vtsnowedin
Elite Member
Having just gone through the tractor shopping experience and using some of the available sources here at TBN & tractordata.com as well as several manufacturers web sites I have to say that what is available leaves something to be desired. It is very hard to research and compare tractors and their capabilities on a feature by feature basis. Look at tractor data .com you can look at one manufacturer at a time and sort by horse power but not by weight or wheel base. The data is not consistent or complete. It would be nice to sort by the things you want in a tractor from every model available. Sort by weight, horse power, rear hitch lift capacity, loader compatibility and lift capacity, cab or not, maximum and minimum tread width front and back and PTO speeds and power.
By the time you have specified out what you are looking for there should be a small group of tractors that qualify and you could get down to price and dealer rep. But as it is now I expect that some models that are competative with what I choose to buy never came to my attention while working through the maze of unsortable and incomparable data out there.
Don't get me wrong, it is a lot better then the days before the net when you were limited to print media and dealership brochures or the wisdom and honesty of your local tractor salesman. I just see lots of room for improvement that may well come about in the future.
By the time you have specified out what you are looking for there should be a small group of tractors that qualify and you could get down to price and dealer rep. But as it is now I expect that some models that are competative with what I choose to buy never came to my attention while working through the maze of unsortable and incomparable data out there.
Don't get me wrong, it is a lot better then the days before the net when you were limited to print media and dealership brochures or the wisdom and honesty of your local tractor salesman. I just see lots of room for improvement that may well come about in the future.