Re: City Slicker Needs a Tractor
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Posted by Phil on November 13, 1998 at 19:58:12:
In Reply to: City Slicker Needs a Tractor posted by Harry on November 04, 1998 at 14:18:22:
: A husband and wife team are moving from San Francisco to farm country in Maine and are now responsible for mowing 6 acres and plowing over 150 feet of drive. : Looking for a tractor, mower, plow, and wagon. Do I need anything else. Any quality used equipment I should consider/avoid? HELP! I really liked reading all the advice you have been given. First, why I care. I know NH and coastal Maine up to Casco Bay very well. Your specific geography will dictate the machine. Remember most Mainiacs live near the coast. Wet snow and continual moisture will leave you cursing anything with a poor electrical system you can't jump start easily, so get something with a 12v system and good wiring. Since you will be wintering at +10F at night and +25-+40F most days, avoid diesel or be up on fuel additives. Also, you are moving to Yankee country. It will be years before you are accepted in the community, years longer if you push snow into places you shouldn't (roads, mailbox areas, etc.) You will probably only really have to plow your drive a handful of times a season, so let's assume you will just drive over/compact anything less than a 1 foot snowfall. So at minimum (150'X 16'X1') you have to dislocate 9000cubic feet of snow each plowing. To do this with good Yankee etiquette you need a front loader, to hill the snow up on your own property. Actually, if you would shovel the drive with a broad barn cleaning shovel coated with paraffin, you will rapidly win respect, if not acceptance. Barring that, figure on a tractor of 35-40 hp with chains, wheel weights, and a three point hitch with a 5-6 foot bush hog left on for weight, when plowing. Personally, I use a Ford 800, and I agree with those who say anything smaller is misplaced conservatism. Now for summer, 6 acres of most of Maine will really translate to about 4 acres of anemic grass and 2acres of ledge or glacial erratic boulders. Generally, you mow around the latter. This is easier with the bush hog type mower on a three point hydraulic hitch than it is with a sicle bar. This last bit of advice is probably moot. Since you are moving from San Francisco to Maine, you are probably yuppie stockbrokers who, at 35, have no further need of work . If this is the case, you could adopt that bit of advice from the nice man from Connecticut who suggested you simply put a plow on your 4 weel drive SUV or luxo-pickup. (He probably hunts deer from his pick-up too, which, in Maine, is frowned upon.) If however, you will engage in remunerative actions beyond annuity coupon-clipping, remember you will be doing most of your winter plowing at night after a long drive from work. The open tractor is devoid of glare and you can see the ground much better than from a truck cab. Ayut, Vacationland "sounds mighty great" as the Bill Morrisey song says. But once there, remember, "You can't get there from here!"
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