Belarus tractors

[Mac624]

Not sure, where You have made this experience with Belarus tractors, but the tractors I knew about are stable and reliable, easy to maintain and to repair (if necessary).

All brands have their ups and downs and the so much beloved galopping goose is not the best You can buy for the money.

I would not be afraid to buy a Belarus, Zetor, Ursus or whatever is made in the countries of former eastern block.

[D7E]

I'm thinking back to the mid 90's when several big vegatable growers in our group tried running eastern bloc tractors in fleets of 5-8 tractors in a "Economy drive"....The zetors were maybe the best but it was a disaster....They were just not capable of the 2000 hrs a year that main brands were doing and when you had them it was impossible to re-sell them....
Auctions full of dealer lease returns and trade ins . the dealers were coming around the farms offering a month free trial and a free loader if you bought a new one and asking $5000 for 2-3 year old 80hp+ fwa belarus.....None of the dealers i knew then still exist now.

[FLHayman]

I have Ford, John Deere, Kioti, Montana, and also still have a 250 Belarus. Used to own a 500 series 2wd, also. Both Belarus tractors were bought new from a dealer in Atlanta, the distributor in Minnesota or something like that.

They have features you won't find in other tractors, like adjustable voltage regulators (2 positions, winter and summer), compression release for easier starting in cold (get cranking inertia with a weak battery, then put the compression back to start instantly), and down pressure on the 3ph (starting a fence post auger or plow in hard ground).

I was low income at the time, and they were the best buy for the dollar. Every time I have gone for a new tractor, I look, starting with JD, and realize the the 50 acre sized tractors seem to be significantly foreign made anyway. I would rather buy an American tractor, but this is the reality: we can't seem to produce tractors competitively here, until the size gets up to the real industrial machines. I travel a lot, and see large JD and Cat machines everywhere in the world, so we can make what other Countries want, just not the small ones.

I've even been to Belarus, and I recommend it to anyone who thinks Communism was a good idea. Yes, I've seen what we call Belarus everywhere, too. They use them for all work, industrial backhoes, ag., pulling trailers on the road, etc. I had a friend from Romania who defected in the late 70's who saw the 500 Belarus and said that they used to build them in Romania! Unproven, but, a previous poster pointed out that many companies built them, typical of the single single product design/many builders of USSR.

I have abused the 250 with a rhino 75 backhoe, and when it eventually started to bend the top of the 3pt hitch, I was pleased to find that I could simply unbolt the piece and weld some reinforcement. The electric switches aren't very good, but the metal is heavy enough to overcome any imperfect batches in the casting.

Parts are quickly obtainable, I do a search on the internet and I recall the place I got them from last actually had the name 'belarustractor' in the name. Just filters, and O rings for same.

I like the shuttle gear shift, too, and the 250 has always had a fairly large American made loader on it, with no problems lifting very heavy things. For the price I could get for this tractor, I would never sell it!