Choosing the right compact tractor

[Mick Dempsey]

I've got nothing to compare it to but my stv36 kubota is a hell of a tool. Winching, belly cutter, flail etc.

 

Not cheap though.

[Kev Stephenson]

Granted not the fastest but did a good job. I tend to find when mulching you need the time over the vegetation so going really quick doesn't cut fine enough.

[SteveA]

4 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

I've got nothing to compare it to but my stv36 kubota is a hell of a tool. Winching, belly cutter, flail etc.

 

Not cheap though.

Far as I can tell the Kubota STV's look good & strong, good shout but unfortunately the total width is too wide for us (they are nearly 1.4m wide).

cheers, steve

[swinny]

11 hours ago, Kev Stephenson said:

I've got a kubota b1400d 19hp compact with loader. 4wd with ag tyres it goes anywhere. Fits on an 8x4 plant trailer, runs a splitter from hydraulic spools and I have a pto flail for it 1.15m wide. It will lift 300kg easily and has enough power to do what I need. There are some on eBay and the like. Do you really need 40+ hp??

Any pics please kev  sounds a good machine and something that could suit me at some point

[Kev Stephenson]

[IVECOKID]

My 22hp Yanmar with a Italian made flail , steering wheel going mad has no hands .

 

Ste

[sandspider]

I've got an old Yanmar YM1600, 16 - 18hp, which runs a 1.1m topper happily. (I can occasionally get it stuck on wet slopes to the extent that even diff lock won't get it out unless I lift the topper!) Tractor is narrow, and mine (1980 or so) was well under your budget. It's 2wd, not 4wd, but if it's so wet that I need 4wd I'd not take it out anyway. It lifts a surprising amount for its size, but I don't know how much hydraulic flow rate it has. And it's quite hard to find parts and even information on it as it's an aged grey import. Great for my needs though (mowing, carrying, might get a log splitter one day but I'd go PTO powered) and it sips diesel. A slight annoyance is that it doesn't have a separate clutch for the PTO and the drive - so fiddly to switch to reverse to mow tight corners. But I think most compact tractors don't have separate PTO clutches. Not within my budget anyway.

[sandspider]

Oh, and my topper and link box came from farmtechsupplies - service was good, delivery prompt and they're helpful with after sales service too.