Hello AKtractorMan: From former Alaskan tractor owner. Hi after living on Kodiak Island For thirty + years, I am well aware of the ethics of buying unseen versus the logistics of transportation to my former homeland.
I am curently living in Monroe, Washington, @ 45 minutes from downtown Seattle. There are two each of the following dealerships within 75 miles of my place. 2ea: New Holland/ 2ea: Kubota and 2ea: John Deere. There are also 1ea:Case and 1ea: Long Agri business. Not positive but there also might be a Kioti and Yanmar dealer here in western Washington.
Don't know about purchasing pre assembled (crated) tractors. But have purchased already assembled/inspected kubota tractors, that were shipped to Alaska. Options for shipping to Anchorage that I'm aware of include. Sampson Tug & Barge (Preferred for both price and ability to ship enclosed in container), CSX shipping lines and Totem Ocean Express. With Sampson You can ship the whole assembled tractor chained inside its own 20' container for the price of shipping a car. Don't quote me on this as its been several years, but I'm thinking around $800. All three, Kubota,New Holland and John Deere will probably deliver your purchase to the shipper of your choice for a nominal price or possibly free. Some of the dealers may even be familiar with shipping there products to Alaska, and can make the arrangements for you.
Need more info about your tractor needs, uses, terrain, where it will be going and what sort of enviroment will it be kept in while it is there. are you partial to Hrdrostatic or gear driven transmissions. Do you need a staight,live or independent PTO, how about a mid PTO? And what sort of tires will you be needing, turf, R4's or ag style tread patterns? I am assuming you will want 4X4. Do you need the rollbar to fold down for reduced height? I purchased a New Holland 4X4, TC29 (29 horsepower), with a Woods 1012 loader and a Woods 7500 backhoe, with a gear tranny, live PTO on R4 tires, out the door in April for $20475. Other options from New holland in that horsepower range would include the economy model TC30 with gear or hydro tranny and the TC29D and the TC33D's with hydro trannies. Kubota has the B2710/2910 and the L3010 models. And John Deere has the Economy 790/990 series as well as the 4310. Anyone else feel free to correct me if I have erred. You might not want to consider chinese or grey market tractors. Reliability, parts availability and if you will be able to find dealers in the future, might turn this into a break it throw it away tractor if you do. Remeber logistics means that you can't just march back into that dealership seeking satisfaction for a problem should one occur. So a more reputable dealer can be a strong ally.
Give me a few days and I will try to put together a list of all the local dealers around here and how to contact them. After that its up to you to put together your own deal. In the meantime alot of your questions can be answered by doing a search here on TBN for the different subjects. Or contact me with a private message through TBN.
