40 hp tractor, who has best product?

   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #1  

Slippy

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2002
Messages
1,053
Location
Ohio
Tractor
Mahindra 6000 4wd; IH x2; NHTC40DSS; International 1086; JD 5115M
I am looking for a 40 hp 4wd tractor. Opinions, ideas on who has the best product for the dollar. Will want fel and backhoe to go with it.
A lot of you know I have a Mahindra 6000 4wd, approx. 6000lb tractor. I need something smaller to double around the 25 acre home stead, but still big enough to be useful on the farm. Really looking for a small to medium size frame with all the hp I can get for that size. In other words, if for example jd makes a x series tractor in a small frame, I will want the one at the top end with the most hp.
Looking for ideas. 40 hp not a magic number, but what I have seen so far, if I get into a higher hp machine, the size and weight get too big for home/yard type work. I know Mahindra makes a 4110, but looking for other suggestions.
Thanks.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #3  
The 44 hp JD 3720 is slightly small than the TC40/45, but capacities are proportionately lower as well.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #4  
Everyone is going to be biased, as a tractor owner you probably already know the choices from the top 3 are all good, I recommend going with best ergonimic fit for your self and dealer quality ( I do not recommend basing it on which one is $1000 better in price). I looked at JD and NH ended up with Kubota Grand L 4330 and I love it (I also looked at Kioti). I would highly recommend which ever tractor you end up with you get a HST transmission.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #5  
This is one of those questions that you can't ask, because everyone will have a answer based on their own preference. It is like asking which truck, car, revolver, dog etc is the best. Check out all of the dealers in the area and give the dealer as much weight as the actual tractor.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #6  
I find it interesting that we still reference tractors based on HP, a rough way to compare at best. For those who remark about the virtues of a diesel engine and the torque they generate versus a gas HP equivalent and the often lack of torque they exhibit, we are still stuck comparing by HP. I don't know what would be a better method, I prefer to compare features, cost, reliability, size and perhaps lastly the HP. Based on many posts here, cost is without a doubt, a very important consideration if not the primary factor.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #7  
_RaT_ . . . seems to me that the likely reason to reference HP is simply because a tractor of a given HP may be required to run specific PTO powered implements, but then a more accurate reference would be PTO HP rather than engine HP.

I do tend to think that Slippy asked a heck of a loaded question. While he did give some indication of what he is looking for, a bit more detail could come in handy. The problem I see is that he is looking for a small to medium frame size. The Mahindra 4110 is a nice tractor, but at roughly 5000# (with loader & filled rear tires) it is pretty heavy, and at 12' long is not going to qualify as a small tractor. It certainly has more capacity than the smaller NH TC40 gear, but it also weighs about 1000# more than the TC40 (with FEL & filled tires). So I don't know if that is a good thing for his uses or not. The added weight would help with some of the farm tasks, but might be too much for working the lawn around his wife's delicate prize roses? The SuperSteer option might be helpful in this case as it makes a large tractor handle like a smaller one; the question is does it have the capacity Slippy needs.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #8  
I think the responses will be interesting because it seems that 90% of the recommendations, and purchases, here are made strictly on price. Other things seem to weigh in a bit, but I think price is weighed here much more heavily than quality, durability, and reliability. I can't recall the last time I saw a thread that was really concerned about the best quality without the disclaimer "for the price" thrown in.

I know price is important, but I'm really wondering how many of the smaller brands will be gone in 15 years or so and these people who bought strictly on "price" will be orphaned? In another thread someone posted a link to where the same guy who imported Yugo is now going to import (a self proclaimed 2nd tier) Chinese made cars. They will say that they will sell for 1/3 less than most all cars made now. Hmm, wasn't it the same guy (Bricklin) who said the exact same thing circa 1985 about Yugo?!

My point? It can happen, but it is very rare to have the highest quality item that is also one of the lowest priced. The laws of supply and demand simply do not allow that. If you have the highest quality product, you can demand and receive a premium price. The term "best product" and "lowest price" generally cannot be used to describe the same item. I realize that a premium price is not always synonymous with best quality, but it is in general.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #9  
Dargo, very interesting points. One thing I can see in my experience with older tractors is that tractor companies are in a constant state of flux. Very few companies stick around for the long term, or if they do, they often are under new ownership. It seems like the brands of the early 1900's were gone by the 1950's, the brands of the 1950's are for the most part no longer around, or are dramatically different today in terms of ownership. John Deere is the one constant in the industry, it is the only company I can think of that really has lasted the duration.
 
   / 40 hp tractor, who has best product? #10  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I find it interesting that we still reference tractors based on HP, a rough way to compare at best. For those who remark about the virtues of a diesel engine and the torque they generate versus a gas HP equivalent and the often lack of torque they exhibit, we are still stuck comparing by HP. )</font>

This is a very good point, especialy as some companies are starting to move to more low displacment, lower torque diesels that still have high HP rattings.


</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I know price is important, but I'm really wondering how many of the smaller brands will be gone in 15 years or so and these people who bought strictly on "price" will be orphaned? )</font> This will happen. If you talk to any of the old timer salesmen these small companies trying to move tractors in the US are not a new thing. Its been happening for the last 50 years and none of them have survived. Now on that same token, the product being offered by the 2nd and 3rd tier companies has improved drasticly.
 
 
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