Harvest lease return VS. New

fishman · Sep 10, 2004

Woodcab,

One of the moderators, Harv, is in California, and purchased a rental return Kubota about four years ago. Maybe he'll chime in here. I don't remember him having any problems and he posted lots of pictures documenting his efforts. One of the first to extensively photodocument his tractoring on this site. Anyway, you could send him a PM and ask, as he might be able to help you out.

KiotiJohn · Sep 10, 2004

All in all Woodcab, it sounds like a resonable thing to buy. With only 150 hours, it's still new. Just make sure everything looks well taken care of, like all the pins are in good shape, grease oozing out of everything and no wear etc. good luck, John

johnsonauto · Sep 10, 2004

Doesn't sound like a bad deal, but my thoughts are what about finance options new vs. used. Used is generaly a bit higher intrest, but maybe your paying cash, the it does not matter. The only other is difference of warranty. Number of months and hours differences.

OrangeGuy · Sep 10, 2004

Woodcab,

$5000 seems like a large discount for only 150 hours. Is the tractor more than one year old? Does it lack features/options of a new tractor? Was it a lemon? Something doesn't smell right.

OrangeGuy

Riddler · Sep 10, 2004

OrangeGuy, I am looking into the same equipment as Woodcab and his description is very accurate. The big three (and perhaps others) rent hundreds of brand new machines to growers (especially vineyards) for use during their harvest activities. They come back over a several week period beginning in September and the dealers have to move them. The manufacturers support the sales with new equipment warranties (and perhaps new equipment financing). Discounts of 15% or more (off of list) are the norm.

Woodcab, I happy to hear that you are having the same favorable experience with Craig at Garton Tractor as I have had. Have you visited the dealership? Quite clean and well organized. The price he is quoting on the TC40DA harvest rental is excellent as well. Continued good luck and post pictures when the beauty arrives.

Mark4510 · Sep 10, 2004

When those grapes are ripe time is the enemy. We have friends that have a lot of land in grapes and they will bring in a lot of rentals to shuttle the grapes out to the trucks. For them, the pretty high cost of a one time rental is very cheap compared to buying a tractor and using it only a few weeks.

Having said that, I think that you can get a lower purchase price for the same tractor in NV, AZ, Eastern OR than you can in CA.

For CA I think thats a pretty good deal.

Mark

Soundguy · Sep 11, 2004

My last two tractors i got from the NH dealer were returns/trades. My 1920 was purchased then returned /traded back at the same dealer for a larger tractor after 700 hours. ( for mowing ).

I used that one for a little over 3 years, and then traded it in, again, at the same dealer and got a 7610s that had been on leased mowing. It too had about 700 hours on it, and some factory warranty. I saved almost a third of the 1920, and at least 25% on the 7610s.

The 7610 had a scratch or two, and a dinged fender.. but that's alotta discount for a 90hp tractor that is virtually new... I've had no regrets so far.

Soundguy

Jimbrown · Sep 11, 2004

I was at the New Holland dealer in Tucson yesterday. He says he has 15 to 20 tractors out on harvest lease mostly to vinyards and nut growers. He said that most do not even have the loader installed and the loaders are still in the crates. Most are simply being used to haul wagons. I did not talk price but he said that they would be heavely discounted.

jmc · Sep 11, 2004

My Kubota is pretty specific about keeping the RPMs down during the first 50 hrs or so. I doubt if those guys in a hurry to get their crops in worry too much about breakin though. Pure speculation.

John

Bird · Sep 11, 2004

John, I think the Kubota manual simply says to not run it at full throttle during the first 50 hours. Every dealer I ever talked to said you could run it at PTO speed, which is only a couple of hundred RPM under full throttle, right from the start. And of course I think it's universally recommended to vary the RPM during the breaking in period. So, if you're pulling harvesting wagons, I'd think they would be varying the RPM. So . . ., my comments are pure speculation, too, but I wouldn't worry about them doing the breaking in. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif