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  #81  
Old 01-24-2022, 12:07 AM
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I think implements like that are so expensive because when they get mounted to a compact or larger tractor they assume commercial use, so they are built accordingly.

When you think about it, a compact 4WD tractor with cab, trailer to haul it, snow thrower ... you are now in business, could make thousands during a good snow season. Snow blowers can charge big money because they can put snow places that plows can't, and can get into places plows can't. Most of the affluent neighborhoods in our area have only snow blowers doing their removal .. they have expensive lawns, masonry driveways, lots of landscaping, walkways etc. that are too easy to damage with a truck and plow.

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Old 01-24-2022, 11:55 PM
Tellyshavilli Tellyshavilli is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dataway View Post
I think implements like that are so expensive because when they get mounted to a compact or larger tractor they assume commercial use, so they are built accordingly.

When you think about it, a compact 4WD tractor with cab, trailer to haul it, snow thrower ... you are now in business, could make thousands during a good snow season. Snow blowers can charge big money because they can put snow places that plows can't, and can get into places plows can't. Most of the affluent neighborhoods in our area have only snow blowers doing their removal .. they have expensive lawns, masonry driveways, lots of landscaping, walkways etc. that are too easy to damage with a truck and plow.
True but I still want one , at least until March or April or

  #83  
Old 01-26-2022, 06:57 AM
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I use the Honda for snow removal here, unless it gets packed down, then I switch over to the JD 318 with a much heavier blade and hydraulic down power......
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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
  #84  
Old 01-26-2022, 07:42 AM
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I finally made a decision yesterday and have a new Compact tractor on order.

I went with the Yanmar SA424. Over the last month or so I've shopped compact tractors pretty hard and learned a LOT. Yanmar made all the John Deere compact tractors well into the 1990's before John Deere started doing their own in the Georgia plant. JD still uses Yanmar engines in them.

It appears that most of these tractors and made in South Korea except for Kubota, Yanmar and John Deere. There is also at least one brand made in Turkey if memory serves me correctly.

I really wanted to stay green with my purchase but John Deere simply has their tractors priced too high and you have to add just about everything you want to them driving the prices very quickly over $30,000. Even so this wasn't all about saving money. I set out to buy a small tractor for small jobs. Mostly loader work at the beginning since I recently logged one of my properties and have over 70 tops to deal with. I also need to do a lot of work to my driveway (gravel) this year due to excessive rainfall and washing out.

Once those projects are caught up I'd love for the new machine to double as a mower, but that wasn't a requirement for the purchase.

While shopping I actually got to test out several tractors. We had a big snowstorm dump on us so I did a lot of loader work on site with them which helped make my decision.

I had narrowed down the purchase to a several units. Kubota B2601HST, LX2610HSD, L2501, John Deere 2025R, John Deere 2032R, John Deere 3032E, or Yanmar SA424.

After actually testing them I took the Kubota LX2610 and B2601 off the list. The B2601 was weak for loader work and slow hydraulics. The LX was OK but "whiny" on the hydraulics and I wasn't liking their "treadle-pedal" system either.

After finding out what it would cost to outfit any of the John Deere models with the equipment I wanted they went off the list. This left the Kubota L2501 and Yanmar SA424.

The Kubota L2501 is a robust machine and very well built. It was lacking in power at times and the 3rd range was next to useless without a slight down hill grade and tail wind. It has no mid PTO and too big and heavy for a belly mower anyhow. It was fine very good for loader work and would have served me well here. I would have bought one but there is a nationwide backlog for the loaders with the skid-steer quick disconnect system. A pinned bucket wasn't going to cut it, although I did find several machines in other areas new on the lot that had them. I wanted to keep my business local so didn't jump on any of them.

I went to Yanmar last, mostly because it wasn't Green or Orange and not that attractive in appearance like a lot of the models out there. The rounded hood and goofy headlights was keeping me away from New Holland, Bobcat and a few others plus I wasn't as comfortable with a South Korean built machine vs Japanese.

Our local Yanmar dealer had a well used SA424 as a rental unit and they let me spend all the time I wanted testing it. I actually made two trips over there to run the unit and was very pleased with everything about it. Yanmar uses two hydraulic pumps to split the load, power steering/loader and transmission/PTO. The loader works flawlessly even at idle or lower RPM's. The transmission was very responsive and not lacking for power in high range. It also didn't whine and howl in protest if you went to move it under load without the engine all wound up.

It was also less expensive and came with loaded rear tires at no extra cost. I added third function remote, grapple and wheel weights and it was still thousands less than an entry level John Deere or the L2501 with a pinned bucket loader.

Another big plus was zero percent financing for 84 months, first responder and Military discounts, and a 10 year powertrain warranty.

I'd add here that I looked at a LOT of really nice lightly used machines, a couple were really low hour and mint condition, but the price jump to a new unit with much better financing and a 10 year warranty quickly took all of them off the list. In the used market right now there are no "deals", at least nothing to look at without traveling quite a ways. Even well used machines and ragged around the edges aren't far enough off the price of new ones with full warranties to get me to go that direction.

Well, hopefully I'll be happy with it. It woln't be here for a few weeks, I'll report back with the good, the bad and the ugly once I start pulling out some logs with it.........Cliff
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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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Old 01-26-2022, 09:28 AM
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I've been reading with anticipation as what machine would win. Looks nice Cliff. A friend bought( actually his wife is the money person) a JD,not sure of the model,I know its smaller than the Yanmar pictured with loader,backhoe and mower.He likes it. Congratulations.

