Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Which Compact Tractor?

My deal on used tractors is the crapshoot of finding one that's used vs. buying one and finding out that it's used up.

I have time to get stuff done, or work on stuff. Not both, and I hate a piece of equipment that doesn't work and makes me have to work on it, especially if some goober has half-assed previous repairs.

With the one we bought new, I have not spent any time repairing, the small amount of required time on maintenance, which leaves me plenty of time for other stuff that I really want to do, like hunt, fish, fornicate, and ride around in the side by side drinkin beer.

I work on newer tractors more than I do older machines. Older machines don't have anything to tear up on them.

Here you go:

Kubota with Backhoe


I ain't even started looking.....


I'll help you get anything you need to your property Irish. Just let me know if you need to haul one.

And your point is entirely invalid and pretty closed minded. John Deer uses hydrostatic transmissions in crawler dozers up to 300+ horsepower, and they are pretty prevalent in other heavy equipment as well.

Again, I ain't row cropping 100 acres, don't move 800 lb hay rolls to feed cattle, and I don't have 25-30 food plots to plant or 60 acres of hay to bale. It would be pretty fuggin stupid for me to own a 50 HP tractor that I don't have a place to store and is too big for virtually everything that I do.

What we own is still a tractor, with a PTO drive, has appropriately sized tractor implements, does all the tractor work that we need done, and serves dual function with the finish mower we have on it.

If I retire and buy the 200-300 acres that I want, then I will buy a big tractor to go along with our little tractor, but I will probably never be without a little tractor again. And if I buy a big tractor, it will be hydrostatic drive also, unless I plan to start row crop farming.

Kind of like a .22 pistol vs. a .44 magnum. Both are handguns, and both have their place.

Well... So far I have talked to:

Foothills tractor about a Mahindra EMax 22
Ag-Pro about a John Deere 1023E
Fouts Tractor about Kubota BX23S
Branson about a 2400
Some dealership in Atlanta about a Yanmar

So far, apples to apples, the best deal on a small tractor locally is a John Deere 1023 for $12,500 with 60 month bumper to bumper warranty and 60 month 0% financing. The next best deal seams to be the Mahindra eMax 22 from Foothills for $13,500 with 60 months bumper to bumper and 60 month 0% financing. The Mahindra is all steel and is quite a bit heavier than the John Deere and if you add the excavator to both tractors, then the Mahindra is the better deal at $18,000 vs $22,000 for the John Deere.

The thing for me that has led me away from the used tractor market - where I started - is this:

Let's say I buy a used tractor for $10k and pay cash for it. Well, I basically have pulled $10k out of my savings to buy a pig in a poke. On the other hand I can buy basically the same tractor new for $12k with a 5 year comprehensive warranty and 0% financing and $10k of my savings stays in my investments.

Tractors ain't like cars and drop like rocks in depreciation. With most cars it makes sense to buy used. With tractors apparently, not so much.

Did you talk to Snead in Centre? We (my company) do quite a bit of business with them, and they are always competitive on what we buy.

If u buying a deere contact ag pro in snead al also just tell em what you've been quoted n see if they'll beat it...cant hurt

According to their website the BX23 starts at $14,975. with an FEL and belly mower.

Thanks for the offer man.

That reminds me... The deal on the John Deere from Piedmont includes 5 years of free transportation back and forth to the dealer for service and repairs under warranty.

Package deals with all the equipment is where they really shine.

If you were to decide toward Kubota I'd call Beshears Tractor.

https://www.beshearskubota.com/

I personally think the Mahindra is the best tractor for what you are looking for.

I’ve driven many tractors for personal use and for work doing a wide variety of jobs. I settled on a Mahindra last year for several reasons. The four primary reasons being, there’s 4 established dealers that aren’t going anywhere within 2 hours, nobody else could beat the price on what I wanted, they are all steel without plastic (weigh much more than competitors in same hp class), and finally they have no DEF or DPF to worry about. In just over a year I’ve had zero problems and 164 hours of use, which is working it pretty good. I use it every week from 1 -10 hours depending on the job. I’ve talked to about a dozen Mahindra owners who have nothing to complain about and they’ve all been consistent saying they’d buy another one without hesitation. One guy told me last week that his 45 hp Mahindra will drag his neighbors 55 hp green tractor all over the farm and outwork it to death. I haven’t had a bit of trouble from mine.

