We are going to start building our house on our 40 acres hopefully this year. I need a tractor to work on the land, rotary tilling, plowing, harrow, etc garden uses, brush hogging, collecting wood, making trails for our Polaris, landscaping chores.

The tractor will also be used for maintaining a local park granite dust walking trail 1+ miles worth, box scrape, land leveler and bucket work.

I have been talking/looking at tractors for awhile and I think I have narrowed it down to Kubota 5460 HST w/ cab vs. New Holland Boomer 55 w/ cab vs. John Deere 4052 w/ Cab with Kubota being at the #1 spot.

I just would like to hear from Sig Forum member's experiences. I have not took a long look at Kioti or Mahindra other than on paper.

Question:
Which would you get?

Choices:
Kubota
John Deere
New Holland
Kioti
Mahindra

 

None of them are bad choices, I prefer John Deere but it's been the main tractor choice since I was a kid, We had a Kubota on the farm, never had a problem, same for a Ford, both ran great, always started winter or summer.

I'd look at what attachments you want, see the prices for them, as well as ask around the area about service costs and response.

Then buy a John Deere,

I have owned, operated, worked on and purchased many kinds of heavy equipment over my 50 years of involvement with it and the number one thing I look at is support after purchase.
While I have always maintained all of my equipment parts availability is key.

I also have shop and parts manuals figured in with the purchase of any equipment.

Look past the brand (somewhat) and ask around about the dealerships and especially their shop. That is who you will have to deal with the most in the future.

I’d prefer a John Deere, but the closest dealer is an hour away. New Holland is 9 miles and I have a relationship with them.
So my next tractor will probably be blue, if bought new.

YMMV.

i have an L6060 kubota. At the time JD was about 12% higher priced with 4% financing. Kubota was cheaper and 0%

At the power point you are looking, you will have more power than weight to hook that power to the ground, or stability when using the bucket.

The larger frame tractors will feel more stable, and will be more comfortable when you have a good load in the bucket.

If going with a hydrostatic trans rather than a geared trans (I have both on the farm) I prefer a two pedal set up to a rocker pedal set up. Deere, for example has separate pedals for forward and reverse.

We have a Massey 1240 (1996 vintage) 28 hp, geared trans and a Deere 3032e 32 hp hydro trans. I prefer the Massey for stability and traction, but I have to admit that the Deere hydro two pedal trans is pretty slick.

If you aren't buying solely on price, the key thing to remember is operator comfort and the stability of the rig.

In addition, if you are going to sling a bush hog, the higher end Deere bush hogs are very nice, smooth cutting and tough. Figure minimum of 5 hp at the pto for each foot of bush hog, understanding that you have less power at the pto than you have at the engine crank. Thus, a 50 hp tractor is under powered for a 10' mower, and a bit over powered for an 8' mower.

I've heard nothing but good about Kubota's Grand L series with HST Plus so being a Kubota guy myself that's what I'd go with. I'm on my third Kubota and have never had any problems with them. And if you ever decide to sell one they hold their resale very well. I think Kubota owns something like 70% of the compact tractor market.

Personally I prefer the single treadle over the two peddle system JD uses, probably because I'm more used to it. Every time I got on my JD I had to think about which peddle to push forward to go forward, and which peddle to push forward to go backward. IIRC the right peddle positioned like the gas peddle on your car is the one that makes it go backwards.

I have a Bobcat, which is essentially an optioned out Kioti with a Bobcat built loader. Mine is a 38 HP and hasn't skipped a beat.

Mine is the older variety, Bobcat took a few years off, and then came back with the current line.

I bought my son a used Kubota M series with 3000 hrs when he bought a house with 12 acres, it was a wedding gift.
He never has had a problem with it,mowing (fine and brush hogging),plowing,disking,or snow plowing.

Last fall I bought myself a Kubota 23S to use around my house. Love it!

There aren’t any terrible choices there. I have 2 Kubotas myself and have been very pleased overall with each. Regardless of which model you choose be safe! I would also recommend loading the tires to give you additional weight and lower your center of gravity. I would also suggest a grapple for your front end loader as mine has been extremely handy. Don’t forget to have them add an additional rear remote when you purchase as it is easier and cheaper then. Not sure if you are financing but Kubota will usually add any implements into the purchase price which will get you 0% financing on those as well. Good luck and enjoy.
This forum is the best on the internet and there is a tremendous amount of knowledge here about virtually any subject but I’ve also found tractorbynet to be an excellent resource for tractors and everythingattachments.com to be an excellent source for implements and their use.

