Belarus tractors

[paulharvey]

I personally feel fine buying CIS products, Russian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, whatever. I do feel mixed about Chinese. Russia and Belarus are not enemies of the USA, but I do feel the PRC is. China is actively attacking the USA economy with electronic warfare, monetary manipulation, and complete disregard of trade, patent, and copy right laws.

 

[daugen]

Good point. The problem is that if we stopped buying goods from countries that are, or used to be...enemies, boy would we have a tough time. Well, Australian cars are pretty cool...

China has built its economy on the profits of selling low cost goods to the world, and certainly to "us". Whether we like it or not. You would think they would treat us better, but they don't want our brand of freedom over there, for sure.
And fighting for that freedom has cost a lot of American lives.

So how many years does it take to forgive? Not forget...

I just have to wonder if any one in the Minsk tractor factory is unhappy with the US.
I wish them well. But then I'm a bit biased. My grandfather came from a farm about 50 miles away from Minsk.
Or was it Pinsk?

 

[paulharvey]

I wish them well. But then I'm a bit biased. My grandfather came from a farm about 50 miles away from Minsk.
Or was it Pinsk? [/QUOTE]

One of my ancestors came from Lwow/Lviv/Lemberg/Lvov when it was a Polish city in Hungarian half of Austria Hungry. Its traded hands about 8 times since they left in 1912.

 

[daugen]

I wish them well. But then I'm a bit biased. My grandfather came from a farm about 50 miles away from Minsk.
Or was it Pinsk?

One of my ancestors came from Lwow/Lviv/Lemberg/Lvov when it was a Polish city in Hungarian half of Austria Hungry. Its traded hands about 8 times since they left in 1912.[/QUOTE]

I am our family's historian and the only question marks are on my Dad's side, and his father, who came through Ellis Island in 1901. From a farm "over there". It took me years and years looking at big National Geographic maps, and then Google, and finally I found his home town. It was nowhere near where I thought it was, much, much further East.
And with a name like Augenblick, which is an operative word in the German language, which I know nothing of..., how could that come from what I know now as the Ukraine?

Some day, and I'd better hurry up..., I'm going over there and will find his home town. And maybe a graveyard with other Augenblicks in it. ****** killed most of them, but boy would it be cool to find someone with my last name in his home town.

And all this is to say that many of us may have roots in places whose current society does not view personal freedom or human rights the same way we do. I suppose the State Dept has an "unfriendly" list, but are China and what was formerly Eastern Russia on that list?

I reread this whole post and wonder who has experience with recent Belarus products. Are they still unreliable or did they improve their engineering?

 

[Alberta Haymaker]

As mentioned I currently have a 20 year old one and is been good just normal wear and tear. I bought mine used though as a "fixer upper" so to speak. The issue wasn't with the engineering its was the manufacturing standards back in the day so yes ... they had their share of lemons. I've talked to a few mechanics that used to work on them and they all said the same thing that once figured out what their quirks were they were simple to fix and maintain. Often many people who bought them were "cheap" and didn't spend a dime on them. I've heard it all with "no parts" and "hard to repair". The are very basic and simple if you're mechanically inclined they can be fixed on farm. Parts never been an issue for me in Canada at least and there has been the parts in the USA always as far as I know though dealers do come and go. Now with online shopping you can order them online if you wish for those who no longer have a close dealer. I think there is more sties in the USA and CAnada that sell parts plus MTZ canada through their dealers.

With this said ... they are not for everyone!! My friend drives a BMW and wouldn't think of driving a cheap chevy!! To each his own they fill a niche market for those who may want a new durable MFD 100hp no frills tractor with out all the electronics for way less then a loaded up JD.


My old 825 has its place and uses around the farm but if I'm going to be out seeding crop all day I'll be using my nice comfy Valtra But then its an odd ball in N/A too now ... These are from Finland and are very good machines but again people know little about them.

