Belarus tractors

[gimpel]

Hi! My name is Peter, I'm the CEO in one of russian dealers of Minsk Tractor's Plant.
I'd like to get some ideas how to supply our tractors to north-american market. And, for end-users, have you any interest in buying time-approved solid tractors (from 50 to 160hp) with cheap spare parts and easy-to-fix? For example, 82hp 4x4 tractor will cost about 27.000-30.000USD for end buyer. The quality is much better than chinese tractors with comparable prices.
Thank you! Regards, Peter.

 

[paulharvey]

Wasnt there some sort of trade restrictions with Belarus,that prevented importing them?

 

[daugen]

Peter,
welcome.

Belarus (tractor) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

sounds like you guys have "come a long way" and
can now compete in the more sophisticated markets.
But lots of folk like a basic tractor too.

one of the things you will find on this forum is that most members are very
dealer sensitive, we tractor owners wants parts and service and we don't want to wait for them
more than a day or two. Until you can demonstrate your intentions for dealer networks, and service/parts
capability, you can only compete on price.

The article above stated you had/did have a dealer network in the US before. What was the story on that?
What are you going to do differently?

I wonder if Tractor Supply Co wants a line of tractors?...
Good luck.

 

[3v0]

I do not know how to say this gently. Belarus is not new to the US market. IMHO Belarus needs to work on quality and the public perception of its quality and durability. That's going to take more then advertising. I would start by offering longer warranties then the competition.

Now before anyone offers to cut me off at the knees. A dealer brought a Belarus combine out to dads farm in western North Dakota, I do not recall when. It was accompanied by a factory mechanic. He could not keep the thing moving and there was a lot of wheat going out the back end. That was decades ago and things may have improved.

 

[KYDan]

My Kubota dealer was a Belarus and Long dealer before he picked up the Kubota line. There are still a few of the Belarus rusting away around here and many more were sold as scrap. There are a lot of horror stories about them. The most humorous story about the usefulness of them was they were very heavy and made a good anchor. To regain consumer confidence and acceptance will be a long, slow process.

 

[foreman Etexas]

I had an 804 and the thing was trying to find parts. It was a nice heavy tractor,liked the power down 3pt,the gears where kinda hard to find but over all if could have found parts,wouldnt have sold it for parts.

 

[JasG]

I do not know how to say this gently. Belarus is not new to the US market. IMHO Belarus needs to work on quality and the public perception of its quality and durability. That's going to take more then advertising. I would start by offering longer warranties then the competition.

Now before anyone offers to cut me off at the knees. A dealer brought a Belarus combine out to dads farm in western North Dakota, I do not recall when. It was accompanied by a factory mechanic. He could not keep the thing moving and there was a lot of wheat going out the back end. That was decades ago and things may have improved.

This has been my experience with the product also. I knew about a dozen farmers that tried them and of the dozen or so tractors, only 2 didn't break every 5 minutes. One was owned by a horse guy who never worked it. The other did get worked, but 1 out of 10-12 that didn't need major work. Fuel usage was also an issue, they seemed to use a lot more fuel than a similar sized IH or Deere.

I remember an ad back in the day that it said for the price of one of these, with a picture of a Deere. Below it said you could own 3 of these, with 3 pictures of these tractors. One farmer that owned one saw that ad and said to me, "you need 3 of them, because only one would be running." "The other 2 will either be in the shop or waiting for parts".

 

[paulharvey]

I dont know what sizes had problems, but the 40 hp sized had some intresting features from what I understand. 30W oil and diesel are the only fluids you needed, and at least some models had down preasure on the 3 pt. Yes yes I know im going to get lynched fir this but I like simple, and I like down preasure. But then agian im not currently in the market, but I would think they can get better quality coming out of Minsk or Kiev then from China, and Jinma seems to have its nitch.

 

[2458n]

When looking at a 65 horse power tractor I was impressed with the price and the 4x4 capability. this was five years back. Avoided one that had the four wheel drive needing attention. simply put no parts available. Everyone new someone that had one one but not anymore. Simply put you will have a hard time overcoming a previous lack of dealership support. good equipment or not 30,000 is to much of a gamble for many of us.

 

[rdbigfarmboy]

Great to hear. I bought 2 new in 94 and one used. I would want the simple transmission say a 8 or 10 speed with some sync. I still use a 562 9 speed. I dislike the big jump between 8 a working speed and 9 a road speed. I would want a lower platform cab or seat. The older models just sat too high. The cab is just too tight and hard to get in. I like the fwd of the older models and the differential lock. Replace the 3 hydraulic sticks with a joystick for the outlets and a single lever for the rear arms. Simplify the electronics. Brales that dont grab and are easily adjusted.
I probably would buy from a local stable faithful honest dealer. I would want a 5 year powertrain and 1 year anything with 1 year if I dont like it take it back warranty.
And yes I like the one I use its a good loader tractor.

