beebe44
New member
We are looking for a replacement for a John Deere 8310 that has a ton of hours. We use it for row crops and have a Trimble RTK system. I just wanted to hear some thoughts on a good 200 to 250 horsepower tractor as a replacement when considering cost as the number one issue and functionality number two and reliability number three. I'm interested in a JD 8230 with 3 thousand hours but dang they are expensive. I can get a New Holland TG 255 locally for about 1/2 the price with less hours but I don't know much about New Holland. I'd also be very interested in a Massey Ferguson as I really like the local dealership service and I hear they are usually the best economically speaking considering overall costs. Please share any opinions you might have. We stepped out of the deere circle to buy a Case MX 270 and dang has that been an awesome deal!! It was about 1/2 the price of a comparable deere at auction and has been more reliable than our deeres. My only beef with the 270 is I don't like the interior controls as I am used to the deere controls which are top notch IMO. I like the deeres but so expensive I don't know if I can justify owning them. Again reliability is not a huge issue as we can easily rent equipment from neighbors if need be as long as it isn't breaking down at a ridiculous rate. I've come to learn that all equipment has it's breakdowns I just don't want a lemon. I dread making repairs to my JD 8310 everything seems to be twice as expensive as it should be. This may seem stupid also but do most row crop tractors now come factory installed plumbed for an RTK autoguidance? We want to keep our trimble RTK setup and I'm wondering if it will pretty much plug and play with a small conversion box on most newer tractors. Right now I'm most interested in hearing about the TG 255 if anyone knows about that tractor.