I have 1 acre of actual lawn to cut. It's bumpy enough doing it with my 54" JD tractor that there's no way I could do it with a ZT.
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Sub-Compact Tractor
- Thread starter Jampy00
- Start date
48Connor
Well-known member
We've got a 2015 Massey Ferguson GC1705 up at the cottage that's been great. We've got just over 100hrs on it which is low for a tractor of that age but every hour of that has been running it hard; steep terrain, permanently in 4x4, lifting rocks and dirt way over its capacity, on two wheels, in water, sand, mud, etc. Never skipped a beat. At the time is was like $5k cheaper than the same size John Deere (that had a smaller engine) and there are more Massey dealers near our cottage than Deere, though luckily since we got it we've never had to take it to the dealer. The neighbor liked ours so much he bought the 1710 with the backhoe that's been serving him well.
All of these sub compact tractors need more weight over the rear tires if you are going to do anything with it other than cut grass. We've got a box scrapper on the back with two 30lb plates bolted to it. Keeps the back end planted on hills with the bucket loaded.
Also as a heads up these sub compacts are awful on sideways hills. They will tip over. If I'm on an angle I've always got my hand on the rear tire feeling for when it comes off the ground. I watched a guy flip over a similar size Deere last year - the ROPS bar took most of the damage but needed a trip back to the dealer as he could never get it started again.
All of these sub compact tractors need more weight over the rear tires if you are going to do anything with it other than cut grass. We've got a box scrapper on the back with two 30lb plates bolted to it. Keeps the back end planted on hills with the bucket loaded.
Also as a heads up these sub compacts are awful on sideways hills. They will tip over. If I'm on an angle I've always got my hand on the rear tire feeling for when it comes off the ground. I watched a guy flip over a similar size Deere last year - the ROPS bar took most of the damage but needed a trip back to the dealer as he could never get it started again.
I have a ferris pro cut seems to have pretty decent suspension rides better than the tractor
Sent from the future
If you are open to used, you can get a hell of a lot for the money. My parents current tractor was less than 10k and iirc is about 60hp. Came with rear blower, two buckets, discs, plow, sprayer, blade and more. Its bigger than you want but not too big that the size becomes a problem. No backhoe on theirs though. Old school backhoes have fallen put of favor so those are probably available for a decent price.
The backhoe should be made for the tractor and have a subframe that goes up to the front or you risk damage. The old 3 point hitch ones caused lots of issues.
Sent from the future
A buddy has one and likes it except for the time it tipped over and broke his leg. (His fault)
With the exceptions of the Home Depot stuff these things are not cheap.
That's a very uncommon deal unless it's really old and with a ton of hours on it.
It is a great deal. I bought new as it was much less than a used one. At 200 hrs now no issues yet
Sent from the future
It needed some love. Paid much less than that for it but it had a leaking seal that required splitting the tractor in half to repair. Repair cost more than the purchase price.
We had a Kubota 7000 series small tractor for 25+ yrs . Never needed a trip to the dealer , was well maintained at home , great product . Not cheap.
Dad was an instructor at a diesel equipment training school , they had every brand of heavy equipment made , including some weird stuff from Clectrac and Oliver.
He loved small Japanese diesels .
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Dad was an instructor at a diesel equipment training school , they had every brand of heavy equipment made , including some weird stuff from Clectrac and Oliver.
He loved small Japanese diesels .
Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
We have a 2014 or 15 JD 1 series tractor in the family. We bought it new, before the prices went totally nutty.
We have the loader, the backhoe, 54" belly mower, box blade and front mounted snow plow. A year or two after getting it, my father installed a TekTite heated hard cab, which I hate with a passion.
Over all the tractor has been pretty good but it stinks for cutting grass near the house. It's just too heavy and tears up the sod on tight turns. Out back in the 2 acre field it mows just fine. He now hires out his grass cutting to a local with a zero turn. I have a Jd D140 lawn tractor that I much prefer to mow with. Faster, and easier with no turf damage.
The front mounted blower works well, but it was expensive and it's not all that fast. You have to allow the blower to work its way through the snow. If you try to bully it, you will break shear pins.
