"My Quad 20 was bought for general usage in a small privately managed woodland. Before buying the Quad 20 I had had both a compact tractor and a quad bike. I found that the compact tractor was fine on flat, stable ground, but its relatively high centre of gravity made it quite unstable on rough or very wet ground and after one near roll-over, it was disposed of. The quad bike was fine for getting around, but was only capable of pulling a small trailer over rough areas. It also seemed to require copious amounts of petrol.
I saw an advert for a product similar to the Quad 20 and visited the dealer, had a relatively limited demonstration and it seemed as though they didn't really want to sell me anything!! Some time later I came across CTM and after a couple of telephone conversations, visited them to look at and try the machine. My questions were fully and courteously answered (and in retrospect some of them were probably close to the "stupid question" category!); the machine was fully demonstrated on some quite severe terrain and I was also given more than adequate opportunity to try it for myself.
The visit resulted in an agreement to bring the tractor onto my land since Alan's, whilst steep in parts, was relatively dry, whereas mine could be extremely wet. For the appointed morning I had devised a route round the woodland which was along the lines of "if it will go round that it will go anywhere". One part I judged to be far too wet and boggy for the quad bike and it was certainly absolutely impossible to walk through.
This last part did cause Alan to pale slightly and ask "it does have a bottom to it doesn't it?" However, with water and mud almost up to the tyre tops, the tractor plodded through this area and coped with all the other challenges with an ease that was frankly amazing. After this, the only thing left to settle was "when can I have one?"
Driving an articulated unit over rough and steep terrain can be rather disconcerting initially, since having the front roll-bar tilting backwards, twisted sideways and sloping as the front part of the unit moves independently of the rear, gives a rather different "forward picture" to that of a rigid unit - you don't realise how much you use the roll-bar to "frame" where you are going until it doesn't! However once you get used to this, the tractor is very easy to drive and the multiple gears, combined with the wide track and tyres, really do make it an incredibly "go anywhere" machine that has proved its worth over and over again. In spite of being asked to pull heavy loads through conditions which most other units would baulk at, it has only been "stuck" once and that was when I misjudged the width of a ditch and managed to drop neatly into it!
Having now had the tractor for several years I have had a variety of attachments and implements as the required applications have changed and all have performed as expected. The fact that the Quad 20 tractor has both a 3-point linkage and PTO's obviously make it a far more versatile machine than a quad bike. One other feature is that under normal usage, the fuel consumption is minimal - and of course "red" diesel is much cheaper than petrol.
There have only been a couple of minor problems and these have been sorted out very quickly and at reasonable cost. The back-up service from CTM has been exemplary.
An essential piece of equipment that I wouldn't be without."
David C. Bedding - North Yorkshire (owner since 2002)