Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best Compact Tractor for less than $20K?

Especially if you get a loader. Watch and ask about hydraulic fittings. Friend got a used Kabota and it came without the rear fittings for Hydraulic hoses. Seems the old owner kept them to put on his new one, as they don't come with them. This is all hear say, but look close. miles

The compact tractors, what they used to call utility, are all jammed tight together. Hard to work on because there is little room under the hood.
I'm not saying not to buy one, just that working on them is harder.

What did the little one with the hoe run you?

First tractor I ever learned to farm with was a model 60 JD. No power steering and the hand clutch made it hard to operate for a 7 year old.

I highly recommend 4x4 for any loader work. Once the bucket is full, you get no traction on a two wheel drive. (unless you hang some super heavy implement off the back, like a back hoe) I can get as much loader work done in a day with a Ford Boomer 34 horse 4x4 as I can the 72 horse in two wheel drive.

Look to your local dealers in Ford, or Massey Ferguson for a 35 to 40 HP 4x4 with a loader package. My buddy bought the Ford Boomer 34 hp at about ten years old for around 10K.

His is Hydro, and I hate it for anything except in and out loader work. I would much prefer a clutch and gears. I would also much rather pay the repair bills on the clutch and gears.

I'll get jumped all over for recommending the Jinma tractors. Northern Tools sells them.

I needed a tractor fast back in 2006, and there were none locally under $20,000.00 with 4wd and front loader. Northern had a 30 HP demo with 7 hours. I got it shipped with a good new front loader for $10,400.00. I've used the heck out of it since then and have had only a few small repairs. I replaced one tie rod end, a voltage regulator, and a shift lever I broke in an accident I won't detail here .

I run it on peanuts, too. The little 3 cyl diesel runs forever on a tank. It pulls well, has 5-high and 5-low speeds, decent hydraulics, adequate 3-point (not great) and a two-speed PTO.

These are very basic tractors and not modern in the sense of computer controlled anything. I like that, as I can do most repairs needed and service it myself.

Downside: The Chicoms make them.

I grew up using an old 8N Ford that we converted to twelve volt. That old tractor was a work horse and we used it for everything that we could.
I have a Branson(South Korea) 4X4 with 47HP. It has a front end loader that it has plenty of horsepower for anything that I need here.
You can get a Branson for the money you are looking for with a few implements to-boot. I guess this tractor has been a good value but there has been a few things that have broke that probably should not have. It does have a good warranty and they fixed everything so far.
I'd still start out with an old Ford. It'll be easier to assess what it doesn't do that you need done.

I have a Kioti Dk40se cab model 4X4 HST with front loader.It,s been flawless.I think you could buy Kioti 40hp shuttle shift with front loader for close to $20,000

Kubota for me I have a L SERIES AND a BX series good used ones are out there you just have to look for them I bought both of them with less than 200 hours on each one.

I prefer the l series it is 30 horse 4x4 with a front end loader and will do anything I ask it..

I think the Kubota has a better hydraulic system at least mine does compared to my cousins deere

Buy once..cry once.
Around here, you are going to pay for the word "compact". I have found you can get much more tractor for your money if you buy used and step up to something larger than what you really need H.P. wise.

The tractor (3320) with the front loader and the hoe and a 5' brush hog was around 35k.

Tractor 18k
Loader. 5k
Hoe. 9k
Cutter. 2k.

I'm not going to try and convince you to buy green but this thing is a brute. Weighing in at over 3 tons it easily moves 1 ton trees. The 485 hoe is very capable also and removes in just a minute.
You will get grief from other tractor owners though if you buy green. They will say you are paying for the name, or there tractor is blah blah blah. I may have paid a little more, but I feel like the 3x20 series of deere is second to none.......and I shopped the red and orange stores too.

Kubota is hard to beat. My brother has a 36 hp 4wd that about 16 years old that has been remarkably reliable.
I have a 95/40 with cab and air condition with loader and it has been trouble free.

Kioti is korean made. Also a good tractor from what I have heard.

I love the old 8N. I have been driving one since I was five years old while Dad supported us kids bucking bales for all the neighbors. I still use it with the terracing blade to clean irrigation ditches or for corrugating pastures.

But an 8N would be the last tractor I would recommend for loader work. Yes, the lack of live hydraulics can be overcome with a front mounted crank driven hydraulic pump.

It is just that the little Fords do not have enough weight to give them traction in any but the best of circumstances. Then you hang a loader off the front, with a bucket full of corral cleanings and the tractor becomes absolutely helpless.

I have new Firestone 12.4 x 28 tires on the back of mine and 6.50 x 16 tri ribs on the front. I insisted that the tire shop fill all four of them with Calcium Chloride. That does help some. The extra weight in the front tires is the only which keeps the front end on the ground when I lift the five foot 3 point John Deere disc out of the ground.

Well looks like it's going to probably be an LS, Kubota, or John Deere. That's the three compact tractors sold within 30 miles. I really like the idea of parts support that close.

I like Kubota for multiple reasons, and JD is overpriced IMO. I bought a Grand series L3240 which is on par with JD's 3xxx series. 2 years old with FEL for 17k with about 200 hours, it's been flawless for the last few years. Heavy, like 3600 pounds for just the tractor and don't be swayed by the 30 hp class in Kubota or JD that are too lite, weight and 4wd are your friend for getting traction to the ground. Also if you do loader work hydro is the only way to fly. Good luck, many good choices out there.

3 good ones and you are smart to buy the dealer.

Good choices but give this some thought. Horsepower is the cheapest thing you can buy. Buy as much as you can, then go up one more level.
One other thing. Please don't attempt to put in water lines with a backhoe. Go rent a Ditch Witch ride on trencher and you can be done within a day. Remember, after you've dug the trench, you're almost half way done. Whatever you take out of that trench has to go somewhere.
I just retired after 18 years in the underground construction business and you don't need to dig a 12" wide trench (the width of a small backhoe bucket) to put a 1-2" water line in.

I have a 60 HP Boomer.Glad I did not get a smaller rig.

Not putting in water line that's already done, I would get a trencher if I had to lay new line. Digging out hydrants, repairing water lines and such, maybe a foundation for an outbuilding, or around a stump would be the main uses. Besides backhoe's are handy any way you look at it.

Guys buy used tractors in TX and truck them out here to NV and CA to sell to CA transplants, now retired and on their Nevada "ranch"...10 acres of desert. They sell so high here that it is a lucrative enterprise.

A smaller $6,000 tractor in TX will sell for $12,000 here.