Once my parents move into a condo and sell their rural property the tractor will be coming to my place full time. First thing is sell the front blower and replace it with a plow. Next I'll install a rear mounted blower and that combo will make for a super efficient snow clearing setup. Will cut my snow removal time by 70% easily. Plow snow into a central Pike, blow that pile back off the drive with the back. Done and done.
The 1 series does everything we need it to do, although some of them a but slower than I'd like.
We rented a BX25? Before buying the JD and I actually like it better. It was slightly more capable with loader and backhoe functions and I much prefer the single tredle pedal setup over the JD two pedal deal. Much more intuitive for me and my big feet.
Backhoe function is barely better than a shovel, but it is better. Hydraulic flow on either is limited, so you can only perform 1.25 functions simultaneously. This makes for some operator adjustments for sure. A regular backhoe or excavator you can easily pull off 3 functions at the same time curl, stick in and slew as on fluid motion. On the subcompact you get 1, and a tiny bit of a 2nd function so being smooth is a whole new game, lol.
If I were buying now, knowing what I do this is what I'd do.
Forgot about belly mowing and get a larger tractor. A JD 2 or 3 series or Kubota equivalent or buy an older full sized backhoe and call it a day.
We have the loader, the backhoe, 54" belly mower, box blade and front mounted snow plow. A year or two after getting it, my father installed a TekTite heated hard cab, which I hate with a passion.
Over all the tractor has been pretty good but it stinks for cutting grass near the house. It's just too heavy and tears up the sod on tight turns. Out back in the 2 acre field it mows just fine. He now hires out his grass cutting to a local with a zero turn. I have a Jd D140 lawn tractor that I much prefer to mow with. Faster, and easier with no turf damage.
The front mounted blower works well, but it was expensive and it's not all that fast. You have to allow the blower to work its way through the snow. If you try to bully it, you will break shear pins.
Once my parents move into a condo and sell their rural property the tractor will be coming to my place full time. First thing is sell the front blower and replace it with a plow. Next I'll install a rear mounted blower and that combo will make for a super efficient snow clearing setup. Will cut my snow removal time by 70% easily. Plow snow into a central Pike, blow that pile back off the drive with the back. Done and done.
The 1 series does everything we need it to do, although some of them a but slower than I'd like.
We rented a BX25? Before buying the JD and I actually like it better. It was slightly more capable with loader and backhoe functions and I much prefer the single tredle pedal setup over the JD two pedal deal. Much more intuitive for me and my big feet.
Backhoe function is barely better than a shovel, but it is better. Hydraulic flow on either is limited, so you can only perform 1.25 functions simultaneously. This makes for some operator adjustments for sure. A regular backhoe or excavator you can easily pull off 3 functions at the same time curl, stick in and slew as on fluid motion. On the subcompact you get 1, and a tiny bit of a 2nd function so being smooth is a whole new game, lol.
If I were buying now, knowing what I do this is what I'd do.
Forgot about belly mowing and get a larger tractor. A JD 2 or 3 series or Kubota equivalent or buy an older full sized backhoe and call it a day.
You can now get inverted rear blowers so you are driving forward while blowing I have been considering one but the blade seems to do what I need.
Sent from the future
I've seen those, and they look interesting for sure.
Plow wins for moving snow any distance, especially with speed. I've replaced the blower on my small lawn tractor with the snow blade and couldn't be happier.
Plows work on gravel. Keep the blade up a bit so you don't need to rebuild the driveway in the spring. Use chains on the tractor. 99% of the time my parents use a plow. Snowblower only comes out in epic snowstorms or if windrow has eaten up too much of the driveway and they need to get width back.
The issue with plows is the ever increasing windrow. Snow clearing in my neighbourhood is almost exclusively rear blowers on tractors. Much faster than plowing and it spreads the snow across the lawn. They take a cut of the windrow left by road plowing too so you don't get mountains of ice at corners of driveway.
Makes sense, I've decided on snow blowing as I will have the property to spread out the snow and will have to deal with the wind row at the end of my driveway, luckily no one across from me so I can just blow it into the culvert across the street.
I could do this with a large self propeller snow blower, but I am really trying not to have 5+ pieces of equipment to service/maintain.
But still in the research stage so things could change.
A gravely can be an awesome blower, lawnmower and powered wheelbarrow. No good for digging though.
A sell propelled blower may be needed either way to do close up of the buildings as well as laneways.
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