 

[daugen]

My reply to the guy who "would not buy Russian goods" :
I do not want to hurt any American patriotic feelings, but did you know that for the last few years most of US space program is riding on Russian rocket engines ?
Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Pentagon and NASA do not share your opinion, and they decided to use Russian engines. Moreover, aparantly US rocket engines of the needed size / power simply do not exist any longer Russian rocket engine export ban could halt US space program ? RT News
Just my 2 cents...

actually your two cents is worth at least a nickle, your point is a good one.:thumbsup:
and more importantly...
:welcome:

 

[sd455dan]

Although well aware we retired the shuttle-
read the space plane (dream chaser) is now at NASAs Dryden Flight Research center to begin testing to See if it has the right stuff to SOMEDAY carry US astronauts to space... Sounds like it could be years to decades until we have a new fully operational space plane that is capable of reaching to the space station and farther.

I'm still glad that the Russians will provide transport -even at a cost of $63 million for seating. I wonder if NASA would have had a working replacement IF funding was available at the time it would have had to start on a replacement. Even a US based rocket version- before parking the Shuttles....

 

[daugen]

If you want a new tractor, maybe have to have new for financing, whatever, and your budget
only allows you to buy either an Eastern Europe or Chinese tractor, which would you look at first?
:confused3:

I know, buy a used Deere, but for new, where does your comfort level lie?

 

[RUMBLON]

Mike you make a good point, but I think most of us who have lived through the Cold War believe that anything East of Germany is Russia. Not so of course...

I will admit to a certain bias here, but only from personal experience. There is a large Russian population in my area.
They often drive German cars, do not use turn signals, smoke constantly with butts thrown everywhere, have a serious
"me first" attitude, and from what I have seen as a social group aren't very honest. Maybe it's the old world attitude towards their corrupt government, where anything goes if you can get away with it. A "gypsy" mentality?

When the roofing crooks came through our neighborhood after a storm and told folk they could get new roofs for free, they were the insurance experts..., and three of our neighbors were suckered in. Or welcomed them....two were Russian.
Broad brush smear? Sorry, I mean no offense to anyone. Just what I have seen with my own eyes. And I try to be as non judgmental as possible and give folks a chance. Are all Russians crooks? Of course not. Rumblon is simply stating his gut feelings, feelings which, like mine, I'm sure are fashioned after many years of observation, and let's face it, some serious spin by our government. The Belarus tractor folks would like all of this nasty political stuff of the past to just disappear. But many of us have long memories.

I hope this isn't too political, but the question was asked "why" and I think it has more to do with context than the mechanical quality of those tractors. Time will cure this, the current gen of youth probably thinks the Berlin Wall was a
historical note of the far past.

A good product with good distribution, good parts, and established dealers backed up with a really good warranty will
allow Belarus to succeed. It's up to them if they can pull it off.

Well at 52 years of age you are correct for on some of this. Maybe I missspoke on part of it. I did think that a portion of the tractor was made in Russia but noticed that the poster was selling from Russia??? This in its self to me means that I wont do any business with them. I wont have anything to do with Russia making a dime off of me and that was most of my point. Now, as for what daugen had to say. I did grow up in the same era. But I recently retired from 30 years of police work. I have dealt with many people of many eastern block countries. I have to say this, most of them are GREAT and most if not alll of the people of OTHER eastern block countries dont care for the Russians either. They dont trust them, they dont like the way the treated them, (remember they were basicaly occupied by them). I wont go into my lifes work, lets just say that dealing with almost every Russian I dealt with was not a great experience. I understand this is a shallow way to look at it and bias to say the least. For this I am sorry, but I have been in my type of work way to long to turn my back to a perceived danger or even potential bad business deal!

RUMBLON

 

[daugen]

Well at 52 years of age you are correct for on some of this

Well thanks Rumblon, you took eleven years off my age, can you keep it off?

I think what you saw in your career would bring up some of the same concerns I have, whereas I spent most of mine in the insurance business and recognize a scamming attitude easily.
But let's all get our geography right, it makes a difference here. Me too.