BW , It probably could handle a 5’ Cutter . I only have around 1.5 to 2 acres to clean up with a lot of trees to go around . That’s why I was thinking on just a 4’ .
‘The other half of the yard is cleared and I use my ZT for that .. I plan on working on the back half till I get it finish mowable .
Then if I run out of stuff to use the tractor for I will probably sell it .. As long as I take care of it I should be able to get most of my money back out of it ..
GM , I have too many floating projects to have time to build a bush hog or pig for that matter ! LOL !
That's pretty much the same thing I did. I got the old tractor to help me clear out a LOT of carp around here, including trees (using the box blade.)
The bush hog worked well when I still had tons of weeds and other such tough greenery but as the cleanup work progressed over time, the hog was too aggressive and slow. It tore up the yard and took 2 hours to do the cutting because of how long it took to maneuver. After a couple of years I ended up selling the tractor with bush hog and bought a garden tractor as a replacement.
Then a couple years ago I rented an excavator and did some major tree removal again. This time I just burned everything instead of hauling it all to the dump. Now that there is more sunlight reaching the ground, the yard is filling in nicely with grass (and some weeds) and in 2019 I'll start using weed and feed type stuff to enhance it further. It'll never be an actual lawn, but it's heading nicely towards being a grass yard at last.
I did have a small ZTR for awhile but with a 40" cut and 15HP it was just too small for this place. The ideal setup for here would be a small tractor with loader like you have, plus a 72" ZTR. I was able to borrow my buddy's 72" Dixie Chopper ZTR for one cut this year and man was that ever awesome. Super smooth and fast!
I've been eyeballing the Rural King tractors and they're lookin' pretty good.