Interesting factoid: while those low-slung zero-turn-radius lawnmowers seem like they ought to be better on slopes than lawn tractors would, the official, published limitation for lawn-mowing equipment in general seems to be 15°. I still think we'll go for a ZTR... though a subcompact tractor with a belly mower might actually make sense. Maximum slope at the grounds of the Future Lair seems to be right around 15°, with the front lawn looking 6°ish.
I spent a lot of yesterday watching tractor vids. The Great Sidetracking came when I was looking for reviews of Branson tractors (made in Korea). This led to the discovery that Branson is now part of TYM, which makes (among other things) Rural King's store-brand tractors. Hmmm. This led to watching a bunch of RK-tractor-related vids.
Based on what I've seen so far, in the 37 HP compact class, the RK offering looks like a much better value proposition than a comparable new Kubota (and certainly better than a new Deere). How it'll hold up in the long run, and eventual trade-in value, are other questions entirely, but people who have had the RK machines for a year or so seem to like them.
Also, it seems that 24 HP subcompacts can do serious work, so now I'm back to dithering over compact-vs.-subcompact. This will at least partly depend on what's on the used market in the area when it's time to go shopping, and also on some contemplation of how wide the tractor is and where it needs to go.
Another very useful piece of information I picked up yesterday: driving a tractor with a manual gearbox isn't at all like driving a car with a manual gearbox. None of this start out in first, get up some speed, clutch, shift to second, and so on - let alone the fun of double-clutching an unsynchronized transmission. Nope, in a tractor ya push in the clutch, stop the machine, select the range and gear ya want, let out the clutch, and go. (Helps that top speed is maybe less'n you'd get in first gear in a car.) So, I' more confident about learning how to operate such a thing, and new/hydrostatic vs. new/synchro-shuttle vs. old/regular gears isn't looking like such a big consideration... though for loader work the modern options are more appealing.
Oh, well. Not buying tractor nor lawnmower until probably August. And now I'm dithering over that backhoe option, too. I don't expect to have much use for a little backhoe, but not much isn't the same as none.
Update: Yeah, I'm thinking of uses for a small backhoe. Probably not that often. So, buy a little one as an option with the tractor, or occasionally rent one that comes with a competent operator? More to ponder.
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