So, as I'm browsing some new homes with property (2~5 acres) it occured to me my old push mower isn't going to be up to snuff. I'm also in Michigan... it snows. That's a lot to move even with a push snowblower.
While I get excited about having an excuse to buy an old 4x4 truck (we need to plow the driveway honey...), I've also seen those yard tractor snowblower contraptions that might be more practical.
This is all theoretical at this point, but is there any GRM derived options in this space? 2 seperate tools for each season? all in one?
I'm not trying to walk down to the store and drop big money on a new fancy tractor. I'm also excited about a whole new world of toy machine I've never even considered or learned about before.
What is the Miata of property maintenance?
I've now got a commercial mower for my almost 4 acres, and do not want to go back to a homeowner rider. I have a standup, which I enjoy. My next favorite would be a sulky on a walk behind commercial. Lastly would be the sit down and ride. That said, it's a reflection of my land more than the machine.
But, the big commercial beast does not manuever around things worth a darn. So I still need a rider and a hand mower for the around the house and main "yard" area.
Bald turf tires and wet grass are great power sliding fun.
Snow blowing is a fiddly business in my experience. I've only used hand controlled ones. Can't imagine how frustrated I would be with one I had on the nose of a riding mower. Do love a strong two-stage blower. Do regret selling my old Ariens unit. True, the current whatever (sno-king?) works. But the old Ariens was seriously stout.
If you want a grassroots grasscutter check Farm Show magazine. Last week they sent me their garden tractor supplement, a 35 year collection of modification, rebuilding and repowering. It is full of ingenuity. I have a 1979 Internation Harvester Cub Cadet 1250. My dad bought it new. My brother and I used it to cut our lawn and many of our neighbors lawns. After we left home my dad gave it to my grandpa to cut his grass and use it as a utility vehicle on his asparagus farm. The mower deck gave out in 2003 due to hitting rocks while mowing down the 7 acres of asparagus ferns after the ground was frozen. It then went to a friend that is deficient in the mechanical arts. He got the deck fixed and proceeded to mow his 2 1/2 acres of dustbowl like yard weekly with an airfilter that did not fit or filter. It was down on power so it got the Kohler 12 hp engine rebuilt. He ran it another summer with the wrong filter again with the same result. I now have it. I might rebuild or repower it this next winter. As far as I can tell it takes willful abuse or stupidity to kill it.
We have a 1971 MF lawn tractor with a hydraulic drive and a 56" deck. It still takes a full day to cut our 2.5 acres of lawn but we have a ton of trees/gardens that need to be trimmed around.
I have a 1949 Ford 8N with a rear blade for snowplowing duties. We use the 8N and a PTO flail mower to knock the weeds down in the paddocks but it's too rough to use on the lawn.
If I didn't need the tractor for farm stuff I'd look at getting a set of turf tires and a tow behind finishing mower for it.
Old tractors can be picked up cheap, as can the attachments, as long as you're willing to put a bit of work into them. The old stuff beats the new stuff hands down unless you're willing to step up to commercial grade new stuff for $$$$.
When I bought my house, the PO left a riding mower in the garage - 16hp, 36" deck Simplicity. It gets the ~1 acre job done. I'd love something bigger, though.
As far as snow removal, FIL has a plow, so I don't have to dick around with a snowblower (just resodding my lawn every Spring because he doesn't watch where the berk he's going. But, hey, the plowing is free).
Pop, however, had a snowblower attachment, as well as a plow for his riding mower when I was a kid. Currently, he has a walk-behind, self-propelled two-stage snowblower. He said the tractor mounted SB was a bitch. Manuverablitly sucked, traction sucked, the ability to blow snow even sucked. He'll never go back to one of those again, now that he's had the walk-behind, self-propelled variety. The plow was a joke, FWIW.
No real property for myself but a good friend has some acreage and he went out of his way to find a used, small Steiner which will do all the functions you want. He also can rent accessories from the local equipment rental place.
fanfoy
Reader
4/5/13 4:23 p.m.
This is my pimpy set-up:
Bought it 8 years ago for 800$. I used to have a 300 ft long driveway to clear of snow, and the tractor is sooooo much better and faster than a walk-behind snowblower when you have a long straight line to clear. I have now a little six car driveway, and when you have a lot of little areas to clear, its a lot less efficient.
When I bought it, the guy said the blower wouldn't work and that's why he was selling it. Honestly, it wouldn't work because the guy he had hired to install the snowblower was an imcompetent idiot. The mechanism is finicky, with a looooong belt that drives the snowblower, but it took me about 2 hours and 10$ in missing hardware to make it work.
Also, you need chains on the rear tires and some extra weight over the rear axle to have any kind of traction. And even then, I don't think it would work very well on a big incline. Also, my tractor as the hydraulic advance, which is a must because the classic gear tractors usually have a first gear that is too high.
After eight years, the front end is starting to get a little loose from the extra weight of the snowblower. It weights almost as much as the tractor itself.
I do the switch between summer and winter setup in about an 45 minutes without hurrying.
I love the space that it saves over a separate (dedicated lawn tractor/snowblower) setup.
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/who-knows-riding-mowers/33513/page1/
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/lawn-tractors-suggestions/35642/page1/
I picked up a Wheelhorse 314 for just that work. The snowblower is OK, but it's only a single stage, dual would be way better. Attachments are easy to come by, but if I were to pick up another tractor, this is what I would want:
- 2 stage snowblower
- 50" deck, minimum
- Hydrostatic drive
- Hydraulic lift.
Hydrostatic is nice when snowblowing because there's a lot of back and forth, and lifting the blower gets old, fast. My old man has a JD 335 with all the features I want except a 2 stage snowblower and it's pretty nice. Preferential engine choices are Kohler, and Onan.
Tractors I'd look at that have some/all of the good stuff:
Any Cub/JD with 16hp+, not a big box store tractor, and all the hydro stuff. Expensive
Any Wheel Horse 316, 400, 500 series with all the goodies. NIce machines, parts availability is pretty good, well built.
* Craftsman GT5000 - A real garden tractor, doesn't hold it's value well, attachments are easy to find. Doesn't have hydro lift.
When I was a kid, pops had a Case 446 garden tractor with a 16hp Onan 2cyl with all the attachments. Hydrostatic drive was nice. Constantly replacing pto belts and clutches was annoying.
It looked like this one:
Eventually it grenaded, and Case no longer supplied the original size pistons. Case recommended the "next size up" piston, and we had to provide a letter from Case to the machine shop, confirming that yes, indeed, it is possible to bore that sucker out 0.250" Yes. 1/4" oversize.
We built it. It ran. We sold it asap.
Fun tractor....
I have a craftsman with a Honda engine. The engine is spectacular an 17hp v-twin. Rest of the tractor is ok. But for $400, I can't complain.
