Why We Bought A Power Trac PT425

Here is a little background on the place we call home. There is the house and 2 garages, the paved driveway is about 100 feet long and the rest is 1 acre of grass on very flat sandy soil. There are relatively few trees. We have a small orchard with eight trees that I planted in 2001. There is also a garden that is about 24 X 60. I mow the lawn with a 1969 Simplicity Yeoman 726. It is very dependable and has a great cut, but it is only 26" wide and slow. It takes about an hour and a half to mow the lawn. It also has a snow thrower that is useless in wet snow, but does great in dry stuff. We also own about 20 acres several miles away. It is primarily sandy soil on rolling hills. There was originally a high four acre field, ten acres of woods on the hills and a six acre field that turns to muck as it slopes towards a creek that drains into the Kankakee river several miles away. There is an old railroad grade running along the creek. We had the four acre field reforested in 1991 with alternating rows of pines and hardwoods. We bought a very used International Harvester 2500b front end loader with a 3pt hitch and used it to put in a driveway at the property, remove a lot of trees and brush hog between the rows of planted trees. I always intended to sell the 2500b when I was done with it, as it is way too big. I needed a compromise between the little Simplicity and the huge International. So, in late 2000 I started researching compact utility tractors on the internet, at dealers and shows. The main theme I got from lurking on bulletin boards and discussion groups and from talking to tractor owners is that I should decide what I need the tractor to do today and tomorrow.

Here is a list of what tasks I need to do now starting with the most important.

Mowing the lawn at our home.

Landscaping around my home.

Plowing snow in our driveway.

Brush hogging the trails on our property several times a year.

(I left off tilling the garden because we already have a Weed Eater 5HP counter rotating rear tine tiller that does the job very well. It is small enough to get into the flowerbeds and big enough to till the entire garden in about a half an hour)

Here is a list of tasks I will need to do in the future when we move to our property listed in order of their importance.

Mowing the lawn around our new home.

Landscaping around our new home.

Plowing snow in the 400’ slag driveway that I installed in 1992.

Brush hogging the trails on our property several times a year.

Logging firewood, fence posts and lumber out of our woods.

Driveway maintenance.

After about a year of research, I had narrowed down my choices to a John Deere 4100HST, a Kubota BX2200, a New Holland TC21D,a Cub Cadet 7205 and a Power-Trac PT425.

Click here for my comparison chart of these units.

Safety: The main driving factor in my decision was safety. I wanted a hydrostatic drive. With hydrostatic, you let off the pedal and it stops. Also, I have found them easier to drive when direction changes are frequent. My wife can't drive a manual either, and I don't want my kids on a manual when they start using it in their mid teens. ROPS is a must. All five of these machines meet these requirements. Another safety factor that stuck out is the operator riding height and the overall stability of the machines. The other 4 all seem a little high and narrow to me. The PT400 series rides low and wide and the operator station is low to the ground. While the lawn at our home is flat, the land at our property is rolling hills. Some are fairly steep. The PT425's lower center of gravity appeals to me.

Engines: I am sure that the diesels will outlast the Kohler. With that said, I don't care for diesels. I never liked the smell and the feel of fuel oil on my hands. Oil changes are messy and you have to find a place to dispose of it properly. I don't like having to treat the fuel in the winter so it won't gel up. If you run out of fuel you have to prime the system on some of the units and I have had very bad experiences trying to start them when the mercury drops below 0. And that is when I truly need it. I don't want to go out to my garage and futz with starting up my snowplow. Glow plugs, block heaters, BAAA! Hold your comments right there diesel lovers…maybe I was never trained right on diesels and all of this ranting is probably not justified. Anyway...I like gasoline engines! I like the smell, the sound and the explosive power of gas. I am very familiar with gasoline engines and am comfortable working on them. In the winter, maybe a shot of ether and off you go. So, the engine type was a big consideration for me. An engine overhaul on the PT425 involves unbolting the engine from the pumps, the fuel and electrical and putting it in the trunk of my car. Drive to the lawn mower shop. That’s it.

Transmissions and Drive Train: The PT425 has no transmission to speak of, just a pump. There is no shifter, no hi-lo range, no neutral. Just step on the pedals and it goes. A transmission overhaul would involve disconnecting several hoses and unbolting the pump from the engine. Put the pump in the trunk of my car and drive to the hydraulic shop. That’s it. The PT425 has 1 hydraulic motor at each wheel, which means it is full time four-wheel drive. There are no differentials. There are no conventional steering components to wear out. The unit is articulated and the tires roll in either direction if the unit is turned. There is no scuffing of the turf as in some MFWD tractors.

