First post here after lots of searching. I currently have a 1999 JD 4200 and am trying to selectively thin and harvest trees on my land to mill for a cabin and outbuildings. I also have 1.5 miles of hilly gravel road to maintain and clear snow from. At first I was looking for a bigger tractor and liked the kubota 4240 but the sales guy put me in a Bobcat T300 and in my hilly terrain I can see how with a grapple for moving logs to the mill or trailer that would be a great machine. So if that is good advice there are several used machines I am looking at. A 2013 kubota svl75 with 1600 hours, a 2005 NH lt185b with 430 hours, a 2011 NH C190 with 1200 hours, and a 2003 Bobcat t300 with 1900 hours. All run well with no immediately obvious problems. There is also the option of JD 319e 2015 with 900 hours at around 40k (a little above budget for now), the others are all around 30k. I'm looking used since, well, with kids in college there just isn't enough left to buy new right now.
Having never owned a track steer I am looking for any and all advice you can give me. Is a CTL a good machine for the use I have described? What machine will be best in the woods for tree work in hilly terrain? And for gravel road maintenance and the occasional Virginia snow storm (had almost 3 feet of wet heavy snow 2 years ago!!) Would I be better off just buying a small utility tractor of 40-50hp like I started off doing?
I am looking at only models with cabs as it gets real hot in the summer here and plowing snow at 4am to go to work was a real pain on my little 4200 wearing goggles and storm suit.
Also of note, my nearby JD dealer and service are excellent (James River Eqpt in Fishersville, VA), local Kubota is good. NH is a bit further away but good. I also have a connection at the local Cat center but haven't even looked there as they seem to be a lot more expensive, but am planning to call them just to check options there too.
Having never owned a track steer I am looking for any and all advice you can give me. Is a CTL a good machine for the use I have described? What machine will be best in the woods for tree work in hilly terrain? And for gravel road maintenance and the occasional Virginia snow storm (had almost 3 feet of wet heavy snow 2 years ago!!) Would I be better off just buying a small utility tractor of 40-50hp like I started off doing?
I am looking at only models with cabs as it gets real hot in the summer here and plowing snow at 4am to go to work was a real pain on my little 4200 wearing goggles and storm suit.
Also of note, my nearby JD dealer and service are excellent (James River Eqpt in Fishersville, VA), local Kubota is good. NH is a bit further away but good. I also have a connection at the local Cat center but haven't even looked there as they seem to be a lot more expensive, but am planning to call them just to check options there too.
