First the details:
In late June, 2005 I purchased a MF 1235 along with the following extras:
* 5-ft Massey brush cutter (the light-duty 1005 model)
* 6-ft Massey finish mower
* 6-ft Leinbach landscape rake
* Massey front-end loader (can't remember the model)
* Massey backhoe (can't remember the model).
* 16-ft tandem trailer w/ ramps & tie-down straps
* 20-ft log chain, a bag full of clevises, pins, clips, etc., and a Massey Ferguson ball cap.

The tractor is 4-wheel drive with ag tires, has a hydro transmission with 3 ranges, mid & rear PTO, turning brakes, and a cat-1 3-point hitch.

Grand total was $21,600 out the door.

Now for the story:
I just recently purchased about 5 acres out of town and am currently having a house built there. The land is about half native prairie and half old pecan grove that has been neglected for many years (thick new-growth, scrub brush up to your shoulders, briars, etc.). I also have a creek that'll need a bridge before I'm done as well as plans to build my own shop after we move in.

I needed a machine that could mow pretty fast (rough-mow for now, finish-mow later on), smooth out the rough spots, grade the driveway, prepare a build site for the shop, dig footings and bridge abutments, clear scrub brush, run a sprayer, and any other "projects" I could think of over the next several years.

For about 2 months I looked hard at JD, NH, Kubota, MF and several others in the 20-40 horsepower range. I'm very impressed with them all and wouldn't slight anyone for buying any of them. It seems like each brand had some feature I liked that wasn't available on the others. In the end, it came down to price, which put me squarely in the Sub-compact range.

I narrowed my decision down to either a GC2310 or a BX23 (both TLB's). Between the two, I chose the Massey pirmarily based on torque. Both machines advertise about the same horse power, but the Massey does it at a lower RPM. A little arithmetic and I figured the Massey had about 50% more torque than the Kubota (not true for all the models, just these two). Plus the Massey was a few hundred dollars less.

I went down to the dealer I'd selected to place the order. The dealer asked me what kind of tires I wanted and I said, "Ag tires for now. I want all the traction I can get. Maybe we'll talk about some turf tires after my lawn is in." Before he placed the order we went outside and he showed me this 1235 he just got in that morning. For some reason no one wanted it because it had ag tires on it. It had been moved from dealer to dealer for over a year and never sold. The paint was oxidized and it had 7 hours on the clock from being moved around, spraying weeds on the dealers' lots, etc. The 1200's had been discontinued and he already had a bunch of the 1400's on the lot. Bottom line he was going to have a hard time selling this one priced as new. Plus the Massey rep wanted this thing gone. Well I don't care much about "pretty" and the 7 hours didn't bother me either so we started talking. There weren't any more 1200-series FEL's or BH's left so it took the salesman over a week to figure out what would fit with which mounting kit. Massey was willing to build one more mounting kit just for this tractor that would allow them to mount a 1400-series FEL and BH.

I was pretty pumped about getting more horsepower, taller wheels, better hydraulics, and turning brakes (I can't figure out why they don't put those on the sub-compacts). We settled on a package price that was only about $3000 higher than the GC2310 package. The dealer buffed off the oxidation and sent me home with everything but the FEL and BH -- about a week more before all the pieces come in for those.

How do I like it? It's awesome!

I've got over 30 hours on it now -- mostly rough mowing, brush cutting, and raking. My light-duty brush cutter is pretty beat up from running it through brush that's 2-3 times bigger than recommended for that model. That's OK though. It only has to hold up for about another acre and a half of that kind of treatment. Then it'll live out the rest of its life on weeds and prairie grass.

The tractor is small enough to get around well in the trees. It's big enough that I was able to get a brush cutter and finish mower that are a foot wider than I would have gotten with the GC2310.

It has good power for its size (either 30 or 35 hp depending on which literature you read). I wouldn't want anything smaller with a 5-ft brush cutter. It'll bog down in places if you're mowing native fescue that's 3-feet tall and wet!

I've never had a hydro before and I have to say that for anything but pure draft work, I wouldn't go back to gear. Some that I tested were a little jumpy, but this one is very easy to control and very smooth. You can creep veeeerrrrrryyyyy ssllllloooooowwwwwlllllllyyyyyy (1/8-inch at a time) when hooking up implements. Forward and reverse with no shifting while cutting brush in the trees is invaluable (I suspect it'll be the same with loader work too).

Both PTOs are live and controlled seperately.

It has a hand-pull parking brake that's very intuitive -- just like on your old VW Beetle. It holds well very well.

There's also a lever on the left fender that effectively pushes down the forward "go" pedal on the hydro and also serves as a cruise control. This is very handy when using the turning brakes since both brake pedals and the hydro pedals are all on the right-hand side. Without this lever you'd have to do some pretty nifty contortions to hold down the go pedal and push a brake at the same time you were adjusting the 3-point, turning the wheel, and looking backwards at your implement. It took a little getting used to, but it's pretty easy now. You just have to remember to let off the brake when you're done with the turn -- not pull back on the handle.

There are only two things I was a little disapointed in.

When I first got it, the 3-point would not lift high enough to back my brush cutter on the trailer. It did, however, go all the way down to 2-inches off the ground. That just seemed too low to me. I rummaged through the bone pile at the dealer and found an adjustable lift arm that matched the one I already had. I replaced the non-adjustable lift arm with the matching adjustable one. Then I cut the ends off the threaded rods so they's both screw in all the way. That gave me a lift arm that was about 2 inches shorter than before with moved the attachment points on the 3-point hitch up by about 4 inches (both in the lowest position and in the highest position). Now it works fine.

The second con is engine access. On the 1200's this is a real pain in the neck. Two side panels, a front panel, and the top. After that, though, you've got wide-open access to everything. By the way, they improved this a lot on the 1400's and 1500's.

All in all I think I got a pretty good deal on the whole package. Please don't tell me if you disagree -- I really don't want to know that.

As I mentioned, I don't have the FEL or BH yet so I can't report on its dirt-work-ability yet. I'll add my impressions on those after I get them put on and use them a little.

Date Purchased: 6/2005
Purchased: New
Price Paid: US$21600
Pros: Great value
Cons: The 3-point hitch was too low. Engine access is a pain.
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