Implement Attachment System: Most tractors use a 3pt hitch. It is a tried and true system. There are too many attachments made for 3pt hitches to list. Power-Trac does not use the 3pt system. It uses a lift assembly very similar to a front end loader with a quick attach feature on the end. This involves a plate on the lift arms that latches into a receiver on an implement. Then a hydraulic ram locks the implement in place. It literally takes 15 seconds to remove an implement and attach another implement without getting off of the tractor. If the unit is hydraulically powered, such as a mower or power brush, the operator must shut off the unit, get off and connect two hydraulic hoses. That takes about an additional 30 seconds. I find it superior to a 3pt in this application. However, if you want to use an agricultural plow or box blade scraper on the Power-Trac, you have to drive backwards. This could be a big pain after several hours. I do not plan on ever using an agricultural plow. If I did, I would go with a standard tractor. This is no row crop machine, for sure. I do plan on using a box blade scraper once in a while to level out the drive and for final lawn leveling at the new home. I will just have to put up with driving backwards on these few occasions. I like the idea of having my mower out in front of me. And since mowing is primarily what I am going to be doing with this unit, I think that over all, I will be satisfied.

PTO: While conventional tractors use a shaft driven PTO, the PT425 uses a hydraulic PTO. This means that any implement that requires power, also requires a hydraulic motor. The shaft HP of the other 4 tractors is anywhere from 16 to 17 HP. The HP rating for the PT425's hydraulic PTO is not available, but from several formulas that I have found and knowing that there is a loss of power when comparing hydraulic pumps to gears, I figure it is around 14 HP. This might be a problem. However, the folks at Power Trac and all of the owners that I have talked to say that the unit has more than enough power to operate the 60" mower deck, a 4' brush hog or a 4' tiller. These are the same size implements recommended for the other 4 tractors that I was looking at, so I'll take a chance on this one and let you know how it turns out.

Available Attachments: This could be a problem. Power-Trac manufactures all of its own implements. However, from what I have seen, they manufacture LOTS of implements. Over 40 for the PT400 series. And they offer a custom attachment plate that can be used to adapt implements to their units. And just about any attachment that can be powered by a drive shaft can be converted to hydraulic. The prices of the Power-Trac implements seem very reasonably priced as well. 60” 3 bladed finish mower for $1200.00 is about half the price of some other vendors. So I ordered everything that I will need in the forseeable future, just in case implements are no longer available.

Size & Weight: The PT425 is small enough to drive into the back of my pickup with an implement attached. I ordered the loading ramps from Power-Trac for only $140.00. It only weighs 1300 pounds + an implement. Now this one is a tough call. Sometimes you need more weight for traction. For lawn mowing, I think less weight is better. If I find that I need more traction, I’ll tube the tires and add windshield washer solution, by R4s or get chains.

Price: The last driving factor in my decision to purchase the PT425 was the price. $8000.00 for the tactor with the lift arms and quick attach installed. All of the implements also were very resonably priced. The small bucket was $300.00. The teeth were $100.00, the 60" mower was $1200.00, the 60" power angle snow blade was $450.00 and the large light material bucket was under $400.00. All told, the entire package was under $13,000.00 delivered. I couldn't touch that price for any of the other units that I looked at.

Summary: After weighing all of the above factors and comparing the specifications side by side, I believe that the Power Trac PT425 will suite my needs well. The only other machine that comes close for the price is the Kubota BX2200. It really was a hard decision between the two of them. The Kubota has a great reputation and appears to be an outstanding machine. I felt a little cramped sitting on all of the other units, except the NH. And they all seemed a little higher in the saddle, so to speak, which gives me a feeling of top heavy. What realy sold me on the Power Trac was the Quick Attach system. No other machine can come close to the Power Trac when it comes to changing implements. I have talked extensively with the owners of PT425s, as well as owners of their little brothers, the PT418 and the PT422. I have seen them in operation by a local landscaper and was impressed with their construction, capabilities and layout. All of the statistics from the 5 machines that I compared seem to be similar. I found that I primarily need a lawn mowing machine that can occasionally be a front end loader, snowplow, brush hog, forklift and log skidder. The PT425 fits my needs better than the other units for less cost. I would recommend it to anyone who has done their homework and decided that it is the unit for them. Happy tractoring!