing where I need to ease into a clump of sagebrush and then quickly move to the next one.

If not HST then look at a shuttle-shift before a standard transmission.

My opinion, after spending a few thousand hours on tractors, swathers and combines is that a standard transmission is fine for row crops but not for constant reversing. I had one job where it was about 45 minutes up the row, then turn around and 45 minutes back. A 3 speed over a 4 speed was fine for that.

I've got both gear and hydro. The hydro gets the most usage. It's just a handier tractor. I do have one hill on the place that is too steep for the hydro. I think the slope is moving the oil away from the pickup.

My Kubota HST goes up a hill that scares me. Never make it without filled tires.

Been driving the farm's little John Deere 4100 a lot lately. We grow vegetables and nursery stock (trees and shrubs), the 4100 is mostly used to mow the paths in between the nursery stock. It's a narrow version.

Seemed really tippy at first, but once I got used to it it was plenty stable, even when I ran it into holes. And there are TONS of holes on the farm (we mostly do balled and burlapped). Doesn't help that most of the farm is hilly.

It runs well, despite being beat to crap by production agriculture work. It ran a small flail mower just fine through some fairly heavy brush. Speaking of which, OP, I'd look at flail mowers, we use them all the time to cut down tall grass and small brush, they work great.

One problem we're having with the 4100 is that we can't get the lift arms stable, they swing from side to side when you lift an implement and rub against the tires.

Overall the 4100 is OK for what it is, but for most real tractor work, the bigger the better. I love the farm's Kubota M8200, but even that is underpowered for some of the tilling we do on the vegetable side of the farm.

When it comes to small tractors, my favorite is definitely our little Power Trac articulating tractor, which I call Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Takes a bit of getting used to, but it's crazy fun to drive. As far as I can tell, it's nearly impossible to roll it. First time I lifted a tree that was too heavy for it, the two back wheels came off the ground, giving me quite the adrenaline rush. Now it doesn't phase me in the least, though having a wheel or two off the ground does make it a bit less maneuverable

If your lift arms don't have locking pins, ask your tractor dealer for a set of sway-bars. Then no movement other than up and down. Not expensive if the pivot point is there. Not too much more if you have to add the attachment points.

I did a bit more research and found that our 4100 is missing the spring that is supposed to hold the lift arms together. Our 855 has a bungee cord that serves this function, lift arms also rub on it, but not as bad as the 4100. Lift arms rubbing the tires appears to be a very common problem with little John Deeres based on my Google results.

Seems like a poor design. Never had this problem with our Kubota or IH, but they're considerably larger and have much better mechanisms for locking the lift arms in place. No springs or turnbuckles required. The IH has sway bars, the Kubota uses a sleeve and pins.

I'll mention sway bars for the JD 4100 to the boss, he may bite, but he's cheap (and broke). The 4100 is not a high priority tractor on the farm, but since I have to drive it I'd like the mower not to swing wildly when I lift it, especially when I'm on a hill. Any redneck solutions? Maybe duct tape and twine? LOL

A bungee cord or spring is not going to keep a large implement from swaying into the tires. The 4100 is supposed to be equipped with sway bars. Maybe it's a design defect where the sway arms fail and owners choose not to replace them, but they are supposed to be there.

Tell your boss a set of sway bars or stabilizer bars will be a lot cheaper than a new set of tires.

John Deere 4100 manual

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They may be there but not adjusted properly. Tighten each side to limit travel to a avoid hitting tire on opposite side. On mine i have to loosen them a bit to get some of my implements attached then retighten. Its worth it to avoid the swinging around of a heavy mower or blade etc

I believe the spring is to keep the lift arms from flapping around when there's no implement on. Our 4100's lift arms still hit the tires with or without an implement. But looking at the pics on the manual, I don't see a spring. I've seen them on other small John Deeres. Looks like there's a bar at the top of the 3 point that might serve this function, I'll have to check if our 4100 has it. Wouldn't surprise me if some key parts are missing, this tractor was not well maintained by the previous owner (we just got it last year and have only recently started using it).

If what Gray Wolf is calling a sway bar is the bar in your pic with the turnbuckles, our tractor has them. We've tried adjusting them. I had in my mind the sway bars on our IH Hydro 84, which are separate bars that you manually attach to the outside of the lift arms when you attach an implement. Not the best system, but it works. I prefer the Kubota sleeve and pin system.