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

Go Mahindra. Mine is tough as nails and weighs a lot more than all the other colors.

Even if it is a 2014, that isn’t bad hours. I was going to say, if it is a year old and had that many hours, it might be something to stay away from. Less than 100 hours a year means that it wasn’t used much st all.

You are not going to be running a tractor at 2500 rpm a lot and I don’t even know if I have ever run one at 3500.

I know they backhoe seems useful to you, but I would be surprised if you got $4,000 worth of use with it. You could rent a real backhoe for 2 months for that price. If you have occasional need for one, it will be much cheaper to just rent one for the weekend.

Here's my thoughts, Some where on this vast planet we live on, there is someone who has the biggest tractor somebody else built, and it's not big enough. There will always be a rock to big or too much dirt to move in one load.

Buy what ever you want to fit your personal needs, pay for it how ever you want, it's yours do as you please.

Don't have a tractor in the size range your looking for so, I'll keep my opinion to myself.

I'm leaning to your line of reasoning.

I agree, rent a mini excavator .

I think I've pretty much worked out a deal with a guy from Huntsville to buy his refurbished (By Fredricks) Yanmar. It's a compact tractor, but a more serious tractor than any of the newer ones I've been looking at. It weighs 2,050 pounds without the loader or the rear tires filled, Plus in addition to the loader it has a 4' Mahindra box blade and a 4' rotary cutter. All that for $7500. It is the YM1702D 4x4 model made around the early 1980's with 1050 hours on it. This one has a high, mid and low range with 3 forward gears and 2 reverse gears and a 2 speed PTO. Separate brakes that can be used together

I talked to one of the guys that started Fredricks Outdoors for about 30 minutes and picked his brain about these older Yanmars and I talked to the owner of this tractor for about 30 minutes. I asked a lot of questions and got a lot of answers.

I have a buddy with a "real" truck and a tandem axle trailer that's going to help me pick it up. I'll probably need to buy a bigger 4x4 truck next. This is a slippery slope.

Everything I have read online about the older Yanmars imported from Japan has been positive. (Other than Phil Army's experience. ) Between Hoye and Fredricks Outdoors I think I can get just about any parts I might possibly need, plus they are a very simple tractor meant to be worked on out in the field by farmers and in my case dumbass cabin builders.

At the price I'm paying I don't think that tractor with the implements is going to depreciate much if at all as long as I take care of it, and if you know me you know I will take care of it. So if I ever decide to sell it later, I should easily be able to get my money back out of it. A newly refurbished similar one at Fredrick's with just the front end loader goes for $10,500. I thought about going that route so I had to ask when I was on the phone with them.

I think you are making a good decision. Especially for the money. I was cringing at the thought of what a new machines costs while there are so many well maintained low hour machines floating around out there.

My smallest tractor is a 40hp Deere with a Yanmar motor and I have not had any trouble with the motor itself. None. Can't say that for the tractor is has had it's share of electrical problems.

Keep it simple.

Those tractors seem to be tough as nails. The only gripe I have is most of them are LOUD lol. Like louder than my 50hp tractor.

Look and see if you can widen the wheelbase. Those tractors are a little narrow and if it doesn’t have a seatbelt then add one please. All that being said I think that’s about the right size for your application.

You don't need a bigger truck. You can haul that little bitty thing with your Mazda. 😆

This on already had the wheels flipped inside out to widen the wheel base. I was wondering about a seat belt. Thanks for mentioning it.

I hope I'm making the right decision.

Being refurbished would worry me, but that's just me.
What does "refurbished" mean for the Yanmar??

God Bless,
David B.

Good deal. I think you will be happy with that tractor.

I think I will be too. I like not having too much invested in things. I also like not financing stuff even at 0%. I like not owing people money and I like having assets that are worth more than what I have in them or at least what I have invested in them.

So my fingers are crossed on the little Yanmar.

So I finally had some time yesterday to run over to Huntsville before heading back to the house to smoke some ribs and chicken. The folks that had the tractor were very nice. They had the tractor in a storage place on the West Side of Huntsville called Life Storage. You know how when you first meet someone and you almost immediately know they are squared away? Well that's how these people seemed. The guy had a 2015 Nissan Frontier truck that was immaculate.

These folks had a 35 acre farm with goats and sheep, but decided to sell it and move to town to take care of her mother with alzheimer's. The tractor was as nice, clean and (apparently) well maintained as I could imagine any 40 year old tractor could be. They had a whole stack of paperwork and receipts including the owner's manual that Fredrick's apparently prints out for new owners.

I think they've owned it for about 4 years and bought it freshly refurbished from Fredrick's with the new front end loader installed. They bought the Mahindra 4' box blade and the 4' brush hog at the same time from there also. They are also going to include various maintenance items such as a grease gun he used to regularly lube the tractor, he even told me that he regularly checked the torque on all the bolts. Who does that? They are even giving me a 5 gallon fuel can.

I drove it around the parking lot and really liked the tractor. I ran it through all the gears, and worked the bucket. It all seemed to be in order. The shifter is a little sloppy, but of course I'm used to a Miata that has a shifter that is like a little toggle switch and don't really know how a tractor shifter is supposed to feel.

Anyway... Long story short I negotiated them down to $7100 and gave them a cash deposit until I could make arrangements with a buddy who has a larger truck and trailer to go pick it up. So she will be the new tractor at Camp Little Ridge. Mrs. Irish and I will have to give her a name. Maybe we'll have an Aldeer tractor naming contest.

That is a great little tractor. Now, on the loader....... don't abuse it trying to lift more that you should. Those tractors are frameless and the engine/transmission bear the weight and stress of everything that you do with the loader.

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