Chinese quality improvements

[knukey]

Are any years or brands better than the rest?

Trying now to avoid the grey vs chinese debate. Should have left it out in the first place.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Kama, Jinma, and Foton are the better brands simply because there is more parts and support being state side. If looking for a 25-30 HP tractor the Jinma is king. Plenty of parts and by far the best seller is the 254 and 284.

DF is starting to make a showing but will cost a little more and parts if needed may be harder to come by.

I would not be afraid of any of them. Parts are easier to get for my Jinma then they are for my Ford Tractor. Also much cheaper and support from the dealers like Ranch Hand, Affordable, Artrac, Spring Valley, ect make me think I could fix anything needed. The Ford dealers only want to sell parts. No advise given because they want it back in the shop.

As for years they get better everyday. Many go to the dealer and say that is the one I want. A few week later when its delivered they has been improvements that the dealer did not even know of until they un-crate it.

Chris

 

[Smalljobs]

I have a Jinma 284 and put 160 hours on it since May. It's got a Koyker 160 loader and Markham toothbar as well as poor quality USA made logsplitter.

I appreciate value and really enjoy high performance cars. My daily ride is a late model BMW as well as a home built Corvette powered Fiero but when it came down to buying the tractor I just could not justify the big $ on local ebay for a used top brand. It made no sense to me. I read all I could find on this bulletin board as well as others and recognized the strong user support and parts availability. I liked the DIY maintainability.

I spend at least 8 wks per year in China for my own company and made a side trip to see the Jinma factory. Photos are shown here http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/chinese-tractors/145095-jinma-factory-pics.html..

So.the tractor has served me very well with some really tough usage since May. It's already paid for itself.

Yup the quality of the fiberglass, paint, casting finish, etc is not like the big brands but neither is the price! I can find fault with lots of details in form and fit, but not function.

Logsplitter I bought a well known USA brand and had nothing but trouble with the mfr. It would have been cheaper and faster to buy a Chinese splitter. As a professional in this business you'd think I would know better but I decided to give us a chance and failed. Problems were bad paint, damaged hose, extremely poor service, etc. The mfr didn't even know the length of the hose on the machine they sold me!

It's a great deal for the right person. I'd buy another one tomorrow, in fact, my next step will be a backhoe.

 

[Steve C]

I was researching chinese tractors heavily 3 yrs ago and decided against them since I was worried about quality. I even chatted with a trader with US references and got quotes for a crate unit shipped to a local port. At the time they were trying to skirt EPA carb regs and the guy was talking about shipping the unit with a false manufacture date. He wasn't concerned with the fact that if I went to pick it up and it wasn't allowed I would be in a world of sh*t. I bought a reman'd grey Shibaura did my tasks and sold it after a few months, it was junk. My questions are: Has the quality improved on the chinese brands since '06 and if so who's the leading now? What's the status of the various brands carb compliance?

Not trying to start a brand war or offend anyone, just wanted to get caught up quickly to the state of the union so to speak in chinese tractors 2010.

I can't speak for the newer ones. I have a 2005 farm pro 2425 (Jinma) with about 90 hours on it. The brakes are weak but are getting better. It handles everything I have attached to it. The 7 foot rear blade along with the 4 wheel drive handles the snow even without chains. The 3 point has lifted over 1200 lbs. The 72" tiller requires me to use a low gear, but it is doing a lot of work. I have put about 10 gallons of diesel in it in the last 40 hours

 

[Rich Waugh]

I have a 2007 Jinma 304 that I bought as a crate unit and assembled myself. Myself, as in single-handedly. I'm over 60 and no muscle man, but the only lifting device I used was my cherry-picker engine hoist to put the wheels/tires on and assemble the front end components. This has been a great tractor and has out-worked my neighbor's larger Kubota on several occasions. The control valve for the Jinma ZL-30 loader was a piece of crap that I just replaced with one of Ranchhand Supply's kit units - what a difference! The loader is strong enough, the control is just crap and needs to be replaced.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

FWIW, a friend has a grey market Shibauru he bought several years ago and works like a slave. Nice little tractor, with the emphasis on little. Still, it does a lot of work for him and appears to be a strongly built machine for it's size (15hp).

Rich

 

[mffarmall]

I have a Jinma 284 (Farm Pro 2425) and it runs good. Was looking at a JD and for the same price was going to get a 80's model that was not kept up. I can say that I have had a few problems. But I would have problems with the 30 year old JD as well. And I probably would have taken it to the dealer. I probably will change out my Jinma with a cabbed cat or JD when I'm older and don't want to fix things. But I like my tractor and will probably have it for years.

 

[mffarmall]

Rich getting a lot of snow down there

 

[carpenter383]

Aren't there rumors of JD moving part of their opperation to china?

 

[greg_g]

Aren't there rumors of JD moving part of their opperation to china?

Been there several years, several locations:
John Deere (China) Investment Co., Ltd.
5th Floor, Tower A, GATEWAY,
No.18, Xiaguangli, North Road, East Third Ring,
Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100027
CHINA

John Deere (Tianjin) International Trading Co., Ltd.
5th Floor, Tower A, GATEWAY,
No.18, Xiaguangli, North Road, East Third Ring,
Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100027
CHINA

John Deere Jiamusi Works
No. 1 Lianmeng Road,
Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, 154002
CHINA
-- Combine Harvesters

John Deere (Ningbo) Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.
No. 1792 Ci Hai Nan Road, Luo Tuo Street
Zhenhai District, Ningbo, 315002
CHINA
-- 20-50 HP Agricultural Tractors

John Deere Tiantuo Company Ltd.
278 Hong Qi Road
Tianjin, 300190
CHINA
-- Agricultural Tractors and Engines

John Deere (Tianjin) Company Limited
No. 89, 13th Avenue, TEDA,
Tianjin, 300457
CHINA
-- Transmissions for John Deere tractors

//greg//

 

[mffarmall]

Are those factories and offices that JD has over there or do they just make parts for them.