Tractor Sizing What horsepower and or weight tractor is enough

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When you buy out-of-state local warranty service is uncertain.

Tractor manufactures reimburse dealers for warranty work via pre-set reduced labor rates and pre-set reduced parts prices, so warranty work is only marginally profitable to dealers. Kubota electrical components ordered for repairs, warranty or non-warranty, cannot be returned for credit. Others probably the same.

Manufactures limit warranty transportation reimbursement.

Dealers prefer to have the cushion of $1,000 gross profit on a new compact tractor sale before commencing minimally profitable warranty repairs.

Some out-of-state buyers call national HQ to complain about indifferent reception for warranty work at near-home dealer but for national HQ this out-of-state complaint is an endlessly playing broken record. Dealers are independent businesses.

What value do you place on hassle-free new tractor warranty service?

The topic of buying out of state and saving several thousand dollars has come up in conversation with a few different salesman. Mainly only to try and keep them honest. part of that conversation was that the dealers will still do warranty work, however, more than likely not gonna get a courtesy transport and might also get pushed to the back of the line.

I value a good shop as long as they value a good customer

 

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The one thing I considered when buying was availability of parts. I have JD dealers all over the place and online too. I found in my area, the NH dealers are getting to be few and far and less of a presence online except for Messicks. Kubota, LS and Kioti, I know of one dealer each in about a 50 mile radius, but seems like they are expanding. I know a lot of people say the other cheap color tractors are great, but I've worked on a lot of used older stuff, and trying to chase down a part on a 10 or 20 year old tractor that wasn't a big seller can be very hard and expensive. If you can afford the down time then no big deal, but it seems nothing ever breaks when the tractor isn't be used for a project.

Jut my thought, but buy a used one of a name brand and you won't regret it. If you plan to only keep it a few years, it may not matter.

My 4410 with the AG tires with filled rears kicks butt. It will do everything you are asking of it and more. There are the newer series of it as well that has been out for awhile so should be available.

Either way, what ever you get , get the heavier framed tractors, and I always try to get the max HP in the series. Hydrostatic drives suck a lot of HP out of you, and I notice a huge difference between my 4410 (35 HP) and the 4210 (27 HP) just driving especially with hills. Same tractor basically, just less HP.

:thumbsup:
This purchase will be for keeps so im also looking at the 10-20 yr down the road parts issue. Already tried the used tractor thing and got bit.

 

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If you happen to have a dealer in your area, check out Branson.

Good solid and simple mechanical tractor with little to no electronics. Weight and lift more than the competition.

Heavy duty construction powered by Kukje engine built under Cummins license.

Lots of features that come standard while others have a premium price.

Unfortunately theres none in my area that i can find.

 

[rScotty]

:thumbsup:
This purchase will be for keeps so im also looking at the 10-20 yr down the road parts issue. Already tried the used tractor thing and got bit.

We see a lot of preference here on TBN for buying new and making payments instead of buying used and doing the maintenance.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but it means there ought to be a lot of used machines on the market and I'm not seeing them. Why?
rScotty

 

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We see a lot of preference here on TBN for buying new and making payments instead of buying used and doing the maintenance.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but it means there ought to be a lot of used machines on the market and I'm not seeing them. Why?
rScotty

I do my own maintenance, moderate repairs and parts replacement. At this point its not worth the possible headache and stress. Risk/reward that im not willing to take AGAIN. I need to get work done.
I live in the heart of AG and dairy land. Work in and around it daily I see hundreds of tractors daily. They are being driven down the roads next to me. Theres very few used compacts for sale here. Id guess almost all compacts last forever when maintained. When significant damage does occur, engine failure or otherwise, it isnt cost effective to repair when having to pay someone to do that. They end up at all the tractor salvage yards around here. Scrap metal for steel cemetary. enlighten me.

 

[jeff9366]

When the economy sours there will be plenty of used compact tractors on the market.

 

[Egon]

Nice, that company is out of Madera too which is close. Is that thing too much for a heavier 35-40hp compact to handle?

With three shanks it should work but depends on how deep you go. The company shown was picked at random for illustration purposes only. Usually the manufacturer will be stating HP required.

 

[ovrszd]

I do my own maintenance, moderate repairs and parts replacement. At this point its not worth the possible headache and stress. Risk/reward that im not willing to take AGAIN. I need to get work done.
I live in the heart of AG and dairy land. Work in and around it daily I see hundreds of tractors daily. They are being driven down the roads next to me. Theres very few used compacts for sale here. Id guess almost all compacts last forever when maintained. When significant damage does occur, engine failure or otherwise, it isnt cost effective to repair when having to pay someone to do that. They end up at all the tractor salvage yards around here. Scrap metal for steel cemetary. enlighten me.

I live in a very similar area that you described.

I think the lack of used CUTs is more because of their lack of heavy use rather than them lasting forever. The average CUT probably sees 300hrs or less per year. Meaning a 10yr old CUT only has 3000 hrs or less. I've read posts here on TBN by owners of ten year old CUTs with less than 1000 hrs on the clock.

Whereas the cattle rancher's Utility or small AG tractor that he tends cattle with will get 700-1000 hrs per year. Meaning a 10yr old Utility or AG class tractor could have 10,000 hrs on the clock and is probably on it's second powertrain by then.

 

[rScotty]

When the economy sours there will be plenty of used compact tractors on the market.

Possibly, I kind of expect it will too - although it's worth noting that it didn't happen last time the economy soured.

In 2007/08 we were looking at buy another tractor and everyone was concerned about the bad economy. Stocks had dropped by almost 50%, the housing market completely collapsed, lots of people being laid off or fired, big and little banks going bust.....the collapsing economy was the pretty much what everyone talked about.

The collapsing economy in 2007/08 didn't seem to have much effect on tractor prices or availability that we could see. We were looking for a good newish used tractor and at new ones too. JD, NH, Massey, Cat, Yanmar, & Kubota. We were hoping to see a lot of consignment tractors and private sales so we traveled some. But people just weren't jumping up to sell their compact & utility size tractors. At the dealerships there were noticibly fewer employees, although prices were the same as always.

rScotty

 

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Ok, this process is the most research and time consuming ive ever done for a large purchase.
So far ive decided to stay away from the Korean/off brands as the small dealers that have them want top dollar for them. Also,the small dealers may or may not have the support in the long run.
I'm shying away from Deere as i had a bad situation with them on ordering a few parts. They ended up charging me $100 shipping for around a $115 part. Additionally the proprietaryness of their stuff and they think their stuff is gold. The good is they arnt going anywhere and theyve been around here forever. Maybe i should look more into whats available from another dealer.
Im still in talks with Kubota. This guy has thrown comments out like "theyre all built in India except for Yanmar and Kubota". This statement has me doing more research and doubting my decisions. Kubota has a prescence here and isnt going away.
I really liked the Yanmar i drove. Very small dealer that has the tractors on the side. He sells and services alot of other equipment besides tractors. Has me concerned as tractors arnt his main business and who knows if he'll eventually drop the Yanmar as theyre not a big item here.
I liked a few different Masseys. Dealer has been around for 35+ years. Now im concerned with the whole "built in India" thing.
Looked at Mahindra and it felt cheap and plastic similar to the smaller Deere's. Smaller dealer but wanted an arm and a leg for the machine.


Is the made in India thing an issue? Is there a QC issue with it? Cheap steel? Cheap welds? Should i be concerned? Is the economy models Massey an inferior product? Appears compact Deere are also India made, are they inferior? What else?