471 Massey Ferguson

[floridahay]

I have been looking to replace an older tractor for my small hay operation. I have never owned a Massey and we haven"t had a Massey dealer close by till now. I stopped by the other day and was very impressed by the dealer and was looking at the 471 and 451. They appear to be very heavy tractors that are simple and basic without all the bells and whistles and plastic. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? The 471 is not much more expensive than the 451 and has 15 more horsepower. Another dealer was telling me that they have seen the newer 471 with the tier ll Perkins engines pull about the same horsepower as the 481. They do have the same displacement engines. I have been reading this forum for some time but have just got around to registering. It is the best tractor website. Thanks for any advice or experiences!

[gamble77]

Yeah the 471 would be wonderful for your needs. That size tractor is ideal in my opinion for Hay work, there are lots of guys around here that have that size of Massey for their hay use (not much "farming" around my parts anymore). Proven Perkins diesels, basic tractor, good weight and power for Hay use.

If you are satisfied with your dealer then I don't see where you can go wrong with the MF 471.

[Birdhunter1]

I don't have teh 471 but i have looked over it extensivley and compared it to the older 165/265 MF's that I've run and it is about the same class of tractors but newer and a bit more power I think. If I were in the market for a new tractor that is the one I would be getting. If you want to do business with the dealer you'll be happy with the tractor, you'd be happy with it regardless but the dealer factor does help alot. As for the perkins engine, it'll give you great service for a long time.

[SouthernMan]

Our family has owned MF since the dawn of time it would seem. Having said that, I looked at every brand before buying a 471 recently, and this site has been most helpful. I can't tell you my experience with the 471 yet, but I will mention why I went with it...
1st. I bought a 471, 4wd, 8X8 shuttle, FEL w/ HD bucket and HD pallet forks.
2nd. No other major brand came within 2k of the price. the JD's were at least 4k more, and the other MF quote I had was 3k more...
3rd. The lesser known (and in my estimation, most likely to NOT succeed) brands were all cheaper, but by very slim margins (1-2K).
4th. I have used Perkins engines for many years, and had no trouble.
so, in my case, it was quite a simple decision.

[tough451]

I bought a 451 2wd in the summer of 2003 it has a 170 hard hours in the chickenhouse runnining the generator when needed bush hogging and cutting hay. I grew up on Masseys they are simple heavy and realiable dad still uses a 30 year old 135 at least twice a week. If you like the dealer go for it there are fancicer tractors out there Massey makes some of them themselves but for the money and what you get this series is hard too beat. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[tractorracer17]

We are a MF dealer in Oregon. We have had great sucess with the 471. I would recommend it over the 451 or 461. We have had some brake issues with the 451.

[tough451]

Just for my info what kind of brake issues are you talking about. I do have alot of hills on my farm.

[tractorracer17]

We had one that kept locking up and two that the customers were happy with the stopping power.

[tractorracer17]

They were NOT [img]/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] happy with the stopping power, sorry.

[kmanvt]

SouthernMan
If you don't mind me asking, what was the price you paid? I got a quote of a MF471 (setup like yours) and it was about $3K more than the New Holland & Kubota quote. (???)