Blue

Rick572 · Feb 25, 2001

Just spent the afternoon at a home and garden show where I was able to get my first look at some new blue tractors. I didn't know we had a dealer for them in this general area and did not know that they made compact tractors untill I found TBN. Spent quite a bit of time looking at a couple blues and I was very impressed... These are very nice tractors, and especially for the money. In about 2 years I'm planning to buy another tractor and I will definitely be making the comparision between Blue and Orange.

Thomas · Feb 26, 2001

Rick572,
You didn't mention JD towards the end..
JD back and running strong these days,maybe worth checking out.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Rick572 · Feb 26, 2001

Thomas, The JD is another fine tractor, and I have some experience operating JD, (310/410 Bh). The problem with JD in this area is the dealer. I have considered JD a couple times, but he never has what I want and always tries to sell what he got on his lot, He always wants top dollar for his stuff along with a month to six week or so wait. As opposed to Orange, who has what I want, I can sit on it, drive it, and take it home if I choose to do so. When I bought my last one, I had a 79 B7100 bh/fel w/23000hrs, also with what I believe to have been a broken piston. I needed a back hoe Quick for my business. Jd dealer didn't have one, and didn't want my tractor as a trade in. Kobota dealer had 4 of just what I wanted and gave me a good price for my trade in. This has been the story for the past 15 years. I believe that the jd is a fine tractor, but in this area the dealers need to become more competitive and stock a better selection of tractors. That said, I do like JD equipment and will, as always, look at as many tractors as possible when the time come to buy another one.

Rick

fishman · Feb 27, 2001

Rick572,

Did I read that right, 23000 hours!/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif That is a LOT! If that isn't a typo, that must be some sort of record for a compact tractor /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Boondox · Feb 27, 2001

Thinking about trading in the wheelbarrow, Rick? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Pete

Rick572 · Feb 27, 2001

Nope. Not a typo. 23312 is what the hour meter said. I have owned it since 92 and for the most part it is a very good running tractor. The motor had never been appart (to my knowledge) and everything worked on the tractor although the pins on the BH were completely worn out. It developed a bad miss and a great power loss. A very good diesel mechanic spent about a hour checking it out and decided it had a problem with a piston, maybe a ring or a cracked piston, so I went shopping. Still a good tractor and did a lot of work for me, but I'm not into the tractor fixin business. I hope to get more hours on my new one because its new, I bought the other one used.

Rick

Muhammad · Feb 27, 2001

Sure it wasn't 2331.2? /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif 23312 would be almost 3 hours per day, every day, for 22 years!

Rick572 · Feb 27, 2001

That could be about right. Although, I didn't keep a daily log on it. But when times get busy during the spring and summer and if the tractor is operated every day the hours add up. Also it had the lever type fuel shut off and if a person shut down the engine and left the key on the hours continue to accumulate. When we're busy we generally change the engine oil every week which we generally consider that to be 50 hours, some times more, some time less, but its close.

Rick