what compact tractor

[miker]

hopefully now in the market to get myself a compact tractor, main use will be paddock topping/grass cutting, hoping to use 4 foot mower, so any thoughts on suitable machine, ie hp, 2wd/4wd, will also double up to run post knocker/possibly rotorvator/stone burier etc, loader to come at later date or maybe package with loader ?

looking to spend 7k ish, any thoughts/experiences/pros/cons/makes/models:thumbup1:

cheers mike

[Burgess]

Home - Cowling Agri

[Matthew Storrs]

Are you definiatly decided on a compact tractor as opposed to a small 'proper' sized tractor, might give you more scope for attachments further down the line and you will get more tractor for your money. 7k will get you a fairly decent case/same/zetor.

[Jimbob87]

Kioti are good realy punch above there weight. Cut footpaths with a five foot flail topper twice a year behind a 22hp one. Competitor has one which he uses for fencing day in day out and swears by it

 

 

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[dig-dug-dan]

Kubota all the way. Hold value and mega reliable.

forget chinese rubbish, it will cost you more in the long run

[doobin]

Kioti are good from what I've seen.

[Woodworks]

Had a good look around when we were getting a larger compact.

 

Kubota. Very nice but crazy money

 

Chinese various makes. Cheap but looked it.

 

Kioti. Lot of tractor for the money but a few odd design aspects that needed a bit of R&D like a handbrake that was basically under the seat

 

Italian. Same/Deutz/Lamborghini apparently all basically the same with different badges.

 

This is what we went for as a good local dealer and the tractor seems properly thought out and solidly built with a Mitsubishi engine. No regrets to date but still think the Kioti might have been good enough and saved us few quid. This was a few years back so things may have changed a bit.

[wrsni]

Firstly, as stated above be sure that you want/need a compact. Seven grand will get you a pretty decent "bigger" tractor which may be more useful in a greater range of work.

 

Secondly, I'd need a very good reason to look beyond Kubota.

 

Been looking a compact for a while now to run with grass tyres on the golf course and keep about the place for future use in the woodland. Eventually picked up a s/h ST30 Kubota from a tractor dealer in England in February, bought it unseen over the phone but he sent me high res photos by e-mail and assured me it was 100% mechanically. So I stuck my neck out, wired him the money, and arranged transport. It arrived on the plant lorry with a flat tyre, link arms seized solid, oil pissing out of the front diff and NO clutch. That's "no clutch" as in it was driving constantly and the clutch couldn't be disengaged!

 

To cut a long story short, the bollocks I bought it off sort of had me by mine as I was here, he was over there, and he had my money. He sang ignorance to the fault but said he'd either give me my money back if I got the tractor back to him, or pay for the cost of parts to repair. It was definitely letting him off the hook but I decided to go for the repair option and have a go at the job myself as it was potentially the cheapest and quickest way of a solution.

 

Turned out the wee tractor had been used in a factory somewhere on Humberside since new and had never seen daylight which was why it was so good cosmetically and the link arms were seized in place because they'd never been used! The entire clutch actuating mechanism was seized as they'd just shuffled it about with the hydrostatic and nothing had ever been on either of the pto shafts requiring the clutch to be used. So I replaced the clutch and actuating mechanism, front diff needed an oil seal, everything else needed lots of releasing oil and brute force to get it moving, and topped it all off with a full service, new filters and oils from top to bottom. It's done a fair bit since without (touch wood) a glitch and the more I use it the more it impresses me. So much so that as soon as I get a few more pennies gathered up I'll be looking a bigger Kubota tractor to use about the farm.

 

Not a conventional tractor set up. Actually has a chassis which required the engine to be lifted out rather than splitting as normal. But design and build quality of the whole thing is typically Japanese and very impressive!

[HertsWood]

It all depends what you want the tractor for. We have an Antonio Carraro TTR4400 Alpine tractor. It's 40hp, bi-directional.

Used for low impact woodland management, log splitting, paddock maintenance including spraying and flail mowing. It's only 4ft wide!

 

 

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[gensetsteve]

I think I would look at a 4600 ford or similar with a cab not the smaller fords which are made under licence by the japs we had one and the rear windscreen was £475. A big little tractor