chinese tractors?

[goggleye57]

to begin with I don't know a lot about tractors. I have been looking into buying one to plow a little snow and put a wood splitter on. I looked at an 18 horse, twin cylinder chinese diesel tractor the other day. For around $4000 it looked like a lot of tractor. Can anyone share their experience with these tractors. Are they really a good deal? Or an invitation to a machinery money pit. would I be better off putting my money in about a 40-50 year old utility tractor? I could use some good advice.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I've restored antiques and generally they are great old pieces of machinery, but I tend to think that they are not as easy to use as new pieces of equipment.

Now if we look at a Chinese tractor, we are basically looking at newly produced old technology. Nothing fancy about them, just basic, almost rustic, workhorses.

Personally I would prefer to buy a tractor from someone who can get me parts, and can fix it. With an old tractor, that can be an iffy proposition. Ford 8Ns are easy to get any part for, so if you get one of those, you can get it fixed, even if you don't do the actual fixing. A Chinese tractor can be bought from one of several types of dealers. #1- Mail order. #2- Sales dealer, no parts/service. #3-Full service dealer. For me, I would only buy from a full service dealer. But if you are handy with a wrench, and know some basics, you might feel capable of fixing basic stuff.

Now, none of that actually answers your question. So to get to the answer, I guess I would opt for the Chinese tractor over the antique if I was actually doing some work with the machine. The new unit will have some safety features that the old iron wont have. The odds are the old unit will be a gas engine, I prefer diesel, which the Chinese tractor will have. Antique iron turns in a large radius, a new Chinese tractor will spin in a smaller circle. So I guess from a practical standpoint, I would opt for the Chinese tractor.

Now an 18hp Chinese tractor is pretty light in the hp department, and probably light in overall weight as well as being pretty small in size; for plowing snow I would certainly want 4 wheel drive. The lighter weight of the small Chinese unit will be at a serious disadvantage to the old tractor if it is only a 2 wheel drive model, so much of a disadvantage that it might not be worth using. The other issue to consider is the type of log splitter being used and if it requires a specific PTO hp to run a pump, or if it requires a hydraulic line so that may, or may not become an issue, but again that would depend on the splitter, and how it operates.

 

[johnk]

I hate to disagree with you about the weight of the Chinese tractor but my 22 Hp w/ loader weighs around 4000 pounds. Probably more than the New Hollands and Jd's for that particular Horse Power. Also the Hp is rated well below that of the big three. My 22 Hp with Koyker loader is rated somewhere around 1400# lifting capacity and around 2800 breakout. What are the big three rated for tis horsepower class??

Granted you have to be your own mechanic, but for the price you pay for the basic 4 wheel drive tractor you can't get a good Quad for the price. I had some issues with mine when first purchased but since have put on 140 hrs of pretty hard abuse and it seems to be running better with each chore.

Heres some pics on my website.

http://users.adelphia.net/~gizmo/

 

[jswisc]

I purchased a 20 h.p. 4wd Jinma w/ Koyker fel in April. I've got 100 hrs on it with some pretty hard use (post hole digger and grader box) and I've got to agree w/ the other posts in that it gets better each use. Shifting at first was a little stiff with no syncro and no shuttle, but now it shifts great and runs like a top. I've got a great dealer in Palmyra Wisconsin called Woodland Repair. He's been selling then for 5 years now. No need for service as of yet but he seems to really know these tractors. I think for the money, I'm very satisfied.

 

[usedcarz]

for the price, they are an excellent value, and most are trouble-free, other than simple, minor tasks. DEFINITELY recommend 4wd. i just sold my service shop, and won't be able to provide after-sale service like it should be, and have 3 tractors remaining for sale. all are priced just barely over dealer cost. one 284 LE, with koyker loader
one 224 LE with koyker loader, and one 224 LE, with turfs, no loader, one backhoe,(frame mount, still in crate), and one koyker loader still on pallet
located in northwest ohio if interested

 

[nanotech]

It sounds like johnk may have the tractor I am looking at buying, an Ag-King. I am also looking at a Farm Pro of the same class. I talked to a dealer in the Ag-King and he said the two were basically the same, except for a different label. What I do not understand is why the Ag-King is listed at 22hp and the Farm Pro is listed at 25hp. Would there be much of a difference in power performance.
The Koyker loader is listed on the Ag-King at 1500 pounds lifting power and the loading on the Farm Pro is only 850 pounds. So far this is the only real item that is making me tilt towards the Ag-King. Any comments?

 

[johnk]

Mine is a Jinma 2 cylinder 22 HP. It is like the ones USEDZ Cars in the previous post is selling.

 

[greg_g]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( he said the two were basically the same, except for a different label. What I do not understand is why the Ag-King is listed at 22hp and the Farm Pro is listed at 25hp. )</font>
What the guy probably meant was that they're ALL nothing more than re-badged Jinmas, wearing a variety of labels. TripleD for example seems to be selling the 20-45 hp range of Jinma. They're simply wearing AgKing decals (see http://www.tripleddd.com/Ag-King%20tractors.htm). Homier seems to have limited themselves to the 20 - 30 hp range. But they're still Jinmas, they just wear FarmPro decals (see http://www.farmprotractors.com/products.asp).

So the moral of the story is; when comparing AgKing and FarmPro, make sure you're comparing tractors of the same horsepower.

//greg//

 

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="blue"> I hate to disagree with you about the weight of the Chinese tractor but my 22 Hp w/ loader weighs around 4000 pounds. Probably more than the New Hollands and Jd's for that particular Horse Power. Also the Hp is rated well below that of the big three. </font>


John, feel free to disagree, but I think in this case you misunderstood what I wrote.

I was comparing the 18hp Chinese tractor to a 1950's or early 1960's antique. I've seen some Jinmas in the 25hp range, which I presume are larger than the 18hp tractor being referred to in the orginal post. I can tell you one thing for sure, they do not weigh anything close to an old chunk of American antique iron. I would also agree with you that Jinmas weigh more than just about any other comparable modern tractor based on what I've seen.

The original post asked about a Chinese tractor versus old iron. As many who read my posts, they know I own 2 of the big three brands, but I also dabble in restorations of antique Olivers. I simply tried to compare the old stuff to the new stuff, and I don't think I ever compared old to new Chinese to any of the big 3. If I left that impression, it was not my intent.

 

[johnk]

I probably did misunderstand what the intention of the post was. Been a long day!!!! Actually worked today........

John