New Holland T1520 BREAKS in Two?

[arnoldziffel]

While considering the purchase of a new TC40DA my wife and I also looked at the T1520. A nice little tractor. My wife really likes it and would be much more comfortable operating this machine. It would meet our needs. I did some internet research and came across a website that shares
"tractor reviews". I was amazed that three different owners of the T1520 claim their tractors have broken into two pieces??? Can this be possible? Is the T1520 a terribly flawed tractor? Now my wife thinks we should avoid ALL New Hollands. What do you think or know? Is the T1520 capable of loader work, lawn cutting, brush hogging, and garden roto tiller work? Is the TC40DA considerably stronger and therefore less likely to break in two? We aim to buy this week and I need advice from you folks with real world experience.

[smitty9266]

The 1520 has had some problems. Most seem to be related to working the tractor HARD, backhoe or excavating with the loader bucket, not moving dirt but true digging. For normal hard use it should not be a problem, just keep a eye on the bolts to make sure they don't come loose.

The tc40 is a bigger tractor, but ask the dealer to show you how the loader comes off. I take it off when mowing and it is a totally different tractor.

I have a kubota the same size as the 1520 it rides rough makes my back sore, the tc40 rides good with the loader on but like a Cadillac with it off.

Also remember most people don't take the time to get off their tractor to write a good review they are having to much fun....but have lots of time to write a bad review when their tractor is broken and they can not play!!!

good luck

Jeff

[davitk]

My brother-in-law is a landscaper, has a NH TLB sitting in two pieces at the moment. His help (ahem, pay them enough and maybe they would treat things better) were using it and it broke right between the operator's legs The tractor is 10 - 15 years old, not sure of the model number. YMMV

[JMER]

I'll be in the market for a tractor shortly (hopefully 3 months...). I've been wanting to get a NH for the longest time. My dad is a NH engineer working on the round balers and we've always had Ford/NH products. However, I've been reading this site for about a year now and it seems NH owners consistently come up with pretty serious issues w/their tractors... more so than the other brands. This has led me to consider other brands a lot more seriously. (Mahindra, Kitoi, Kubota) I don't have any personal negative experience w/NH tractors to share but have to admit I've been getting a negative vibe from the information I've gathered over the last year.

[vettemanwight]

We have a 1520 NH at work its an 88 or 89 we basically use it for mowing 15 acres of lawn but we do bush hog about 15 acres every 3 weeks. We also have a 5' disk 6' york rake and a 5' box blade we use from time to time. Ive ben there 4 years and we have put over 2100 hrs on this tractor with only minor problems hoses and belts. I cant tell you how many hours are on this tractor because the tach was replaced when one of the "former" employees took it swimming in a 40' 25 acre lake. Oh yes the boss wasnt a happy guy It was before I started. Seems he hit the reverse hydro pedal he thought enough to shut it off though before it went in. Yes a crane and a scuba diver to get it out.Drained all fluids and changed all filters and well that was 7 years ago and it still runs great everyday. So you can say what you want but we love our 1520. V

[davitk]

I think the problems stem from having a loader in the front, backhoe on the rear and hot rodding back and forth on uneven terrain. Most of us would never dream of treating a piece of equipment like that. FWIW

[dynasim]

In one of those incidents, one guy broke two.

If you look through this site about comments on the tc30, you will get high praise, interspersed with huge threads on about single incidents.

The incidents you have highlighted have been discussed in detail, and if you do a search, you will find the threads. In my opinion, NH's have the same reliability/robustness as the other brands, and mine has been better/more robust than advertised(tc45D).

Chris

[MessickFarmEqu]

One word of warning, many of the stuff thats showing up online about the TC30/1520 is all comming from the same guy posting under different names. I'm a moderator at another website and can see the IP addresses of people. No doubt it happens, but its probably not as serious as it may seem. Apparently someone has an axe to grind.

[EX3200]

Rightly or wrongly, I crossed NH off my list based on these reviews when I made my purchase recently. I'm sure there are stories and explanations as to why it happened in each circumstance. But you just don't see this level of dissatisfaction with a JD 790 or Kubota B3030 - you'd have a hard time finding a single dissatisfied customer for either tractor.

[MikePA]

Originally Posted by EX3200

Rightly or wrongly, I crossed NH off my list based on these reviews when I made my purchase recently. I'm sure there are stories and explanations as to why it happened in each circumstance. But you just don't see this level of dissatisfaction with a JD 790 or Kubota B3030 - you'd have a hard time finding a single dissatisfied customer for either tractor.

If someone doesn't find dissatisfied owners of the other brands, they didn't look very hard. A simple search for the word 'cracked' in the Kubota Owning Operating forum found the following sample.

Assuming the model is trouble free just because there aren't any threads about problems is just as wrong as assuming a model is junk because there are.

L2800 Cracked Rear End
BX2230 case damage
B2400 Cracked Front Axle

Same search in the JD Owning Operating,

2210/2305 Rear PTO Broke
4320 Cracked