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anyone here have a John Deere 1025 with backhoe?


Trigger Mike

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If I had a small acreage, it would be a tough decision between one of those and the similar Kubota. My grandfather worked for one of the state parks in SD and they used Kubota almost exclusively. He was a farmer and a John Deere guy before that and he was impressed. Not any real help with your question, but I just wanted to throw in my .02. JD still makes quality equipment, I don't think you could go wrong.

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My problem is some soil washed into my pond and a back hoe is needed to scoop it out and I harvested some timber but want to remove stumps so I can plant crops but a back hoe attachment for my full size tractor is 10,000 and not easily attached or removed according to the dealer but a small 1025 tractor with loader and back hoe and mower underneath is 20000 but does more things like cut grass. right now I have several acres to cut and it takes over two days to do it all and i could put a child cutting grass on one and me the other. but can't decide is it better to buy just the back hoe or get the extra stuff with a second tractor.

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Likely wouldn't apply to a tractor of that size, but nowadays, every time I hear or read "John Deere" this comes to mind:

 

John Deere Restrictions

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I see your predicament. I just took a quick look, and that is a cheaper price than a similar Kubota. Those smaller tractors have a lot of great uses. By design, they usually have a perfect gear for everything a small acreage owner would need. the new JD mower attachment is awesome (if they still use the same one I saw). Just connect/disconnect a few attachment points and drive right on/off. You could use the deck mount, or get a PTO finish mower. If you have some open spaces, you could even offset a finish mower and mow 4-5 feet per pass. I'm sure you would save a ton of time. It is a big investment, but it's something you would have for a lifetime. Those smaller tractors hold their value very well too. More so than their older big brothers did. My dad got out of farming and sold our 4240 with a front end loader. My grandpa and him bought it new and when he sold it he only got about 15k for it from another farmer in the area which was 4k more than either of the 2 local implements were willing to pay.

 

Another plus is if you ever sell some land and no longer need the full size, you still have a good tractor. Or if you ever decide to sell it off, you'll still get a decent amount. If I were you and had the money, I would get the smaller one. I live on a rural 1.5 acre plot. I wish I would have bought a smaller tractor like this (probably would have gone with one of the smaller Kubotas as they have more size options than JD in the smaller line) instead of my garden tractor so that I would have something for snow removal. Now I'm looking at finding a used plow to put on my old truck instead.

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Consider this.

 

If all you have is to clean out one pond and remove some tree stumps, contact a local dirt contractor and see what he would do the entire jobs for, on his off peak hours. Firm price bid. A big machine can cost $150-200 per hour, but big machines can do a lot of work per hour too. It could get all your jobs done in just a few hours and you would be money ahead.

 

Now if you want to spend $$k for the pleasure of dinking around and something to do, then purchase.

 

As far as speeding up the mowing, get a bigger mower or mowing attachment.

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forgot to mention I also want to use it to plant Pecan trees. Every year I try to add 6 more pecan trees but don't have an auger so i either use a post hole digger (ugh) or last year since I planted 7 foot tall trees I used the loader on my tractor which worked fine but since it digs a 6 foot wide hole is like using buck shot at a cowboy match when number 8 will get the job done.

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Before buying the smaller tractor with backhoe attachment; have the dealer come out an demo it on your property or rent a similar sized unit for the weekend and try it out. Based on the information so far, you may find that a small unit is not up to the task of removing stumps.

 

Word to the wise about backhoe attachments for your large tractor. If the attachment does not include a separate PTO powered pump for the backhoe do not buy it. The hydraulics on your tractor are not designed to supply the volume of fluid needed to properly operate a backhoe. You will soon get frustrated and you run the risk of damaging your tractors hydraulic system.

 

Don't forget you will also have to remove and or break up most of the root system and it will extend out almost as far as the original canopy. Tree roots are a lot tougher than you think and are slow to rot.

 

One other thing to consider is that if the stumps are very big even a tractor mounted backhoe will not be up to the task. Around here and where I grew up they clear land with track hoes fitted with a grabber attachment to facilitate picking up debris that will not fit into the bucket. They also bring a dozer with a single or double ripper to break up roots as well as push dirt and debris around.

 

Talk to someone that has cleared land and then planted it. You may find that it is a bigger job than you anticipate. Last land that I farmed that was previously forest was pretty hard on tillage tools the first couple of years because they neglected to adequately remove/breakup of the vast network of roots.

