Parts Availability in Years

[TimberXX]

If your keeping a tractor for 30 plus years, are you concerned about parts availability?

A friend of mine is considering:

Deere 1023e, built by Deere (finally)
Kubota BX 2370, built by Kubota
Massey GC1705, by Iseki
Kioti CS, don't know who build them.

Any thoughts on the how long parts will be available for?

 

[Brazos by Nemo]

Yes. That is why I bought a Kubota (also considered a John Deere for the same reason). They have both been around a long time and seem very solid. It could be some of the newer companies will be around for the long haul (and I hope for them the best as they seem to be good tractors) but I did not want to take a chance of having a tractor as a yard ornament in 15-20 years because I can't find parts.

 

[moriboy]

I my opinion, nobody does better on parts support than John Deere and Cat. I suspect Kubota does fine as well, but all of our Kubota products are less than 10 years old. No comment on Massey and Kioti since I have no experience with them.

On a side note, my dad has a late 70's John Deere dozer. The parts have dried up (for the most part) from Deere. Decent aftermarket support but some parts are only available thru salvage dealers.

 

[TimberXX]

The 1023 is the first sub compact built by Deere, which makes me worried about parts long term. My buddy had a 80s Deere 650 and parts are tough to find

 

[WM75Guy]

I would imagine ag equipment is different from construction equipment. You don't see a lot of 30-50 year old dozers still in operation. I pulled up the Ford 8N (1947-1952) parts diagram on Messick's website. Parts are still available and quite a bit was in stock. The N (2,8,9) series was the most produced tractor in the USA, 500,000 units. So that probably has a lot to do with how long parts are available. It would be interesting to know if the parts are new old stock or if New Holland is still having them made. If the total number of units built for a model is a small number then I doubt a lot of spare parts were built at the time.

 

[Brazos by Nemo]

I would imagine ag equipment is different from construction equipment. You don't see a lot of 30-50 year old dozers still in operation. I pulled up the Ford 8N (1947-1952) parts diagram on Messick's website. Parts are still available and quite a bit was in stock. The N (2,8,9) series was the most produced tractor in the USA, 500,000 units. So that probably has a lot to do with how long parts are available. It would be interesting to know if the parts are new old stock or if New Holland is still having them made. If the total number of units built for a model is a small number then I doubt a lot of spare parts were built at the time.

Repowell makes a great point. Pick a tractor that is very popular with a lot of units sold. If so the manufacturer with keep parts around longer and more used parts available on eBay.

 

[TimberXX]

Thanks all.

 

[Dave M7040]

Trump's relationship with China might make getting parts for Chinese built farm equipment and tractors hard to get!
Dave M7040

 

[RickB]

Parts availability after 10 years is directly related to the number of units sold, the demand for that particular part, and whether the tractor or component was outsourced.

 

[MHarryE]

Cat has a formula. After production stops, there is a period of time all parts are available, but can't remember. After that, if no sales in 6 years, discontinue. Parts are available for pre-WWII machines if they have sales. Largest problem is supplier discontinued parts. Before I retired I had my guys actually search out machines that had been junked, salvaged especially hydraulic pumps, had them remanufactured and sold to keep customers going as per our promise.

I am sure everyone has their own policy but from what customers tell me, Cat and Deere are the best. Whether that carries over to Deere's CUTs or defrauded product I don't know. At Cat if it had the Cat logo it got treated the same no matter the source or original cost.