Garden Tractor

[majorssm]

Hello, I live in town on about a third of an acre. I’m looking for recommendations for a well built older garden tractor that I can use to move medium boulders around my property. Any recommendations? I’m quite mechanically inclined and do my own wrenching.

Thank you!

 

[Phil B.]

Define “medium boulders “ . 20 lbs or 200? Do you need this machine to lift them? Or just cart them one place to another.. 1/3 acre?
I’ve used a heavy duty hand truck for tasks like this in the past moving them 20 or 30 feet. some were over a hundered lbs.

 

[majorssm]

Thanks for the reply. Pulling Boulders up to 200 pounds on a rock sled over the property. Yeah only 1/3 acre in town, but lots of boulders on the property!

 

[TomIn]

Thanks for the reply. Pulling Boulders up to 200 pounds on a rock sled over the property. Yeah only 1/3 acre in town, but lots of boulders on the property!

That isn't too much weight for most any lawn or garden tractor.

I'm rather fond of the Gravely four wheel riding tractors, but I have also used Gravely two wheel walk behind tractors with a riding sulky for similar tasks. For best pulling you are looking for a fairly heavy tractor. Having a lot of the weight near the rear drive wheels helps traction.

To get some ideas, you might want to do a search on "garden tractor pulling" where folks compete in pulling weighted sleds with garden tractors. You seem to see a lot of John Deere, INTERNATIONAL Cub tractors, Wheel horse tractors, Simplicity tractors (Simplicity made a lot of garden tractors under a lot of other name tags) etc.

If you are just going to use the tractor for pulling and/or pushing, Gravely has a couple of advantages. The first is that the engines are mounted in the rear of the tractor. The second is that their PTO clutch is mounted inside the transmission. It will eventually wear out and is damned expensive to replace because of the cost of part and amount of labor required. This means that you can find a number of the tractors at very low cost because they are not very useful for mowing, tilling, etc, without a working PTO---but are otherwise in pretty good condition for other uses.

If you are not familiar with the Gravely tractors, the ad below is for one for sale near me. (the ad shows in includes a mower deck and suggests that the PTO clutch is still functional.

Gravely Mower

Runs and cuts good

www.facebook.com

Some member may have a tractor that fits your needs for free or cheap if you post your general location.

 

[majorssm]

Thank you TomIn! Great information. Much appreciated. I also have steep slopes to navigate. I’m near Eugene, OR and have been seeing some Bolens, JDs, Craftsmen, and Cubs around my area for around $300-500. I’m thinking older is better than newer in terms of build quality. I’ll look for Gravely’s as well.

 

[TomIn]

Thank you TomIn! Great information. Much appreciated. I also have steep slopes to navigate. I’m near Eugene, OR and have been seeing some Bolens, JDs, Craftsmen, and Cubs around my area for around $300-500. I’m thinking older is better than newer in terms of build quality. I’ll look for Gravely’s as well.

Gravely tractors (before Ariens purchased the company in the early 1990's) were made in the eastern US. I doubt that you will find many of these 30+ year old machines in your area. In recent years MTD (which has been owned by Stanley Black and Decker since 2021) has made Bolens, some JD, most Craftsman, and most Cubs as well as Troy Bilt, Yard Man, and White riding tractors. Most folks seem to feel that earlier tractors which were not made by MTD were more robust machines.

You can go to the tractordata.com website and find information on most lawn/garden tractors by model (such as when they were built, by what company, and the weight of the machine.)

Steep slopes may present a challenge when pulling a rock sled. The garden tractor pulling competitions are held on level ground, so information about them may be less relevant. It is safer to drive a tractor straight up or down the slope (as opposed to across it.) I don't know if you can follow this rule to move boulders from where they are now located to where you would like them to be located.

 

[Mule Meat]

Hard to beat a Gravely 16G or 16G Pro (has hydraulics). Or better yet a 20G. Either model with a Kohler engine fetches top dollar around here averaging in the $1500-$3500 range for one in great condition.

If thinking about one. Avoid the ones with an Onan engine. Parts are hard to find and are very expensive.

 

[Phil B.]

How about a ATV with a winch?

 

[Case/Chev]

I have two older John Deere 318 tractors. Made thru 1992. Get one after 1987 when engine was upgraded. They are solid, heavy steel workhorses. Lots of attachments available. Fairly easy to maintain and work on. Have fun

 

[majorssm]

Hard to beat a Gravely 16G or 16G Pro (has hydraulics). Or better yet a 20G. Either model with a Kohler engine fetches top dollar around here averaging in the $1500-$3500 range for one in great condition.

If thinking about one. Avoid the ones with an Onan engine. Parts are hard to find and are very expensive.

Thanks for the info!

