Are these Eurotrac any good ?

[Renze]

Thank you people.

I will inform my neighbour in discretion (not his son as he talks his father nuts about a new tractor ) about your consensus thought on Foton/Euroleopard.
There are no dealers, the importer is in the West of the Netherlands, (mind you, our little country is less than 200 km wide i think) but all tractors include a parts manual so you can order parts directly. I can take my share of wrenching, another neighbbor works as a forklift mechanic, and a local agricultural contractor, a friend of my neighbor, has 40 years of experience as a mechanic and builds his own machinery, like a silage bunker trailer with a ground speed PTO driven axle, to drive through virtually any bog.
Servicing this thing is really not going to be any problem...

One of you mentions casting voids... Well i told my neighbor not to expect to do the tricks with a Foton as i do with my Zetor, like manouvering on the front wheels only, but he wont be using a front loader, and has only a small 3pt hitch bucket so the frame doesnt get much strain.

 

[crazymike]

I havn't seen any problems with Foton castings myself, but I also havn't gone through 100s like some of these dealers dealing with other brands.

I can tell you fixing them is quite simple.

Problems I have encountered are the starter wires being too close to the exhaust and melting. Hydraulic lines rubbing and poor design on the factory FEL.

By checking the routing of your starter wires and hydraulic lines you can easily prevent any problems. And should be looked after by your dealer. As for the FEL, I would go with a local brand over chinese. The chinese loader that came in didn't have good seals on the rams or hoses.

 

[Renze]

As said, the poor factory loader is not going to be an issue as he doesnt want one, because of the increase in turning radius, and because he doesnt want to make it more complicated than necessary for his son.

The only thing i've read about Foton last night, digging through many posts in this forum, was that the front axle diff can break when using front loaders in MFWD mode... again, no front loader means no front axle diff problems...

I'll let you know if my neighbor gets one

 

[crazymike]

As said, the poor factory loader is not going to be an issue as he doesnt want one, because of the increase in turning radius, and because he doesnt want to make it more complicated than necessary for his son.

The only thing i've read about Foton last night, digging through many posts in this forum, was that the front axle diff can break when using front loaders in MFWD mode... again, no front loader means no front axle diff problems...

I'll let you know if my neighbor gets one

The only first hand experience we have with that was people using too small a tractor and overly heavy loads on the loader.

The bigger Fotons actually use LUK and DANA axles FYI

 

[Renze]

Hmm Dana axles had their share of problems too, when mounted on MF 3125 and similar models... Also front diffs coming apart...
For real heavy duty FEL abuse, there is no substitute for a Zetor anyways... Or it had to be a construction tractor.

 

[Renze]

O.K i promised to inform you about my neighbors new tractor:

My neighbor called the trader, which is located in the port of Rotterdam. they never called back so he went to look around. Another neighbor in the landscape business knew that the importer of the tub grinders and other heavy duty greenkeeping machinery they use at the company he works, also imported Kioti. He called the importer, and was called back the next day by a company in town only 6 km away, which also sold my neighbor his chainsaw, lawn mower etcetera. it turned out that "his" dealer recently aquired the Kioti franchise.

For him, the choice was obviously: better pay a bit more to the established dealer in town than to an importer 150 km away, who doesnt want to trade the Kubota B7000 either...

He bought a CK 20 but wants some modifications done: the rops needs to be chopped down 60 cm because his tractor barn has a normal car garage door, the front weight carrier extends too much forward, he wants the weights right in front of the nose, and he wants R1 ag tires instead of lawn slicks, when the corn silage is off the fields, his son wants to go out and cultivate, and his father doesnt want to go pull him out with the Unimog every hour...