Looking for advice on the purchase of a compact diesel Tractor

[begreen]

Likewise, as much as I tried to justify owning a tractor, bottom line showed that for my projects, renting was better. Eventually I worked out a deal with a neighbor for rental of his Kubota.

However, if you get a good tractor and keep it well maintained it may hold it's value. Inflation and dollar devaluation raised the price of a new Kubota and brought up the used market in price locally. Some used units are selling for about what they cost 5-10 yrs earlier. So treat it well and consider it an investment. That is assuming that one can find affordable diesel fuel 20-30 years from now.

 

[Highbeam]

Of course a tractor can pay for itself. We're not talking about a business of course but it can pay for itself in savings over hiring out each of the odd jobs. There are millions of little jobs that you would do with a tractor quickly but wouldn't necessarily hire out. First off you need to consider resale/depreciation on tractors as BeGreen pointed out means that the tractor can always be sold for nearly what you paid. This means that you only need to complete a meager amount of work with the tractor for it to earn its keep. Then you need to consider the value of your time since really anything that can be done with a tractor can be done with manual labor if you have infinite time and your body is not old, the tractor makes long hard manual labor disappear into a puff od diesel smoke. Fuel cost is minimal, almost non-existent, these small diesels just sip fuel and since you can buy off-road tax free fuel it is cheap. You can and should hire out large jobs like removing stumps but when the big equipment leaves, you need to restore the ground to natural slopes and smoothness and that is expensive work.

Every time I pull out the tractor to haul in the next couple of weeks worth of wood I am saving time (time is money) over doing it with a wheelbarrow. Each time I don't use the machine I lose no money since it is almost free to let it set what with the minimal depreciation being based almost entirely on machine hours.

Most of the hours I put on my machine are mowing the open 7 acres at my woodlot and with harvesting more wood to clear more of the lot. You (when I checked) need commercial insurance to rent out your woodlot for cattle which cost more than the tractor time, and raising animals is not something most folks would get into for the sake of avoiding mowing. But you would need to install fencing so why not use your tractor to dig the post holes and ferry the posts? You can rent the implements as needed to satisfy your desire to not own, renting implements makes good sense for some jobs.

On top of all that having a tractor is great fun and recreation. It can be work but it is good work compared to the alternative. My productivity has gone up immensely with my diesel powered wheelbarrow.