Accessorized Garden Tractor or a Sub compact?

[Vern_in_IL]

I got a one acre hilly wooded yard. I also would like to grade/blade my rock driveway.

So I can get an sub compact tractor for 3.5x the price with a bellow mower and box blade/front loader.

Or I can get something like a John Deere X500 (something with a K66 or K72 transaxle, rated for ground engaging equipment.)
A Johhny bucket Jr. a sleeve hitch and a plow/boxblade/disk/scraper thumb.

The subcompact tractor will be heavier so there will be some compaction of my yard, but it is built for real work. I'm not sure which way to go, I mow my yard once a week and probably need to blade my drive once a month. If I go with a "garden tractor" it will be light duty earth moving, I'm looking at something new. THANKS.

 

[Rand]

x500 or x700 series is real tractor.
x300 is lawn mower.
See what is available lightly used locally?
we use a deere 850 and its nice for open field mowing and pulling trees off of cabins...
less nice for everything else but that is compact.

I've seen a couple deere 1025r type tractors around 13-16k. 5 years old.

 

[samven]

If you had said you grade the drive once a year and did some light dirt moving I would have said the 500 would be fine but if you are going to use a box blade monthly and front end loader I would go with at least the 700 and get the wheel weights. I suspect though you are going to want a full CAT 1 3 point hitch and a quick hitch after you move that box blade around a few times so you may as well buy once and get a compact. Stop buy Tractor Supply one day and try and move a decent 4' box blade around like you were going to hook it up.

 

[Warlord]

I’d go with the subcompact. It’ll be useful for all sorts of things down the line.

 

[jeepman3071]

I've used all of the categories of garden tractor, subcompact, and compact tractors.

I agree with the above post recommending a Deere X700 series at minimum or a subcompact. The extra weight of the larger machine gives you much more capability. I had a garden tractor with a loader, and now own a Kubota 26hp tractor with a loader, and the Kubota tractor is better in every way. The larger tractor allows you to handle larger implements and have more lifting power from the loader. They also hold their value much better.

I'd check pricing at your local dealers, because in some cases you can get a better deal on a subcompact than you can an X700 series. My neighbor was looking at the same machines, and he ended up with a subcompact, since an X700 4x4 with the attachments he wanted was very close in price.

 

[bobdoo]

I used this Honda RT5000 to final-grade my yard, and move very many boulders, including this 4' x 2.5' 1,000 lb+ monster. I used it twice a year to till my 30' x 70' garden's nasty, sticky, wet clay soil, plow snow, and cut the grass. As you can see from the pic, I abused it quite hard. I even build a bucket out of plywood, 1/2 cubic yard, and moved three 40-yard dump truck loads of soil with it. I don't know if sub-compacts can handle that level of use. This thing has a 8" x 8" backbone that runs under the noisy bits. Four wheel drive, hydraulic lifts and PTO front and rear.

This tractor is far-and-away my best ever purchase.

I went to a JD x380 after 25 years of hard service. The RT now rests in the back of my garage, waiting for a chance to till, plow, or push something fun.

 

[dlundblad]

I’d look into the 1023 series. You could add a loader too if needed.