 

[majorssm]

I have two older John Deere 318 tractors. Made thru 1992. Get one after 1987 when engine was upgraded. They are solid, heavy steel workhorses. Lots of attachments available. Fairly easy to maintain and work on. Have fun

Good to know. Thank you!

 

[majorssm]

How about a ATV with a winch?

Yes, I’ve been thinking that may be the way to go. With 4x4 too! However, the garden tractors have a much tighter turning radius and I think they are usually narrower than an ATV.

 

[TomIn]

Hello, I live in town on about a third of an acre. I’m looking for recommendations for a well built older garden tractor that I can use to move medium boulders around my property. Any recommendations? I’m quite mechanically inclined and do my own wrenching.

Thank you!

This thread gets more interesting as more information is added. Limestone weighs about 150 pounds per cubic foot and granite weighs about 175 pounds per cubic foot. This suggests you are not dealing with something the size of a washing machine and pulling a stone sled (often called a rock boat in this part of the country) shouldn't be much of a challenge over hard, smooth ground (like having a bunch of rocks in a parking lot.) Adding any substantial degree of slope complicates the issue. I envision a rock sled as something attached to the tractor with a chain. This shouldn't present any problems on level ground, but my rectum would pucker if a heavily loaded stone sled wash chasing me while I was trying to drive down a steep slope or if the stone sled was sliding downhill while I was trying to drive across the slope.

You express interest in having a narrow vehicle with a tight turning radius. Is there a particular reason for this?

Do you need to consider tire size and/or ground clearance? It's going to be darned difficult to drive a garden tractor with small diameter tires and low ground clearance over ground littered (before you get them moved) with boulders a foot in diameter. If the boulders you want to move are partially or fully buried, you may be trying to drive over some pretty rough ground after they are dug up and before the holes filled. Under these conditions the Gravely tractors' advantage of having the heavy engine in the rear is offset by the fact that the lower mounted engine reduces ground clearance. My Gravely 16G was great for pulling except when it was resting on it's frame on the ground with the tires in a rut or hole or sunk in mud or sand.

 

[CKain(MI)]

Hello, I live in town on about a third of an acre. I’m looking for recommendations for a well built older garden tractor that I can use to move medium boulders around my property. Any recommendations? I’m quite mechanically inclined and do my own wrenching.

Thank you!

Case 444 will do that.

 

[NDIHC]

The IH built Cub Cadets were about bullet proof. But then they're getting to be old machines these days. But since you are mechanically inclined that probably wouldn't be a problem. Easy to work on for the most part. I have about 8 of them and even the smallest one I have, a Cub Cadet 70, pulled my 1963 Olds Dynamic 88 coupe across the yard. That will pull a couple hundred pounds on a stone boat (an old car hood) as we called them.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Hello, I live in town on about a third of an acre. I’m looking for recommendations for a well built older garden tractor that I can use to move medium boulders around my property. Any recommendations? I’m quite mechanically inclined and do my own wrenching.

Thank you!

You might want to go to a DIY place and rent a dingo or small loader backhoe.
I love my John Deere garden tractor GT275 with bar tire. Lawn mowers have turf tires.
I like JD garden tractors because they have a HST that holds a gallon of fluid, has a drain plug and a fill plug.
The HST is built to last and pull things.

I would use my the little terramite in the background to do lifting and landscape work.

 

[Ande]

I love my 446's and 448s I have 10 of them on my farm, each doing a job. Here is a 448 with Cat 0 3pt. hydraulic drive fan cooled hydraulic system 18hp Onan pressure oil lubricated with filter. Yes its over 40 years old and bullet proof! Just a few I have. Take a look at J.I. Case

 

[Rkh]

My dad bought one of these Simplicity Landlord 2110 in 1968 and it still runs good. I bought a second one for just the garden. I can interchange among implements. Both tractors are 57 yrs old, I have 2 lawnmower decks, garden plow, snow plow, rotary tiller, and snowblower. Just wish it was 4 wheel drive.

 

[Roger in Iowa]

I love my 446's and 448s I have 10 of them on my farm, each doing a job. Here is a 448 with Cat 0 3pt. hydraulic drive fan cooled hydraulic system 18hp Onan pressure oil lubricated with filter. Yes its over 40 years old and bullet proof! Just a few I have. Take a look at J.I. Case
View attachment 96612

How do the Case tractors work going down hill since they are now hydrostatic?

 

[Ande]

How do the Case tractors work going down hill since they are now hydrostatic?

If the concern was a lot of hill side mowing, you could put on a M9 holding valve, I have them on a few of mine but, the mowing 446's do not, and never had a issue, but I can easily brake. It is a hydraulic drive. fan cooled hydraulic oil cooler, the biggest thing a hydraulic or hydro-static do, is produce heat. And that is why the hydraulic drive on the Case FOREVER. These tractors are 30 to 40 years old plus.