Choosing the right Tractor for your Small farm or Property

hey there folks this is josh stoney ridge farmer welcome back to another beautiful day here on the stoney ridge farm the sun is setting it has been hot miserably hot out here super glad for it to be cooling off here with the sunset so today we're going to do a little bit of ownership experience video on the tym t254 tractor we're also going to talk a little bit about comparing the two tractors this kind of machine a small sub-compact tractor about 25 horsepower versus like a 46 horsepower tractor like this massey ferguson which tractor suits your farm the best which tractor is going to be more capable for you what should you drop the coin on basically so should you spend 8 500 bucks and get one of these or should you spend 14 15 grand and get one of these which one's going to make you the happiest and which one's going to be the most handy around your property let's talk about it let's have a little bit of fun and we got to do an oil change [Music] times like this if you mess with my freedom i'll tell you just what you can kiss all right guys before we even get started we're going to be doing a service on this tractor and i'm not going to give you details on the entire service basically it's just a quick oil change so we'll drop the oil it's .92 quarts of oil we're gonna do a front axle oil change there are three drain plugs we'll drain that and we're gonna do a transaxle oil change and this is a hydrostatic tractor before we do any of that we're about out of fuel and what we're to do is we're going to put some diesel fuel system cleaner from techron in here guys this stuff keeps my diesel engines running strong big shout out to techron chevron for supporting rural content thanks a lot guys they sent me a bottle of techron and we're going to be putting it in every single diesel piece of equipment here on the farm i've been trying it out over the last few months and i have had no fuel issues whatsoever awesome thanks a lot techron this is the little t the tym t254 tractor it's got a little yanmar 25 horsepower diesel engine that's right yanmar quality guys super super quality machine yanmar used to be in the big green monster tractor so yeah this little tractor is a 25 horsepower the biggest question i got as a farm tractor will it lift to bale of hay yes it will lift a bale hey will it lift a round bale yes it will lift a round bale my round bales are somewhere between six and 800 pounds will it lift a soaking wet gigantic round bale over your head you probably don't want to do that you'll over stress this little tractor however i fed the cows all winter long using this machine and i unloaded off loaded trailers of round bales with this little machine so it's a great little machine it's a simple to operate machine not like the massey ferguson 240. the massey ferguson is a geared tractor in other words you've got different selector levers here you've just got basically i don't want to say idiot proof but rookie proof i would say it's totally rookie proof you get on here and you push one pedal like a lawnmower and it goes forward and you push the other pedal and it goes backwards and you got to break on the other side that's it it's just like a lawnmower really so if the machine will lift six to eight hundred pounds something like that now don't quote me you have to have it properly ballasted in other words you've got to have some weight in the back of this tractor i bought this tractor with the backhoe attachment i've got it taken off right now so that well i had the tiller on it before i tilled the garden with it so we'll run a five foot tiller i took the backhoe off so that i could easily service it and the backhoe's going back on because we're going to be starting our trenching for putting in our watering system here on the farm for the cows now the bucket is strong the lift is strong the engine is strong the four wheel drive works great this tractor has industrial type tires on it where the massey ferguson has agricultural type tires where this tractor will go that massey will not go where this tractor will lift and unload round bales and is much more handy around the yard and around the house that one is just a dedicated hop-on and mow type tractor now will this tractor run a six-foot rotary cutter the jury's out i have yet to put one behind it but i know it will run a five-foot rotary cutter so if you're managing anywhere from five to well anywhere from two to thirty five acres this is all the tractor that you'll ever need it is a great little machine and you can also get remotes for the front so that you can use a grapple that's the next step in in this little tractor is getting a set of remotes for it so let's take you around the tractor a little bit we are at about the 50 hour mark on this machine it's time for its first service and serviceability super super easy drop some plugs replace the oil filter and replace the oil that's it it's a great little tractor what's it lacking it's lacking because i ordered it with the backhoe attachment and the price point is somewhere between 15 to 17 000 bucks i don't sell tractor so i'm not here to sell you this i'm here to tell you what it's about what's it lacking it's lacking i don't i can't tell you what it's lacking it's not really lacking anything other than what i ordered it with i ordered it with the backhoe and when i ordered it with the backhoe it doesn't have as good of a suspension seat that as i would like so it's used for more digging more digging power than it is for mowing power so if i wanted to upgrade the seat and get a nice suspension seat that would be my only complaint so if you order this with the backhoe attachment just know your seat's going to be a little bit bouncy if you're going through a bouncy field it's not a deal breaker at all now let's go over and look at the massey ferguson we'll talk a little bit about the differences this again