  #86  
Old 01-26-2022, 12:29 PM
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Congrats Cliff. As I posted earlier. "Nothing runs like a Yanmar".......LOL

I guess even JD thought the same thing if they been using Yanmar to build their tractors, and engines for quite a few years, as you stated.

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Old 01-26-2022, 01:13 PM
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In general I find that going from .. no tractor ... to .. tractor, is always a great improvement and usually makes a person happy

I have a very short list of "no buyers remorse" items ... and all my tractors are on that list.

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Old 01-26-2022, 01:35 PM
Tellyshavilli Tellyshavilli is offline
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Yes congratulations Cliff , Good research and I enjoyed the thread

  #89  
Old 01-26-2022, 04:52 PM
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[QUOTE=Cliff R;6313645]I finally made a decision yesterday and have a new Compact tractor on order.


Another big plus was zero percent financing for 84 months, first responder and Military discounts, and a 10 year powertrain warranty.

Don't let the 10 year warranty be a factor, To maintain that warranty you must take your tractor
to the dealer every year for a full maintenance at what ever they want to charge you. The factory sets no rules as long as the list is done. Most people like us do or own maintenance.

  #90  
Old 02-08-2022, 04:47 PM
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My new tractor was delivered last Thursday only hours before the big ice/snow storm moved in. I spent a little time with it before the storm, then a lot of time with it cleaning up the past few days and moving tons of snow that I'd plowed up over the weekend.

I made a set of tire chains for it, and a weight bar, which really helped as it's getting warm during the day and melting the snow then turning to ice again at night and very slippery most of the next day. I'll have to say I'm very pleased with it, and find it very capable for a machine of this size.

Today I moved to huge logs to the outdoor boiler and it never grumbled or lost traction once. I still being very conservative with it to find out it capabilities and limitations. .....
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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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Old 02-08-2022, 05:01 PM
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Looks nice Cliff. You use a front bucket or front plow for the snow?

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Old 02-08-2022, 05:44 PM
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Nice choice. Congratulations.Now heated cab, heated'-cooled cup holder!

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Old 02-09-2022, 07:10 AM
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I have a Honda 500 Rubicon for most of the snow plow duty. It has chains on all four tires. I also have blades for my 318 and 740X if needed. I've been moving a lot of snow with the loader as we got dumped on pretty hard late last week. You can only push snow so far until the piles are so big they thaw a bit then re-freeze as ice. The Yanmar is doing a fine job there as well. The chains really helped, nothing here is flat and right now there is about 2" of ice with about 12" of snow on top of it.......

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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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Old 02-09-2022, 08:28 AM
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We live about a mile from Chestnut Ridge, then the mountains,we usually get all the snow. First good snow couple weeks ago we got about 6" .last week about 3" . Stone driveway is ice luckily its flat. My old Cub Cadet late 60s, keeps on ticking,of course with maintenance.

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Old 02-09-2022, 09:01 AM
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Those older Cub Cadet's were excellent. So were the Wheel Horse and John Deere's from that period. We still see a lot of them in use around here.....

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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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Old 02-09-2022, 02:11 PM
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I need my floor jack to change the rear tires. I learned early that they are heavily made. Not in same league as yours Cliff. However they do a job, plowing and blowing snow,tilling dirt, mowing ,pushing light stone and dirt. My biggest is 16 hp Kohler, it weighs about 800+ lbs. They are reliable......

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Old 02-09-2022, 05:09 PM
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sdbob ... has the Yellow Fever Wonderful machines, took 15 years for me get over the fever.

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Old 02-09-2022, 07:57 PM
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John Deere, Cub Cadet and Wheelhorse built some really TOUGH machines back in the day. I still have two John Deere 318's here, and a JD-212, plus a Yanmar powered X-740......

https://www.tractordata.com/lawn-tra...eere-x740.html

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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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Old 02-09-2022, 09:28 PM
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Yes besides Pontiacs. I have a 10 hp,12hp 14,and 16 hp with hydraulics. Plus 4 parts tractors. Iguess I'm hooked. The parts ,rare do i them,occasionally come in handy.

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Old 02-10-2022, 05:52 AM
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I've restored several older John Deere tractors and find them much LESS expensive than a muscle car, plus I find myself using them a LOT more. Cars are cool for sure, but you can't cut your grass with one, plow the driveway, push snow or till the garden.

Below is a pic of a John Deere 455 I picked up for $1000. It was a basket case. The front of the hood was busted with a huge hole in it, mower deck was busted and needed completely rebuilt, trans was leaking from every seal in it. The Yanmar diesel engine was just getting broken in a little at 2000hrs so didn't have to touch it. It needed some electrical work as well. It had a burnt spot in the fuse box someplace i a printed circuit that was in some sort of gel that I had to access and solder. That was a royal PITA to troubleshoot and why I ended up with the machine because it kept popping fuses for the previous owner. It's been so long ago I can't remember the details but they incorporate safety features into all these machines between the seat, PTO for the mower and reverse. There was an issue someplace in that system as well that needed repaired. I suck at wiring but managed to fumble around an figure it out. John Deere overbuilt many of these older Garden Tractors so restoring them typically is mostly cosmetic/electrical items not engines and trans/diffs other than leaking seals.......
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73 Ventura, SOLD 455, 3740lbs, 11.30's at 120mph, 1977 Pontiac Q-jet, HO intake, HEI, 10" converter, 3.42 gears, DOT's, 7.20's at 96mph and still WAY under the roll bar rule. Best ET to date 7.18 at 97MPH (1/8th mile),
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