I’ve been limping along with a lawn tractor but am going to have to upgrade to a compact tractor with FEL. Websites publish the footprint of the tractor without FEL. All I’m considering are roughly 60” wide and 100’ long. How much length will adding a FEL add to the overall length? I’m going to build a lean to off the barn to store it and total length with FEL is the piece of info I need.
You’ll also want some weight on the back with a FEL. Wheel weights won’t add length, but a weight box will. Wheel weights may not be easily removable?
We have a JD 2320 and the FEL adds two and a half to three feet to the front, depending on how you measure. The weight box adds perhaps two feet to the back end.
You may want extra room in your lean to to store tractor implements, attached or not. There are a lot of things to collect for a tractor, and it’s SO much nicer to leave the drag (or whatever) attached when you’re just going to be bringing it out the next day. Some PTO driven stuff does better stored under cover, too.
I would call a dealer to measure one but appears to be about 12 feet. I am just looking at photos of small units with loader on 16 ft flat bed trailers
Thanks, my back of the napkin was 12 feet. Hadn’t thought about weights as our prior NH with FEL didn’t have weights.
If you can, make the lean-to the full length of the barn, go for an 8ft width. As said, being able to store the attachments under cover keeps them nicer, OUT-OF-THE-WAY, for not needing to mow around them, park your truck etc. The extra width over just tractor width comes in handy for many uses, should not cost a lot more than your more narrow width plan. Not sure of your height, but higher roof allows better working space with bigger margins for error. Let’s you keep the rollbar up to drive in and out, less handling time using the tractor.
Attachments could include a mower, finish or brush hog type. A blade for moving snow, dirt, leveling paddocks. I have a chain drag, very handy and a small disc used for breaking up hard mud, dry dirt, making lines in my paddocks before seeding, fertilizing, so let land is more absorbent. Then I drag after spreading fertilizer, to smooth out hoof marks, which makes mowing lots smoother too!
They just kind of “accumulated” over time, but do make things a lot nicer here!
You will love your loader!! So many uses for it. And like most things, you get better with finessing things as you use it more. Those construction guys make it look so easy! Ha ha I do not do a lot of heavy lifting with mine, mostly the daily sawdust bedding. If I need weight behind for balance, I can put a mower on, just carry it for that job. Yeah, I am longer than a weight box would be, but we are pretty open here, so it works. My small Kubota has a loader limit of 800 pounds, will NOT pick up an ounce more, so the mower counter-balance works fine for my jobs. You can always go to low gear, just do things slower, for better load control with heavy or tight fit situations to keep better control.
My tractor also lives in our lean-to. I like keeping it “stalled” and under cover. I think I figured adding on 4ft for loader, in length. Things are not so tight fitting for the times it gers muddy or snow to slip on as I turn to drive in or out. Have to make wider turns with the loader on, as well as being longer than the old Ford 8N.
Our new JD 2032R is about 12 ft long including FEL, excluding backhoe/weightbox.
My subcompact New Holland is about 12’ with the FEL.
Thank you all. I am so excited. My over 40 year old back needs a FEL, even for 10 acres.
If you have liquid filled tires you might not need them. But if you don’t have the weight to balance the FEL and its load then you may not be able to use it’s full capacity.
G.
I have a John Deere 445, which is ancient and no longer made, but it is a 23 hp with a front end loader. It is right about 12’ with the weights on the rear and FEL attached.