is a 25 horsepower hydrostatic tractor totally rookie proof push a pedal to go forward push a pedal to go back brake pedal to stop i mean it's just a perfect great little tractor let's go over here and look at the massey ferguson 240. price point on this and price point on that are two totally different birds and you'll be hard pressed to find a nicer massey ferguson 240 than what i'm about to show you all right guys this is our trusty but not so crusty massey ferguson 240 tractor and basically this tractor serves one purpose on the farm and one purpose only where the tym tractor serves many many purposes i till the garden with it i can use it to move stuff around i can fill up my garden beds with it with this all i can do is basically pull something around or mow with it okay i can run the tiller with it but it's a little bit too wide for a five foot tiller and it's not really powerful enough to run a six-foot tiller rotary tiller so this little tractor can get you by however when it comes down to it i think you're going to be happier with a subcompact tractor with a bucket on it so when you think about it if you're going to be out here and you've got someone that's fairly new at tractoring i say tractoring if you've got someone that's fairly new at homesteading at farming at mowing this thing can be absolutely overwhelming there are so many different levers there are so many different things that you have to think about so in other words when you turn this machine off the key off it doesn't turn off when you so you have to pull a kill switch on it to turn it off when you go drive forward you get a high a low and a start it has to be in a specific place to start it it has to be in a specific place in a transmission to start it so it needs to be in neutral you've got three gears in low three gears in high and a reverse now guys i'll tell you this thing is a lot harder to run than that tym tractor because it's just so simple to run the tym the tym does have a cruise control so you basically mash the pedal you lift up a little lever it's a manual cruise control it's not electronic this isn't an electronic machine however i think a person would be much more happy with a much more capable tractor even though we have less horsepower so we're around 46 42 to 46 horsepower depending on where you read i think some places rate these at like 52 horsepower this tractor weighs probably 2 000 pounds more than the 254. would i trust this over the 254 on a steep embankment i'd rather have the 254 i'd rather have the wheel drive tractor do i prefer the agricultural tires over the industrial type tires well you can order the 254 with agricultural tires but i kind of prefer the industrial type tires they don't tear up the yard quite as bad if you're out here working around in the garden and in the yard and that's what that little tractor is for it's not for managing a 50-acre farm or a hundred acre farm it's for managing anywhere from one acre i guess all the way up or even less than one acre all the way up to about 25 or 30 acres the same goes for this tractor right here you wouldn't want to be mowing 150 acres of pasture with a six foot brush hog and that is a tartar farm and ranch rc 205 it's an awesome little rotary cutter i've been enjoying getting out on this tractor and doing a little bit of mowing so the only downside to the 254 versus this tractor is the weight and the horsepower rating so you can't put a six foot cutter on a 25 horsepower machine and get into real tall grass or you're gonna get in trouble you are because it bogs this thing down right here so again when it comes to ease of use and functionality you guys have to make the choice as to what kind of tractor that you want but i'll tell you buying one of these or a similar tractor without a loader as a second machine so if you and your wife want to get out or you and your helper want to get out and mow together then that's a great second machine when it comes down to it the first machine you should look for should have a bucket i like the backhoe attachment also the fact that you can take it off use it as a regular tractor just like this and bolt it right back up in about five minutes and have a backhoe that's really really handy especially on a small piece of property or a piece of property about like this what we have out here in front of the house so this is what you see is probably around yeah 30 acres something like that and i could easily handle all that with that little tym tractor so i guess you guys share your opinions what do you think when it comes down to it would you be better off buying a smaller tractor with a loader or buying one of these or is that a best second tractor that's why i bought it it's a second tractor okay it's not a primary tractor this would be a primary tractor for maintaining things around the farm and around here now we do have 150 acres we've got the big t big tym tractor and it's got about a eight foot cutter on it and we've got a bat wing that we're getting ready to put behind it so this is my get around yard tractor if you had three acres to 25 acres this is awesome you can get a belly mower for this you could have a backhoe and a belly mower on that machine you can't get a belly mower on that that's just old school technology guys so i hope you enjoyed this little video a little bit of food for a thought as to whether you'd choose a tractor with a loader 25 horsepower over a 46 horsepower critter like that massey ferguson right there i like the massey as a second tractor but when it comes down to it when you're buying your first tractor you need to look for one with a loader it will be much more handy and save you a ton of work in the long run guys thanks a lot i got to pull this critter in here start draining oil and getting busy it's getting dark on me finally it's cooling off thanks a lot found the like button hope to see you back here on the stoney ridge farm again next time