Mbrock sighting! ^^^^ nice to see you posting 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Thank you sir for contributing to this thread. You spoke well. Good to see a post from you again.

for that amount of land you have a subcompact would suite you fine. if it was me I would prbably go mahindra, massey ferguessen or branson. with r1 ag tires and not the r6. with subcompacts you need every bit of wieght and traction you can get. Ive used mine to cut hills my 4x4 truck wouldn't go up. also a pto belly mower uses alot of power and will be pushing the limits of 23 hp mine likes the bushhog alot better. I would also look at what rpm your hp is coming from.

Thanks for the input. I'm skipping the belly mower. I'll go with a 4' rotary cutter or finish mower. The sucky thing about the Kubotas is that all of them come with a belly mower from the factory, and if you delete it you only get about $1000 credit, because you lose a rebate when you delete it.

The thing that keeps pulling me towards the John Deere is the 60 month full warranty, 60 month 0% financing (With no added fee for doing so like Mahindra and others) Plus free pick up and delivery for all scheduled maintenance and repairs for 60 months. Plus it's the cheapest of all of them even the off brands at only $12,500 for tractor and FEL. As hard as I try, I can't find a better deal than that. With that deal, I'll be retired before I ever have to worry about anything breaking on the damn thing. Plus I found a new backhoe (Used 3 times) for the John Deere that I can pick up from a guy in Huntsville for $4000.

Check the fan location for hydro drive. On some, it's protected by the belly mower. If you aren't getting the belly mower, you may need a guard.

To add to this, I've talked to a few more dealerships and the best deals I've found so far are:

1. The John Deere 1023 with FEL for $12.5k with 60 months, full warranty, 0% financing, and free pick up and delivery. ($218 per month for 60 months)
2. A used Mahindra Max22 with FEL and 384 hours for $7500 (I would of course just take the money out of savings and buy this one.)
3. A new LS 125 with FEL and backhoe for $16.5k but it only has a 24 month full warranty and a 72 month power train warranty and 5.9% financing ($240 per month for 72 months)

Not that familiar with the LS tractors, but I've watched some videos of a guy that does lots of stuff with his and the little tractor can get it done around the homestead. Plus the LS tractor has a lot of features that other tractors in the same class don't have.

I'm still leaning towards the John Deere, mainly for the warranty and the 0% but also because I have been talking to a guy in Huntsville that has an almost brand new backhoe for it and I can buy it for $4k cash.

I'm going to look at the Mahindra on Friday and bringing cash just in case, but I don't know how big a deal it would be to find a backhoe for it later, plus I'm not 100% sure I want to take that much of my liquid assets and invest it in a used tractor with no warranty, knowing as little as I do about tractors in general.

If I go the John Deere route I don't have to worry about anything except a $218 payment every month. No issues with maintenance or repairs for 5 years. And even if I buy the backhoe attachment, I'll still only have $16.5k in it and I can always add some pull behind attachments later as I figure out what I need. The warranty will take me through to retirement and then it will be paid off when I retire.

However there is a lot to be said for buying the used Mahindra and remaining debt free, and just dealing with any issues and repairs as they come up. And hope I could find a backhoe later when I feel like I could really use one. The other thing about the Mahindra, is that if I ever decided I wanted more tractor, based on used tractor prices I have been looking at, I could easily get my money back out of the Mahindra.

How old is the mahindra? That would give an idea about how much it was used based on the hours per year.

That's a good question. Apparently Mahindra made the Max series and the eMax series concurrently for at least a year. There are quite a few differences in them, with the main thing being that the Max series was made in Japan by Mitsubishi and the eMax series is made in South Korea.

According to tractordata.com, the Mahindra Max 22 was made from 2012 to 2014. So lets say that it was purchased in 2013 then 390 hours / 6 years = 65 hours per year or 1.25 hours a week. I know nothing about tractors, but that doesn't seem like much.

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/007/1/6/7162-mahindra-max-22.html

Another plus for the Mahindra is that it seems to be more of a "real" tractor vs the John Deere or Kubota. It is heavier then either of those tractors and is pushing a full half ton lift capacity with the bucket vs about 680 pounds for the JD or Kubota.

Pretty good review on the Mahindra Max 22 here:

https://www.tractor.com/manufacturers/mahindra/2012-mahindra-max-22-review-1501.html

Something else I picked up in that review was that the Mitsubishi 3 cylinder diesel engine is making that 22 hp at only 2500 rpm. most of the other tractors in this class are making that power at close to 3500 rpm, which means that the Mahindra is pushing a pretty substantial 46 ft. lbs of torque at 2500 rpm, which may be why it can lift so much more than the JD or Kubota.