Hi Wrath, When I was replacing my Iseki built MF1250 I drove both the MF 1840M and 2850M. Both are excellent tractors, glad to see Massey went back to Iseki to build these machines. It finally came down to 2850M vs the Kioti DK4510. I was able to add dual rear remotes, 3rd function valve, a 72" grapple, and an 84" dual spindle rotary cutter to the DK4510 for the same price as the 2850M by itself. That's hard to pass up. So far I have been very happy with the Kioti. If prices had been at par, I would probably went with the Massey because of the 27 year experience with the 1250 but I have absolutely no regrets. I have not verified this but the Kioti dealer said that the biggest factor in price difference is the exchange rate between USA and South Korea. You can simply buy more tractor for the money. IMHO you can't go wrong with any of the choices you are currently looking at. Good luck!
I've never found anyone to complain about Massey. Even their weird little GC series.
I'm mostly interested in a digging and moving heavy crap tractor. I'm getting old. I have a zeroturn to mow and crap to clear trails. But I'm tired of digging holes slowly. I'm also tired of moving heavy crap by hand or with either a tractor too big (heavy, 2135) or too small (subcompact). I'm tired of maintaining a fleet. I don't need 4wd, but I'd use it if I had it. My experience of having a truck on 44" Boggers has taught me that you pick bigger battles when you have better equipment.
I'd like a 8.5' backhoe capability. Mostly for doing stupid things like clearing the edge of the pond or clearing ditches. Hydraulics that can keep up with me. Enough HP to force the manufacturer to install a hydrostatic drive that doesn't stall on hills (common problem I've had with the neighbors' Kubotas).
I keep settling on a 3500-4000lb tractor that can lift 2500lbs with the FEL. The problem with the smaller end is that you lose capability of the FEL and a frame that can handle a 8.5' backhoe. The problem at 4000lb is that it gets kind of big for swamp work (about half my property has water 1' below the surface) and it would be hard on my bridges.
I like the Massey tractors a lot. I like the M series. I'd probably buy it as a fully loaded open station. So all 3 sets of remotes, mid mount PTO, and probably turf tires but maybe I'd consider R4s and groove them. I grooved the neighbor's R4s on his Kubota so he didn't have to run chains anymore when plowing. Everything I have now has either R1 or turf tires and I can cope with either. Depending on model, I can probably wrangle 9-14% off MSRP depending on time of year.
The Kioti DK series piqued my interest because it seems to have a lot of tractor for the money. But around here, the money isn't that different because all of the Kioti dealers seem to want full price and appear to be in collusion. Which isn't a bad price, I think because their eye is on the Kubota market (which also won't budge on MSRP), but it leaves them vulnerable to people like me that is comparing more than just Kubota.
Within an hour I can hit all the major tractor brands. I don't much care for most of the dealers, including the closest Massey dealer. If I got a Kioti I'd probably be going out of state.
The DK4710SE would be about $39k *with a backhoe*, more or less what I want. For whatever reason, their HST tractors seem like they're really expensive. A closer comparison would probably be the DK5310SE but I don't need the horsepower (and for whatever reason, this makes the tractor way more expensive). The 2850M would be about $36k *without a backhoe* and depending on where I got the backhoe from it'd be like $6500-9000 from calling around. So about 10% more for the Massey.
I shouldn't care about resale value because I'll be honest I pretty much never sell anything until I got my money's worth... but around here driving a Kioti off the lot is like driving a Kia off the lot... it drops value by 30%. Technically I shouldn't care, but it does have my attention because there is usually something driving that perception that lead to causation.
