I paid for 1/2 my grapple with 1 job. Save money by doing projects yourself.

Owning a tractor can save you money on property maintenance. You can use it for tasks like cleaning up after tree removal, landscaping projects, and trail maintenance. Messick's can help you find the right tractor and attachments for your needs.

[barrydarnell]

Measuring a tree height is easy if you know how. Take a pencil or other type of stick and back away from the tree and hold the stick vertical until the stick is longer than the tree. Align the top of the stick with the top of the tree and place your finger on the stick at the base of the tree. Now tilt the stick to a horizontal position, bottom still aligned, choose a marker or have someone mark the top then you can walk the tree height if you know your stride or measure it. It’s very helpful when you are dropping a tree and want to know what it could hit.

[alstruck]

I love "working" on projects for my home and neighbors, have a B26TLB and that thing is a beast cleaning up downed trees, removing stumps. Just a nice way to clear my mind on the weekend.😊 Oh and it saves quit a lot of time as well.

[CFAinNoVA]

Nice property and woods. Cleared underbrush but not overly cleared. That takes work. Agree 100% on do-it-yourself paying for implements.

[shawnphinney]

Neil, right on point. Talking with your salesperson about what you want to accomplish or complete faster/ easier is what a trusted advisor does. If your salesperson only wants your money without real conversations relative use & applications, Go find another one that does.

[wildbillc]

A few months before I bought my Kubota BX2680, I had a few chores I needed to get done, and thought well, I'd go down and rent a tractor/loader and roto-tiller....they wanted $485 for a 4 hour rental....plus they wanted another $140 to rent their trailer....WTH....I came home, did the chores myself by hand, and with an old walk behind roto-tiller....would have been so much faster if I had a tractor, sure, but I didn't have $700 to throw away to pay someone else's machinery rental. What they wanted for 4 hours of use, minus 40 minutes of drive am making 2 tractor payments for that $700...and....I can use my tractor whenever I want, not when a rental yard has it in stock, which is very seldom its always rented out it seems....so. I went and bought my tractor, loader, roto-tiller, box blade, grading blade, mid mount mower, sub-soiler that I turned into a ditcher, along with a quick hitch and a ballast box. One of the more useful things I bought were pallet forks, I knew I wanted them, but I didn't realize at the time just how much I would use them around my small property.

A grapple would be great, as would a flail mower and a wood chipper...can't afford them right now, but definitely on the future purchase plan.

I'd rather make a payment on something I'll own rather than make a payment on someone else's borrowed equipment, especially at the prices they want, plus the drive time, which is now an hour and a half one way as the local rental yard no longer rents tractors, and implements.

I haven't put many hours on the tractor since I bought it in July of 2021....which today is about 3 years of having it on the property and I've only put 113 hours on it....but I look at that 113 hours and think of all the hours it has saved me overall doing everything by hand. My grandfather never had a tractor on the property, even when it was 2 acres...its only an acre now, and I'm by myself as my grandparents have passed away and so has my mom....so its just me and the property, and I work full time, so a lot doesn't get done, and what does get done is helped by owning the tractor and implements....when I told my grandfather I was buying a tractor, he never really said much, I told him that my reasoning was, he wasn't able to get out and do stuff like he used to and would have liked to....I mean up until 2023 he was outside all the time tinkering in the shop, doing yard chores, etc...and that was at 93 years old. He never used a walker or a cane, or a wheel chair until the last 3 months he was alive....he passed away in January 2024 at 94 years old....today (July 29th, would have been his 95th birthday). I knew there was no way I could keep up with much without a tractor, I had the money to do it, and I went and bought it, and never mentioned anything to the family until after I bought it and it was several months later....

My aunt says why the hell did you buy a tractor just rent one, I said do you have $700 lying around every week or every few days when I need a tractor for around the property, she says well no....I said exactly why I bought one....I pay half that every month for a tractor and implements I can use whenever I want, not when a rental yard has it so I can go pay their bills for them to borrow one.

Once you have the tractor, you can get implements along the way as you see the need...you can borrow implements, rent implements, etc. The tractor is the biggest part of the purchase, once you have that its the biggest part of the battle.

I mow a lady's pasture a few times a year, but other than that I don't use my tractor for anything other than my own use on my property.

[RobertBrothersJr-dcnr]

I agree with you 100% Neil. I absolutely love my MX5400. I couldn’t live without it. I have done too many jobs to even count. I couldn’t imagine hiring them out. I throughly enjoy doing them. Great video. Thanks

[scottfrazier]

You are 100% correct. I have 3 acres and could not do it without my B2601. I mow with it plus everything else. I probably take the loader and mmm off 2-3 times a week just doing different projects with different attachments around the house. Money well spent!

[johndeere]

I start my tractor, get it out of the shed, drive to my mailbox then put it back in the shed.

[tangoseal]

I love my L4060 - Thank the Lord Christ for the blessing. It is a force multiplier for sure! I hope to get a KX057 soon to get massive dirt work done with - god willing.

[johnhershey]

Wow! Different song in the back ground.

[Kcolby]

Well done Neil. You are right on with your observations. I actualy think of my tractor (and attachments) as a “friend and helper.” I take care of it, and it takes care of me. (Dont’ tell my wife😉)

[thebradleysoncatbirdhill]

Excellent points, Neill!!!! I continue to be amazed how I managed this property without my L2501 for years. I'm also finding that I'm using it for other things, such as lifting heavy pieces of furniture or appliances that I am bringing into the house or taking out.

[mrpips]

I do similar to you. I had about 50 trees taken down, the tree service would drop the tree and grind the brush but leave the trunks and big branches. I bought a sawmill to mill up the wood. I'm not sure I "saved" any money as I have over 100K in equipment and could probably have all the work done for that, but at the end I'll still have an asset that I can sell and recoup part of the cost.

[roberthale]

First thing I bought for my 5.5 acres was a 30hp Cub Cadet and a brush hog. Then came the new L2501DT with a boxblade and loader. Then the tiller. Then the TP46 planter. Then the all purpose plow. Then the toolbar.

[earlyriser]

Just passed 200 hours on my MX6000. Not a subcompact but I use it all the time to do tasks that would cost $$$ to hire out.

[jeromebecigneul]

i noticed all the implements that you mentioned and the ones parked in your woods. Flail, grapple, backhoe, seed broadcaster, seed drill, box blade, land leveler, boom sprayer and who knows what else you have. So Neil, it's easy to say you paid for half the cost of your implements used in that project is easy for you. You don't pay retail for any tractor implements. Most of us could not purchase a different implement for different projects. It would be nice if they weren't so darn expensive but they are. Oh well, I'm not complaining that you have them. I wish you well. Just kind of explaining why most of us can't. I'd love to have a flail mower. Maybe some day.

[evracer]

Pallet forks work almost as good as a grapple for a quarter of the cost and are useful for a lot more projects

[theoriginalbubba]

My neighbor likes to poke fun at me, saying "oh, I see you dropped your hat, lemme go get my tractor."
He also constantly thanks me for all the digging, mowing, and carrying stuff I have done for him with the tractor.
I'll never be without one again. i warn y'all though, its like having a pickup truck. if you own one someone you know is gonna have to move furniture...

[samengler]

Hi Neal. I had my septic field fail. It was $30k to have it done. I did it my self with my B2650 with a back hoe. In four days it cost me $2800 for the drain tile and stone. It paid for my tractor in just that one job.

[SlackerU]

That's what happen to me. Every contractor had a lifted truck on rims & not every job requires me to pay for any of that if I would just buy my own tractor.