I've had a John Deere and now have a Kubota. No experience with the others but by reputation New Holland would be good, Mahindra has a sketchy reputation for quality and dealer support in my (admittedly limited) experience.

The reason I switched from John Deere to Kubota was three-fold.

1. Local John Deere dealer is a jerk. Caters to the "estate" crowd with more money than sense and doesn't give a rat's ass about anything bigger than a $25,000 lawn "tractor". Kubota dealer, while further away, has farmers as his core business.

2. John Deere uses a lot of plastic (hoods, fenders) where Kubota uses steel. John Deere also has a lot more electronic crapola to fail. Beware of any model with an "E" in the name.

3. Kubota was a little less money and offered MUCH better financing.

Final note: For a tractor in that size range, whichever you decide on, try to buy it from an ag-oriented dealer, not a lawn and garden outfit. You want a service department that has experience with actual tractors.

I'd go with the Kubota but no bad choices. I've owned 3 Kubota small diesels 17-20hp and 1 Kioti mid range 35hp. The Kioti was an early 90s model and was basically a clone of a mid 80s Kubota. Buy the best dealer.

My New Holland tractors have served me well, one for 23 years and the other for 11 years. The dealer is great for service. The owner is also about 80 years old, and that worries me.

I will never own another green machine due to very high service costs.

None of my tractors have loaders. I much prefer my Bobcat skid loaders for loader work. Do a price comparison before you get a tractor loader, a used skid loader may be price competitive.

I had 3 John Deere compact utilities with the one shown below the last. It is a 4720 front wheel assist with hydrostat. %8 gross horse 50 at PTO.
I liked the Deere over other 2 pedal forward/reverse and I thought the Deere hydraulics were smoother that any other tractors I tried.
I paid $34,000 in 2005 and sold it with accessories for $28,500 in 2015 when we left Iowa.
Used it for many chores on 4 1/2 acers. Snow removal,clean up yard after storms and unload trucks with pallet forks.

I've Kubota and Deere. I would make this decision simply on the scale of your local service/parts. Its that simple. My local deere dealer has most of the service parts I need and gets them quickly if they don't. My Kubota dealer is not very local and never has parts and it can takes weeks to get service parts, never mind fix it parts. If the reverse was true I would buy a Kubota.

Just saw this owner's review of his L5460 which you may find helpful.

https://www.tractorbynet.com/f...iew.html#post5740719

I have owned John Deere, New Holland, and Massey Ferguson. I would not own another New Holland tractor because the local service manager was a slimy crook, your experience may differ in your area.

We are in a heavy farming area. John Deere is the standard in my area and parts and service are pretty good. JD cost a little more but I think the quality is always there.

I have priced Kubotas in the 100 hp range and they are very competitive with John Deere. The people I have talked to who own them are generally happy with them. Having retired from the hay business I sold the big tractors and am now down to a 65 hp open station JD that I have had for 20 years. Lessons learned: If it's in the budget a cab is worth every penny in the long run. And if you are going to be doing any loader work a synch shuttle shift is golden. If you have ever had "clutch leg" wake you in the night you will understand what I mean.

I have a 2000 cabbed Kubota 4610 with loader. It has about 600 hours on it and the only service I have done to it is the usual grease, oil and filter and hydraulic oil and filters except for two replacement hydraulic lines on the loader. (Total cost for the lines in my hand-$34.00) I have worked hay, mowed pasture spread barn cleanings and get lifted up on roofs by my wife for gutter cleaning. The cab really works for us and the loader is like a hired man for some jobs. I also had a Deere 5205 without cab and it did well but when I cut back on our operation the Kubota was the more versatile of the two mainly because of the cab. Dealer choice for service is important although I never needed any service on either one that I could not do myself. I have capable Deere and Kubota dealers near me. You probably can't go wrong on either choice. It is also hard to estimate how many hours you will really put on the tractor. If you buy new or could find a low hours used machine you probably won't wear either one out.

Thank you guys for all your comments, it helps hearing all I can before plopping down a bunch of money. I didn't know you could roll the implements into 84 months 0% interest financing, thats nice. One good note about the Kubota dealerships, there are two within 10 min drive and bunch more 30-40 miles away. I haven't heard any bad comments about either, my farm friend recommended one thats 34 miles away so I might need to drive and check them out.