To buy Chinese or Grey Market

[zonta223]

Thanks everyone for your input.
Perhaps I should have explained more fully what I want the tractor for.

I own a small vineyard (about 6000 vines) on the edge of the Barossa Valley in South Australia.

Have no real use for a front end loder so not having one does not bother me.
Have an old International with a fork lift on the front which gets used 2 days a year......to lift grape bins onto truck.
Got an old International B250.... great old tractor..does all the Ripping and ploughing and pull my vine spraying rig with ease....However is really a bit wide to fit down rows of vines without causing some damage.

The kubota is rotten to start...........got new glow plugs,battery,recon starter motor etc.......but think it lacks compression....(does breathe through breather pipe) but fits down the vine rows perfectly.......runs the slasher and rotary hoe easily, is 4 wd for the steep parts of the vineyard..........but does not have enought grunt to tow the sprayer.

Kubota wheel track just 4 ft
Inter B250 wheel track 51/2 ft and is only 2wd

Euroleopard wheel track just over 41/2 feet. and should have enough grunt for sprayer.

Looked for jinma dealers .none in the state.....closest one I could find over 1000 miles away.

looks like I am talking myself into Euroleopard...
Going to finish up with a tractor for every implement
big boys toys.

Thanks for the input
regards
Bob

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I think Foton is about as good as any Chinese tractor and a better choice than grey market for you. They tend to have more fancy cockpits than most but the extra sheet metal is actually a little bit of a turnoff for me in terms of maintenance access.

Google Maps is wonderful - you have a New Holland dealer close by also - BMS?
Check out their T1510. (used to be called the TC30) The last time I was looking they were priced pretty competitively. With ag tires it might fit your rows.

I'm not saying it's a better choice for you but they are nice little tractors and worth checking out.

 

[Walter L]

Bob i have a Foton FT404 40 hp w/4cyl engine for 3 yrs with over 100 hrs on it, no problems so far and the tractor is brute strong. I have a small garden that I use it for and bush hog the grass on 6 acres, run in hi range 1 gear at about 1600 RPM. About a month ago I bought a sub soiler to bust the hard pan in our garden the soil is pretty poor and mostly red clay I hooked it up and used 1 gear low range and put the sub soiler as far down as I could the tractor would not pull it in 2 wd (I have no water in the tires) it would spin so I shifted to 4 WD and continued sub soiling the whole garden, when I got back to the tractor shed I noticed that the new sub soiler was bent out at the bottom brace and bent in at the top brace , I took it back to Howse implement near our home and the guy wanted to know if i hit a stump or root, No just red clay, they gave me a new one with a thicker metal on the two braces. I cant believe how strong the 404 is. I have been completely satisfied with the tractor and I have had Long, International,Ford, Dutz & David Brown tractors.

Walter

 

[Steve C]

Bob, I have a 2005 Farm Pro 2425, (same as a Jimna). I bought it used with about 40 hours on it. I now have about 80 hours on it. Most of the implements I have for it are at least one size larger than I would expect would be ideal, but in spite of that it seems to pull them all without even breathing hard. I have a 5 foot brush hog, a 6 foot tiller, a 7 foot back blade, a 5 foot box blade, a 30 inch dirt scoop a 1500 lb lawn roller along with a sub soil chisel plow and a middle buster. I have loaded the dirt scoop with 800 lb of bags of cement to move them and the tractor lifted it with ease. The scoop itself weighs a couple hundred pounds. I have not found anything this little tractor can't do yet. Pulling the dirt scoop in hard clay did require me to put it in 4 wheel drive because the rear wheels started to spin, but they are not loaded, and once the front wheels started helping the rear quit spinning. The 2 things I find fault with on this tractor is the brakes. They are weak, and the floor boards are a little cramped if you have large boots (size 11). But for what I paid for it, I can live with that. My tractor has no major leaks. The power steering is wonderful (Ihave many hours on a ford 8n with a loader, and manual steering so the [power steering is a big plus for me. Long term I don't know, this little tractor seems to have a lot of metal in it and it seems happy to do whatever I want to do with it.

 

[LBrown59]

Thanks everyone for your input.
Perhaps I should have explained more fully what I want the tractor for.

I own a small vineyard (about 6000 vines) on the edge of the Barossa Valley in South Australia.

Have no real use for a front end loder so not having one does not bother me.
Have an old International with a fork lift on the front which gets used 2 days a year......to lift grape bins onto truck.
Got an old International B250.... great old tractor..does all the Ripping and ploughing and pull my vine spraying rig with ease....However is really a bit wide to fit down rows of vines without causing some damage.

