22 HP garden tractor with all the goodies!

[Grandpa Shooter]

I mentioned in the phone thread about buying stuff on Craigslist, including the 22 HP garden tractor.

Avenger29 made the following comment.

You don't need an overgrown lawn mower, you need an actual tractor with a front end loader and a 3pt hitch...essential for rural property management. 20 acres screams for it. Any property you have to mow? Bushhog? Garden?

I didn't want this to get buried in the phone thread since it raises an interesting topic (to me at least).  I did not buy it for me.  I don't do yard work.  My allergies and lungs prohibit that.  LadyShooter loves being outdoors and loves gardening, mowing, riding her quad to level ground with a drag, etc.  I simply combined our need for something to smooth and level the area we intend to use for the dogs, the horse corral and arena, and our yard, with her liking doing that kind of work.  This way she can use it to prepare her garden, drag the corral, spread cinders in the parking area, etc.

When we get to developing the land and doing pastures, I will hire someone to come in with the right equipment for the job.  There is no way I am going to pay to have some $15,000 dollar imported tractor used twice a year and sit the rest.  Let someone else own it, maintain it, and store it.  That is American enterprise at work.  I'm happy to help support their enterprise.

[Boomhauer]

When we get to developing the land and doing pastures, I will hire someone to come in with the right equipment for the job.  There is no way I am going to pay to have some $15,000 dollar imported tractor used twice a year and sit the rest.

I highly doubt it'd be used only twice a year. More likely at least once a week. We fire up ours all the time, and it is simply the most valuable tool we own. From skidding logs out of the woods to moving large/heavy objects to preparing and maintaining a good size garden, to mowing and bushhogging, it is insanely useful. Maintaining stuff like gravel or dirt driveways is very easy, plus cutting new trails and roads to busting through the woods...

The tractors today are extremely easy to drive and use, with their hydrostatic transmissions. I could not imagine going back to mowing with a regular garden tractor...3pt hitch mounted finishing mower makes what used to be a 4+ hr chore with a "garden tractor" a quick and easy 1.5hr experience. Everybody in my family can easily use our 33hp JD, from my father to my mother to me (been using it since I was 10) to my sisters (they've been using it since they were 8 or so). Oh, and when you run over a yellowjacket or other wasp nest...the tractor gives you a prayer of maybe being able to put some distance between you and the nest before you bail.

Buy gently used (dealer demos), buy a good brand, and you'd have solid help for many years. It's no exaggeration to say that I've done more maintance work on one implement (the finishing mower, in fact, and it's a lot easier to deal with than a lawn mower) than I ever have on this tractor (change the fluids, grease it, and occasionally change the battery and go)

[charby]

If its an 22hp riding mower you are going to be dissapointed. If its a real garden tractor should do what you want it to do.

I mow 5 acres with a 30hp utility tractor. Its a little underpowered for a 5' brush hog, but it does okay when I need to blade out ruts with a 5' 3 pt blade.

[RoadKingLarry]

I just bought a 22 HP  4wd utility tractor.
Front end loader and a 50" tiller, box blade on order.
I've had it a month today. So far I've only racked up 14 hours on it.
It took me abut a half a day to begin wondering how I managed with out a front end loader.
After our record setting snow fall Monday I spent 2-1/2 hours clearing my driveway. It just wouldn't have gotten done with a snow shovel. and I likely wouldn't have made it to work that night.
So far I am very happy with it.

None of the small tractors are US made anymore. I bought a Kioti, made in S Korea.

[Grandpa Shooter]

We don't get that much snow at one time, I am retired and can wait for it to melt down, and the land is level with only 5 trees up near the home.  We don't need to hurry at anything so 22 hp works for me.  We enjoy the work we do on our place (other than fence building) so we don't hurry at it.  I like having work stretched out into the future as far as I can see.

When we were in Montana we looked at one place which my wife described as "almost perfect" aside from it sitting on a postage stamp next to the grain silos.  She looked at the realtor, a nice young woman and told we wouldn't buy it since it left me with nothing to do.  She was right.  I need and find projects.  They are meat of my existence, without them I doubt I would last very long.

[charby]

So is it a riding lawnmower or a garden tractor.

Riding lawnmowers have belt drives, garden tractors have a rear gearbox/real hydrostat.

[Grandpa Shooter]

So is it a riding lawnmower or a garden tractor.

Riding lawnmowers have belt drives, garden tractors have a rear gearbox/real hydrostat.

Yup!

[JonnyB]

For mowing grass, we have a 23HP lawn tractor. It has only a 50-inch mower deck mounted under it. It gets used a lot for 7 months or so.

For serious work, we have a JD 4600 (43hp diesel) utility tractor; hydrostatic drive with front-wheel assist. At the moment, there's a 7-foot, two-stage snow blower hanging off the 3-point hitch and a loader on the front. The heated cab is a bonus when moving snow!

For summer work, there's a 6-foot Woods mower for the back and a 6 1/2 foot disc. The front-end loader is the handiest of the group; it gets used a bunch.

We paid a bunch of money for the JD but it's a very handy addition to the 'farm'.

jb