Massey Ferguson 1528 for Snowblowing
Model Year: 2009
Looking for a compact tractor for snowblowing, primarily, and other chores on a small country property. I considered Massey, Kubota, and New Holland. I will admit to being biased toward MF, and that's what I bought---a 1528 hydrostatic. The tractor was nearly mint with only about 4 hours on the clock. It came with a 60" mid-mount mower and is on turf tires. The 1528 now has a Massey 1410 63" snowblower and Curtis cab. Still to be installed are a windshield wiper, cab heater, and a defogging fan. It has more than 30 hours of blowing snow now, and has performed mostly very well: after one blizzard I (eventually) got it through a drift nearly as tall as the cab. On lesser amounts it chews through without working too hard. We've had record snow this spring. I can't imagine living in rural North Dakota without a good snowblower. Even without heat, the Curtis cab has been comfortable, although noisy compared to a factory cab, but I always wear ear protection. Reliability has been 100%, although of course it's still young. Downsides are few, but a bit annoying: my main beef is the lever-operated differential lock. It can be very balky to engage and is awkward to use. A pedal (as on the gear 1528s) would be far superior; this is an odd design choice. Getting the PTO lever in and out of gear can be balky, as can the front-wheel-assist lever, but both will go in without too much coaxing. Other than that, a great, tough tractor so far. I was worried it would not be up to really heavy snow, but so far so good. On balance I am very well pleased with this tractor. It's the right shade of red, too.
Pros: Power, handling, dashboard PTO switch, hydro-static transmission.
Cons: Balky diff-lock lever, balky 4WD lever.
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