The kubota is rotten to start...........got new glow plugs,battery,recon starter motor etc.......but think it lacks compression....(does breathe through breather pipe) but fits down the vine rows perfectly.......runs the slasher and rotary hoe easily, is 4 wd for the steep parts of the vineyard..........but does not have enought grunt to tow the sprayer.

Kubota wheel track just 4 ft
Inter B250 wheel track 51/2 ft and is only 2wd

Euroleopard wheel track just over 41/2 feet. and should have enough grunt for sprayer.

Looked for jinma dealers .none in the state.....closest one I could find over 1000 miles away.

looks like I am talking myself into Euroleopard...
Going to finish up with
a tractor for every implement

Where have I heard some thing like this before.?

 

[valley]

Hope you'll post a picture of what you get!

 

[Bundybird]

HELLO ALL!
This is my first post here, so please be kind!
I bought a euroleopard - yes foton 45hp. First tractor ive ever owned, had it for nearly 2 months, clocked up 45 hours already (15 were most likely her sitting whilst her newbie female driver was working out how to use the post driver, auger & hammer!)
They are OK, im used to operating a FEL, but i think she will do the heavy stuff i wanted her for. Its all a huge learning experience for me! still to work out how the heck to operate the box scraper properly,... so i can grade a few bike tracks for kids, it wont dig in, just skims over top, but ill work it out eventualy.
Would rather a daedong,.. but the price tag was out of my reach.
I beleive Euroleopard now offer 5 YEAR warranty..!

 

[Turbo]

HELLO ALL!
This is my first post here, so please be kind!
I bought a euroleopard - yes foton 45hp. First tractor ive ever owned, had it for nearly 2 months, clocked up 45 hours already (15 were most likely her sitting whilst her newbie female driver was working out how to use the post driver, auger & hammer!)
They are OK, im used to operating a FEL, but i think she will do the heavy stuff i wanted her for. Its all a huge learning experience for me! still to work out how the heck to operate the box scraper properly,... so i can grade a few bike tracks for kids, it wont dig in, just skims over top, but ill work it out eventualy.
Would rather a daedong,.. but the price tag was out of my reach.
I beleive Euroleopard now offer 5 YEAR warranty..!

Check out youtube.com here the link..

YouTube - using a box scraper

 

[zonta223]

I think Foton is about as good as any Chinese tractor and a better choice than grey market for you. They tend to have more fancy cockpits than most but the extra sheet metal is actually a little bit of a turnoff for me in terms of maintenance access.

Google Maps is wonderful - you have a New Holland dealer close by also - BMS?
Check out their T1510. (used to be called the TC30) The last time I was looking they were priced pretty competitively. With ag tires it might fit your rows.

I'm not saying it's a better choice for you but they are nice little tractors and worth checking out.

Hi Brad
Checked out the dealer already.
The New Holland is a Japnese Tractor.....Shibauru or something like that. No remotes......and about $8000 dearer than Euroleopard and only 12 months warranty as opposed to 3 years.... Got offered a great deal on a jenma with FE loader but the dealer is 1500 klms away. But this is "normal" for were we live

I live in the state of South Australia.......to give you some idea of its size...Texas (according to the internet) has a land area of approx 695,000 sq klms......South Australia has a land area of approx 980,000 sq klms.....yet we only have a population of 1.5 million people (and 75% of them live in one city).....not as many as some cities in texas..... So our tractor dealers tend to be few and far between even for "Big Brand" tractors.......for Chinese Tractors...almost non existant.

Heard the Euroleopard dealer may be shutting down so may have to look elsewhere..

regards
Bob

 

[carpenter383]

Hi Brad
Checked out the dealer already.
The New Holland is a Japnese Tractor.....Shibauru or something like that. No remotes......and about $8000 dearer than Euroleopard and only 12 months warranty as opposed to 3 years.... Got offered a great deal on a jenma with FE loader but the dealer is 1500 klms away. But this is "normal" for were we live

I live in the state of South Australia.......to give you some idea of its size...Texas (according to the internet) has a land area of approx 695,000 sq klms......South Australia has a land area of approx 980,000 sq klms.....yet we only have a population of 1.5 million people (and 75% of them live in one city).....not as many as some cities in texas..... So our tractor dealers tend to be few and far between even for "Big Brand" tractors.......for Chinese Tractors...almost non existant.

Heard the Euroleopard dealer may be shutting down so may have to look elsewhere..

regards
Bob

I thought Case/new holland was Italian?