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Sedalia Dave,

That was helpful. hadn't planned on the wide root system. i think the reason the dealer said the back hoe for the full size was hard to attach and detach was due to the extra hydraulics. i wonder if they will bring one out. i will ask.

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I did price getting the stumps cleared and it will cost 1,500 per acre and there are several acres.

You must have lots of trees per acre or the contractor is using too small a machine, or he is just greedy.

 

Anyway, that JD 1025 isn't a very big machine to do that scale of job and would literally take a person a life time. If a life time fits into your plans, then ok.

 

Perhaps a Caterpiller D5 track dozer would be better suited for the clearing and grubbing portion of your land.

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forgot to mention I also want to use it to plant Pecan trees. Every year I try to add 6 more pecan trees but don't have an auger so i either use a post hole digger (ugh) or last year since I planted 7 foot tall trees I used the loader on my tractor which worked fine but since it digs a 6 foot wide hole is like using buck shot at a cowboy match when number 8 will get the job done.

You already have the 6ft wide bucket. if it does the job without too much collateral damage, why buy something else/

 

If all I had was buck shot and it was legal to use at CAS (it isn't) then that is what I would use for the KD;s, instead of going out and purchasing #8shot.

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I guess I'm a contrarian. :-)

I would never buy a "small" tractor unless I had under 4 acres.

 

My take is to find one you like with all the attachments you think you need (bucket, hoe, box scraper, drill auger, brush hog, etc.), then buy the next size up. It's easy to overtax one and transportation repairs can be high.

 

Of course an expert operator can make a small tractor sing and dance, too! :-) :-)

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i checked several folks with bulldozers and they all tell me around 1500 per acre some without even looking at it. my loader on my tractor won't get dirt out of the pond back onto land so i need a back hoe of some kind . i don't know but think i will just use a shovel and do it that way until i get tired and then i will know what i need to do.

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pond is full even without much rain this year. the owner of a local gun store built it with his grand father back in 1955 using mules to haul out the trees. he built it below the swamp line so i put in a french drain last year and the grass didn't grow back soon enough to prevent washing and some sand washed into the pond on the edges. its a 3 foot drop from shore in some areas so the loader bucket on my tractor won't do the job safely and also would just push some further out into the pond.

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pond is full even without much rain this year. the owner of a local gun store built it with his grand father back in 1955 using mules to haul out the trees. he built it below the swamp line so i put in a french drain last year and the grass didn't grow back soon enough to prevent washing and some sand washed into the pond on the edges. its a 3 foot drop from shore in some areas so the loader bucket on my tractor won't do the job safely and also would just push some further out into the pond.

Sounds like a track hoe job because it can reach out further.

 

Something to consider. It would be wise to pump off any free standing water from pond before any excavation work.

 

Good luck

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The small tractor backhoe attachments aren't particularly powerful. Depending upon what kind of trees those stumps in the field are, the machine you're looking at might not work. Before you plunk down the gold, ask the dealer to bring it out to your field for a "field test".

 

You might look at a used mid-sized excavator with a thumb attachment. Most of these will easily yank even the largest stumps out of the ground, and they typically have 9-12 feet of reach, so you can dig out your pond.

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I have a small Kubota and a JD400 back hoe. The Kubota fits in the shop easily, it's great for work around the house; clearing snow, planting trees, repairing the driveway after winter, building shooting backstops, etc. The JD is a real machine, it'll dig in the frozen ground, dig up tree stumps, bury things that need to go away, etc. The JD stays outside year around. Trees are easily pushed over once one side of the root system has been dug out and the weigh of the tree is used for leverage, the tree top can break off and crash onto the roof of the machine, extreme caution must be used. It's much tougher to remove stumps than an entire tree, the leverage is gone once the tree is removed. Push the tree over, then cut the log off the root system and set the root system on fire, it'll gone in a day.

The problem with trying to push a stump over with a track machine is the fact that the machine is actually setting on the root system and your trying to lift the machine every time you push the stump forward. A track hoe is your best bet for removing the stumps since you have already cut the trees and the stumps are still intact. You can find a decent used larger backhoe for the same price of the JD1025. My dads friend lost his life when pushing over trees, be extremely careful. Watch out for bees that have nested under the stumps. Now send me some of those pecans for my advice.

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