 

[Bluegill2]

They were sold around here in the early-mid 90s'. Disappeared shortly after that. I wouldn't be interested.

 

[MHarryE]

I find them at auctions I attend every now and then. They bring scrap value. They built such a bad reputation that one would think they would want a name change and back away from any ties to the past. Lots of companies have done it, thinking of Datsun reverting to their parent Nissan for one. Who even remembers the B-210s that rusted out in 2 years? Sure don't relate that to a Maxima. Even calling it a Minsk might break away from the Belarus taboo. How many Americans even know Minsk is the Capitol of Bearus?

 

[DT86]

..the gears where kinda hard to find...

Like this?



That was by far the craziest gear pattern I've ever seen.

 

[MBTRAC]

We've run various Belarus tractors over the years all purchased s/h, the mosy recent is a Belarus 1770 185hp procured for just under .AUD$5K & have put around 1100hrs+ on it in c.17months - No breakdowns so far & only maintenance costs have been for oil & filter changes + $485 for a compressor & regass to fix the A/C & in total has now done 8364hrs which by my reckoning is a really good value machine.

Despite what the perception is, our experience is the c.150hp Belarus 4x4's from the 1980's/early 1990's are basic but very robust tractors - easy to work on ( as a product meant for the then Eastern Block countries most repairs are simple & conducted "in field") , parts can be made to fit &/or fabricated readily, & cheap to run ( as they tolerate most poor quality fuels & our Belarus tractors have always been run on a waste oil 30/70 diesel mix thereby saving $'s + the hassle of waste oil disposal.)

Sure there are some models of Belarus tractors where maybe the quality/design is "dubious" but the same can be said of almost any manufacturer including JD, MF, Case, NH, Cat.....etc

Would I buy another S/H Belarus ? You bet for the right price, if ever this 1770 & our other earlier model 1500 manages to wear out. Would I buy a new Belarus, not while you can continue to pick up these rare beasts at give away prices S/H.....IMO we'd take another ancient s/h Belarus/MTZ over any current new Chinese or Indian produced machine.

 

[daugen]

I'm curious as to the engines used in the past, and now. For example, Bosch injector pumps or something we've never heard of?
Who makes the engines? I know very little about Eastern Europe/Russian style engines.

 

[hodge]

Gimpel, you should be more active in this conversation, since you started the thread. Being an active participant builds relationship with the people that you are trying to convince; it also shows that you are genuine about what you are asking. Otherwise, it just looks like a planted advertisement for Belarus.
A friend of mine had a 420A, and I spent a good bit of time scouring over it. He bought it real cheap, and it ran ok, but it was a risk to own. After looking over the designs of the tractor, I would have passed. Belarus may have come a long way, but that has to be proven, not trusted at the word of a new poster on MTF. And, personally, I bristle when a tractor with a questionable past is lauded over what is being offered by other foreign manufacturers, without any current history or proof of reliability.

 

[daugen]

Peter,
would be in your best interests to respond, if only to say thanks for input.
You are showing a silk purse when most of us see a cow's ear.

 

[rdbigfarmboy]

I have first hand experience with the bigger water cooled models. The others were made at another plant. I sold my first 2 for my money back after 5 years. I never bought them 4 resale value. I bought them because I needed a big heavy 4 wd loader tractor. When the dealer network vanished the value of a good working 80 hp was about 2500. But now theyre being exported and are about 3 times that.
Note
This is the only used 4 wd 80 or so hp tractor for under 10,000 you will see.
I now have Zetor tractors along with the 1 belarus.
Do what said in the other post and you will have a user friendly tractor.

 

[3v0]

I see a few people willing to buy used ones at bargin prices but would any of you guys pay what they are asking for the new models. And I do not have any idea what that might be. I would guess that they have to be asking about the same as other lower tech imports if I can say that without getting stomped on.

 

[D7E]

I had quite a bit of experience with 80-90hp size back in late 80's early 90's and apart from the engine the rest was terrible . You never knew which part would fail daily on them , Even on low houred (1-2000hr) tractors . And really very poor performers power wise. Even zetor were better
We had some belarus engines in swathers which were pretty good but they did jump around a lot and eat a lot of engine mounts .