best 4wd lawn tractor image
Joe
Im looking to buy a garden tractor, i dont care what kind but i want something that i can attach a plow to the back to plow our garden. I was wondering how much a gardeb tractor goes for, what is the best kind and where i could look for one, thanks!
Answer
A plow needs some pretty good tractive effort. You will need some heft, a locking diff and/or 4wd. Some of the small utility reactors can do this, New Holland (Ford), Kubota, etc.
For a rototiller, you can go down to a lawn and garden tractor. Look at the mid range Cub Cadets (2500 series and Up) and similar. Ideal is a hydraulic tiller, most lawn and garden are driven by belt. Very few use a mechanical or hydraulic PTO like a big ag tractor would.
Lawn and garden for lots of tilling, plan on at least $3000. Small utility tractor, plan on $8000. Some people like the grey market tractors...I'm not a big fan but they are cheap.
There are some cute little plows made for small tractors, even walk behind tractors...pretty much worthless for anything more than digging a seed furrow.
A plow needs some pretty good tractive effort. You will need some heft, a locking diff and/or 4wd. Some of the small utility reactors can do this, New Holland (Ford), Kubota, etc.
For a rototiller, you can go down to a lawn and garden tractor. Look at the mid range Cub Cadets (2500 series and Up) and similar. Ideal is a hydraulic tiller, most lawn and garden are driven by belt. Very few use a mechanical or hydraulic PTO like a big ag tractor would.
Lawn and garden for lots of tilling, plan on at least $3000. Small utility tractor, plan on $8000. Some people like the grey market tractors...I'm not a big fan but they are cheap.
There are some cute little plows made for small tractors, even walk behind tractors...pretty much worthless for anything more than digging a seed furrow.
What can I do with this driveway?
Kat
A house we are looking to purchase from a friend has 1/4 mile gravel/dirt drive that curves and goes up a very steep hill that has been cut and cleared through a forest. (needs 4wd in anything more than 1" of snow or slush, and even then it can be tricky). Every time it rains, the rain creates trenches in the driveway path through the center or a ravines towards the bottom. The current owner uses a tractor every time it rains to flatten out the driveway and make it usable. The large, fist sized (sometimes larger) jagged rocks also cause flats quite often.
I was looking into concreting options, but they quote upwards of $30,000 to do a 8' wide, 1/4 mile stretch of concrete. I liked the idea of concrete, so that we could plow in the winter. However down here the snow typically stays on the ground less than 2 weeks, so it's not a huge deal.
What are our options really for this driveway to make it more usable and "do-able"?
Answer
Whatever you do it's gonna be hard, and a lot of work.
To keep the surface from shifting or forming huge ruts you'd have to dig up what's there down to 1 or 2 feet. Then you need to lay down a bed of coarse crushed stone under a bed of finer crushed stone. After that you can lay whatever surface you're looking for. Concrete is expensive, but not as expensive as asphalt (with all the oil product in it)... Tar and Chip is how they resurface roads around here, but that requires a hard road surface too.
Just do the crushed stone part first. Stone doesn't like to shift around too much when it's laid right, and it allows water to drain. It'll be the cheapest solution.
Here's what I'd do. See if you can hire someone with the right machines (a front end loader or whatever) to dig out whatever you have down. Then I'd rent or borrow a dump truck, some rakes, and a hand roller (like this http://therentalzone.net/roll.jpg) they even make rollers that can be pulled behind a lawn mower / truck. Get a few friends to help, buy one load of the coarse stone and haul it with the dump truck, spread it out to a 6"-10" layer and roll it 3-4 times. When you know how much one load can cover do some math to figure out how much more you'll need. After the coarse stone is down do the same with the fine crushed stone.
When you plow it try not to scrape the stone too much. If properly done it should last you several years. When there's a problem just buy some more crushed stone and level off the road.
Whatever you do it's gonna be hard, and a lot of work.
To keep the surface from shifting or forming huge ruts you'd have to dig up what's there down to 1 or 2 feet. Then you need to lay down a bed of coarse crushed stone under a bed of finer crushed stone. After that you can lay whatever surface you're looking for. Concrete is expensive, but not as expensive as asphalt (with all the oil product in it)... Tar and Chip is how they resurface roads around here, but that requires a hard road surface too.
Just do the crushed stone part first. Stone doesn't like to shift around too much when it's laid right, and it allows water to drain. It'll be the cheapest solution.
Here's what I'd do. See if you can hire someone with the right machines (a front end loader or whatever) to dig out whatever you have down. Then I'd rent or borrow a dump truck, some rakes, and a hand roller (like this http://therentalzone.net/roll.jpg) they even make rollers that can be pulled behind a lawn mower / truck. Get a few friends to help, buy one load of the coarse stone and haul it with the dump truck, spread it out to a 6"-10" layer and roll it 3-4 times. When you know how much one load can cover do some math to figure out how much more you'll need. After the coarse stone is down do the same with the fine crushed stone.
When you plow it try not to scrape the stone too much. If properly done it should last you several years. When there's a problem just buy some more crushed stone and level off the road.
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