NGC New Compact Utility Tractor Day!

[Rough Edge racing]

If the photo comes through, that's my Deere 1 series tractor. After a couple years of auctions and Craigs List I figured out that beat out three decades old tractors sell for darn near as much as new ones, so I bought this new for $15000 including mower and loader. The small Deeres are assembled by union workers in Georgia, the engine and transmission are supplied by Yanmar which has an excellent rep. Despite it's small size it's quite the workhorse, I've plowed city streets with it and the mower is actually a bit too big for my almost an acre lot.

   I don't get to excited about lawn tractors.. But last year I sold  the Kubota 7100 with a woods finishing mower.The Kubota has a front end loader that wasn't much good because the tractor is too lightweight.. It was awkward to mow  this property with trees and hills. But the Diesel used far less fuel than a gas engine...After some searching I found a 1985 John Deere 430 20 HP Diesel lawn tractor..I believe it the largest true lawn tractor.. I paid $4000 for it...The thing has a 6 foot deck and weighs about 1200 pounds and shows it durabilty, and half the fuel consumption of a gas mower...Too lazy to take a photo so I stole one..
       
 

[GearheadGrrrl]

Hard to call the 430 a lawn tractor, it was available with a 3 point hitch and rear PTO which are the basic essentials of a tractor, no matter how small.

[Rough Edge racing]

Hard to call the 430 a lawn tractor, it was available with a 3 point hitch and rear PTO which are the basic essentials of a tractor, no matter how small.

 Well, it does have the typical lawn tractor body work....And JD calls it a lawn and garden tractor in the operator's manual    ...Mine has the front and rear PTO's, live hydraulics front and rear, but no three point...The mower deck certainly looks agricultural and weighs about 350 pounds with a hydraulic lift...My wife does most of the mowing and loves the old turd..

[GearheadGrrrl]

The 400 series Deere and it's current equivalent is sort of the crossover between riding mowers and real tractors. For example, the current 700 series base model is powered by a water cooled Kawasaki gas engine, making it sort of a premium riding mower. Or you can buy it with the Kubota diesel, a proper 3 point hitch and rear PTO, and front mounted plows or snowblowers. The 700 series better manuverability would make it better for mowing my wooded and hilly acre, but the 1 series offers a loader and the price was about the same with Diesel engines, so I went with the 1 series.

[radguzzi]

Living here in the North East tractors have always been a necessity... I do not do any farming or anything however, the machines have their place even here as Joe small landowner.

Our most recent JD addition, a 2025 that we use mostly for hauling fire wood although she does see other duties, some gravel work, rock raking the gravel hill of a driveway after torrential rains wash it away...  We even have her help out while maple sugaring. 

We do use it to move snowbanks, plowing with a smaller JD tractor and four wheeler and every second or third storm, moving the banks with the JD.

I actually need to build another barn for just the tractors and maybe some motorcycle overflow from the main garage and the toy garage.  The struggle is real. lol

Labor saving rigs for sure or as a friend of mine says "The right job for the tool" 

Cheers,
Rob

[80CX100]

Hard to call the 430 a lawn tractor, it was available with a 3 point hitch and rear PTO which are the basic essentials of a tractor, no matter how small.

     I'm watching this parade of beautiful small JD tractors going by, I have to comment on this beast. I've never seen or heard of that model.

     That 6 ft deck is pretty impressive, you're cutting almost double every pass, what I'm getting with my JD STX38. 

     Kelly

[80CX100]

Living here in the North East tractors have always been a necessity... I do not do any farming or anything however, the machines have their place even here as Joe small landowner.

Our most recent JD addition, a 2025 that we use mostly for hauling fire wood although she does see other duties, some gravel work, rock raking the gravel hill of a driveway after torrential rains wash it away...  We even have her help out while maple sugaring.

We do use it to move snowbanks, plowing with a smaller JD tractor and four wheeler and every second or third storm, moving the banks with the JD.

I actually need to build another barn for just the tractors and maybe some motorcycle overflow from the main garage and the toy garage.  The struggle is real. lol

Labor saving rigs for sure or as a friend of mine says "The right job for the tool"

Cheers,
Rob

     What a gorgeous tractor  As you say, they make some work much more manageable.

     Beautiful photos of it, in it's element.
 
     I like your syrup set up. I only have a couple of maples here, but I'm thinking of tapping and boiling a batch of syrup outside, just for fun.

     Tks for sharing

     Kelly
     

[s1120]

Ya tractors can be fun. Ive had many years playing around with different tractor projects..