Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire LS Tractors Pro/Con

Looking to find a CUT myself, perhaps not as high HP. Then again told I would want higher HP. The dealer is the key. Besides LS there is Kioti, Branson (all Korean) and then Yanmar and Mahindra. Looking at the local dealers in my area, Kioti, and Kubots seem the best. Bobcat is a rebranded Kioti. NH and JD use several different manufactures depends on the exact model. YEP money.. $25+K for a 25 to 30HP with basic implements, FEL, Brush Hog, Box Blade. Goes up from there. I have not seen very many used tractors for sale that would outweigh having a warranty. Going to be using mine in the woods, so perhaps no Cab for myself.

And its more shidt to break.

Can't see or hear everything,

And it's like 5k off the price

If I were dragging a plow or seed drill for miles at a time it'd be a different story.

No mahindra dealers close enough to count.

I'm not paying for the paint on a Deere or Kubota.

That leaves Kioti, LS, Massey, or New Holland.

Unless something changes I'm still looking at LS.

Father in law is a farmer, been doing it his whole life and he's pretty godsdamned handy fixing tractors and equipment. Told my wife last night, I never in a million years thought I'd wish her folks lived closer lol. I could get away with a cheaper older, and larger tractor if he were around to help keep it running.

On the balance, I'll pay for the warrantee and get a smaller tractor.

You bursted my bubble since your post may 5th with you in a cab tractor.Enjoyed the video by the way.LOL...I have a Kioti 45 hp cab tractor and love the chit out of it.Keeps the old bones nice and warm in winter and the air is nice in the summer.No bugs or dust is a plus.

Smaller tractor=always bad

Do not buy a smaller tractor than you need, By a brand that will be there for awhile. Finance your note longer than you like if you have to. Buy once, Cry once

Do not leave the tractor dealer without a frontend loader, a phrase my Dad said over 40 years ago. I still made that mistake and ended up having to buy another tractor because of the expense of trying to add a loader latter.

LOL!

I think he was pulling your lag...

I reckon like me, about every tractor Sam operates has a cab.

By a size or two larger than you think you’ll need. FEL are a necessity as is FWD if you have any weather or intend to move anything heavy. Dealer counts more than color. I have cabbed and open. There is a place for both... With my winters, a cab is golden....but it’s too big to get into my woods plots. Final thought is weight: For heavy work, extra mass is your friend....and can be more important than a few xtra hp (exact opposite of sports car hp/weight ratio thinking).

Buying something because of the warranty should make one question the purchase.

Having a tractor company willing to stand behind their product for an extended time is not a bad thing.

I've had both. And had much more trouble with the tractor that had a short factory warranty.

You can still parts for a nearly 100 year old tractor from John Deere, most others haven't been making tractors for for half that long. Have you actually priced a John Deere? The compact and utility tractor market is very competitive, may not be as much difference as you thing. I've had several Deere's and will probably stay with them for support as much as anything, they've been good tractors. I had a David Brown many years ago. Built like a tank, but got to the point I had to make anything I needed for it, I mean anything. It was what I could afford at the time. Good luck with your tractor search, but look at everything before you buy, remember what "they" say about assume. Never had a tractor with a cab, but always wished I did about every three or four years when we get enough snow to plow and push in January around here in KY. Worst sunburn I ever got in my life was pushing snow all day in January. I looked like a boiled lobster for a week.

Gotta agree with the weight issue. We have a little Massey 1705 at the property. Beat the crap out of it for the last 7 years and only had 1 mechanical issue. At 1500lbs it's lacking at times.

At times I will put the tiller on the back to help counterweight. Like when I put the forks on to move a blind, etc.

Definitely could use more a$$

Farmer neighbor at hunting cabin area, now has a mid size LS w/loader. Guessing it's probably 50-60 HP? He uses it more than any of their "big stuff", because it's handy.and has a cab. So that's what he uses to move round bales, clean out the snow, etc. Matter of fact, almost every farmer around there now has some sort of mid size utility tractor.

Joked with one who has a dairy operation and also a pretty good sized beef herd, how it feels to get off one of his FWD Case/IH turbo diesels and on the utility? He said there's a tractor for every chore.

Run a Kubota track loader SVL 75, that has the regen cycle. Can be a pain now and then if you're in a hurry to do something and it needs to regen, but not all that bad? Think next size up requires DEF? Use the 14 yo Kubota L3130 HST most of the time. About to turn 2,000 hours and has been a good machine.

You can't hear anything on most tractors anyway, I'm always doubled up with earplugs and muffs on mine. If you're not wearing hearing protection it means you're already deaf from running one too long without any so you can't hear anyway. As for the not seeing anything from a cab, that's different than my experience. If anything you can see better because you're not always worried about getting hit in the face with limbs.

My tractor is a 72 hp massey without a cab. I occasionally run friends tractors with cabs. Is the cab nicer? Oh yeah, in every way. I've got an extra $5000 in my pocket that they don't because mine doesn't have a cab, that was a big deal when I bought mine 13 years ago. Today with a little bit better income you can bet anything I bought would have a cab. Bottom line, the only reason not to have one is to be cheap, the other reasons are BS to justify being cheap. Cheap isn't necessarily bad, I'm pretty cheap myself. My dad was cheap, in 1977 when we moved to Mississippi I remember he specifically ordered a car without air conditioning because every car on the lot had it and he didn't want to pay for it. There's a reason all the cars sold in Mississippi had air conditioning. My mom and I were high fiving each other when he totaled that car a couple of years later. The moral of the story is that any appreciable amount of time spent on a tractor is much more pleasant with a cab.

Deere green paint is definitely expensive, I'll disagree about Kubota orange. Kubota's around me aren't any more than the lesser known brands, they're well built tractors plus there's a dealer in every town. Kubota outsells everything else about 10-1 in my area.

A cab may cost more, obviously.

But it's not like you are throwing money away on a cab. That cab increases the value by that much if you ever sell or trade the tractor.

Kinda like four wheel drive on a pickup. You never really pay for four wheel drive because you get all or most of the money back. Plus you have the handiness of the option.

Not an option for me to not have a cab. Aside from dust and plant particles trying to kill me, several times a year I encounter swarms of bees or yellowjackets. I just laugh at them as they pound on the glass.

I use a tractor for my fairly small - 10 acre - woods property. Found out a to of the small/midsize brands come from North Korea. Had ome with a Kubota diesel from a local dealer that did well, lost it to a hurricane flood. Found a used Century a local vet was selling for my replacement. Has Yammar diesel, front end loader, pulls my mower real well. Always starts, fills my uses, - I'm happy with it.

Mike Holmes

I have an LS 45 HP tractor. I've had it for 4 years, no issues. The regen is a non-issue. You can continue to work when it's regenerating and only regens about every 30-50 hours depending on how hard you run it. If you run the tractor at idle a lot, it will regen more often. I have a cab on mine and it's well worth the extra coin if you are blowing snow or running over yellow jacket nests. The dealer network is little thinner/less robust than some of the bigger sellers. My dealer has been responsive when I needed something but the LS dealers tend be be smaller operations with a couple employees.

I'd sweat resale value more than anything else.

Why? You buying to resale?