Best Tractor ?..this should open a can of worms

[jonyyuma]

Case wanted the Red color from IH and a few of the patents as in the round hay bailer. they bought them in the early 80's back when we had a Foundry and factory in Mem.I was proud to work for them back then too. Product was rated at 1500 hours...American built.Built a new foundry in mexico, then sold it all...Ih is only Navistar trucks now.

 

[radioman]

Hmm this is a tough one. In the tractor market, the answers is more in the gray area. I say you need to have HP catergory. As for homeowner size, kubota wins hands down. for larger tractors for farming, I'd say its a tossup between MF and JD.
:2cents:

 

[jimmyj]

Any tractor that is in good working condition and fully paid for.

Around here Kubota and JD seem to be the "top brands".

 

[bigbull338]

i had a machanic tell me that their shop stayed full of case tractors.

 

[bp fick]

The posts here of late show lots of cases of cabin fever. hurry up spring! Maybe we can talk again about real things

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Whatever works fastest, costs the least, and does the job I need it to do at the moment.

Let's see, that's 3 different requirements, so that would mean up to 3 different tractors could qualify as "Best".

 

[8404]

Fendt wins best tractor and the New Halland is second.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/landing-page/Machinery/big-tractor-test/verdict/

 

[BobRip]

I don't agree with this. A good Quality tractor today, will be a good quality tractor tomorrow. As long as parts for your "newer" tractor are still available why wouldn't it last? I owned a 1959 Allis D17, and it ran great, but I had to rebuild the carb every few years, and adjust the clutch, and if the power steering went, I had to have it split, and rebuilt, and on, and on. So yes it is still going. Why wont my Kubota L4400 last me till I die? I maintain it, and I will fix things as they go. Kubota seems to be around to stay. I am sure when they started to replace the steam tractors of the late 1800s, with gas tractors, the old Farmers were shaking their heads, and making the same arguments.

My concern would be the electronics. My AC failed (7 years old) and Carrier did not have parts for the electronics. They could not get parts for the drive circuit board to repair it. I tried to get a remote for my 15 year old garage door opener and it was not available. Electronic parts change so quickly that parts are just not available. So you cannot rebuild them. Even finding used circuit boards that work can be a problem since some components degrade with age. I may be wrong here, but these are my concerns. Yes, some parts are available for decades, but it only takes one bad part to stop the machine.

 

[MiserableOldFart]

As far as how long they will be around, to me, the parts question is the big one. How many models of small tractors was Ford building in 1949? How many models NH now? This is a huge difference, and I seriously doubt that my heirs will have access to parts for my NH TC 26 DA that the 8N owners have now. If parts are available, these machines should last, but there are just too many models. For those concerned about this, your best bet might be to find the one model of whatever make is selling the most, and hope for the best.

From what I saw in my research going back a few years, if you have the money, I'd consider Deere. If not, any of the other major brands. Deeres seem to be quite a bit more expensive in most sizes, and they appear to be very well made. Another factor is weight. If you are going to be mostly mowing grass, too much weight can be a problem. On the other hand, the extra weight is a plus for a lot of jobs that require traction. There is a very large difference in weight between my 26 hp NH and a similar powered Mahindra - the Mahindra is much heavier and they boast about it, and for many jobs, this is with reason. I ended up with the NH partly because the weight was less for mowing grass. It can still make a bit of a mess for the first half of the season when there tends to be soft, wet spots. The heavier machines would probably be worse.

 

[David Devuono]

Hands down Mercedes makes the best tractor. When your done playing, you can take your honey to dinner in it.