In the market now.

[houstonscott]

I don't own a tractor now. I am about to be out on 60 acres of pasture land and will need one soon. I am a car guy and gear head and set out over the last six months to find out what makes a good tractor and which ones are the best. It has fun exploring this question because I want to own the best. I took my car knowledge and started the search. I was looking for the best designs, the best engine, the best materials, the best assembly and reliability. It seemed to me that everyone thought what they owned was the best, and everyone defends their colors to the grave. Many will say the dealer relationship is tops and trumps brands. My brother-in-law thinks his Kubota is best and another friend thinks JD is tops. I will say that which brands are best depends on the size of tractor your considering, for this I concentrated on compact tractors between 25-60hp. Clearly price was not a major factor, I was looking for quality but all the brands are competitive in pricing. The engines lead me to think Japanese small diesels are clearly the best. Their country has a history of small properties and family agriculture and that has driven small tractor design and manufacture there and created the best small diesel engines to power them. When you put German direct injection, high-pressure diesel designs on them you have a fantastic small diesel engine. I found that two manufactures stood out Yanmar and Izeki as the best, with Izeki on top. Their engines and small tractors are just the best, in the grey market 30-year-old Izeki and Yanmars pass as new after rebuild and paint, unbelievable. Many top brands have had Yanmar and Izeki parts and engines in them for years. Fit finish design and a new modern factory have lead me to the MF 1600 tractors as the clearly the best compact tractor. I have no dog in the fight so don't get mad at me I was looking from the outside in for the best. Here is how I came down on brands in order of quality. After reading the forum I find that MF is the only brand mentioned by other brand owners as a step up. Any recommendations for the 60 acres, pasture mowing, 1 acre gardening, and small cattle operations with some hey operations are anticipated. I thought the 1652 might do the job. It's the smallest model in the line up with the 2.9L engine and has enough PTO power to operate small hay bailers. Your thoughts?

MF
NH
Kubota DJ
Kioti LS
Mahindra

Hard to place

Bobcat
Cub Yanmar

HS

 

[bigbull338]

right now your main job would be shredding your 60acs an baling hay if you have the equipment.so this means you want a min of 50hp tractor.i just bought a MX5100 HST 4x4 with fel.an i know itll pull a 8ft disc cutter sq baler rake an a 4 by 5 round baler.

 

[Kal130]

Must be right, I was in the same position as you. No previous tractor experience, no ties to any color, just my engineering background to help me evaluate. After considering all, MF stood out to me as a clear winner. Wish I could afford one of each size. Better go buy that lotto ticket!

 

[irvingj]

Your horsepower requirements are way beyond mine, but I'll just say that when I started my search for a SCUT, M-F wasn't even on the list.

I researched Kubota (the front-runner), New Holland, Caterpillar, Challenger, JD, Mahindra, and Kioti; found M-F "by accident." I also had no tractor experience, but do have a fairly good mechanical/engineering background.

I ended up with the M-F GC series tractor. It just appeared to be more heavily built, with a slightly larger engine, and developed its rated HP at a lower RPM than Kubota. It had a slightly higher PTO HP than other SCUTs, and also seemed to be a more fully integrated unit than some.

I'm sure they're all very capable tractors, but it just seemed that M-F had a bit of an edge as far as, well, "guts."

Oh- and the GC does use an Iseki engine; don't know much about them personally, but you seem to think they're OK. I've had no trouble with mine so far (200 hrs).

Bigger tractors may well be a whole different ball game, but that's where & how I ended up with a red one....

 

[MF 1532]

I'm kind of like you irvingj , MF wasn't even something I was considering at first . I just happened to be talking to the New Holland dealer (who also was MF dealer ). He really bragged on the MF compacts , the more I looked , the more I liked.:thumbsup:I'm very happy with my choice.

 

[toddol1971]

when it comes to hay, I would buy the biggest tractor you can afford. I think a good used massey 275 or 285 would be a good match and at a good price. I like compact tractors for some things, but when it comes to field work they dont even come close to the full size utility or ag tractor.

 

[ssg510]

I don't own a tractor now. I am about to be out on 60 acres of pasture land and will need one soon. I am a car guy and gear head and set out over the last six months to find out what makes a good tractor and which ones are the best. It has fun exploring this question because I want to own the best. I took my car knowledge and started the search. I was looking for the best designs, the best engine, the best materials, the best assembly and reliability. It seemed to me that everyone thought what they owned was the best, and everyone defends their colors to the grave. Many will say the dealer relationship is tops and trumps brands. My brother-in-law thinks his Kubota is best and another friend thinks JD is tops. I will say that which brands are best depends on the size of tractor your considering, for this I concentrated on compact tractors between 25-60hp. Clearly price was not a major factor, I was looking for quality but all the brands are competitive in pricing. The engines lead me to think Japanese small diesels are clearly the best. Their country has a history of small properties and family agriculture and that has driven small tractor design and manufacture there and created the best small diesel engines to power them. When you put German direct injection, high-pressure diesel designs on them you have a fantastic small diesel engine. I found that two manufactures stood out Yanmar and Izeki as the best, with Izeki on top. Their engines and small tractors are just the best, in the grey market 30-year-old Izeki and Yanmars pass as new after rebuild and paint, unbelievable. Many top brands have had Yanmar and Izeki parts and engines in them for years. Fit finish design and a new modern factory have lead me to the MF 1600 tractors as the clearly the best compact tractor. I have no dog in the fight so don't get mad at me I was looking from the outside in for the best. Here is how I came down on brands in order of quality. After reading the forum I find that MF is the only brand mentioned by other brand owners as a step up. Any recommendations for the 60 acres, pasture mowing, 1 acre gardening, and small cattle operations with some hey operations are anticipated. I thought the 1652 might do the job. It's the smallest model in the line up with the 2.9L engine and has enough PTO power to operate small hay bailers. Your thoughts?

MF
NH
Kubota DJ
Kioti LS
Mahindra

Hard to place

Bobcat
Cub Yanmar

HS

HOUSTONSCOTT: What did you end up with. Please tell!!!

 

[the6shooter]

I am of the red brand here also, but if all of the colors would combine all of the best of their options, there would be a tractor of tractors. I couldn't begin to discribe the color outcome LOL. but one that should be on your list would be a M-F 571 you should give a look also, Perkins desiel power in my opinon is above them all. If I had the truck to pull it around from job to job, that one would top the list.
david

 

[houstonscott]

Ended up with an LS U5030. A utility tractor of 4300lbs and FEL capacity of 2900lbs. A class 1, 2, tractor. 57hp and 50hp at PTO.

It's been just over a year now and the LS is superb. The Mitsubishi engine is a full 3.3 liters and is smooth and quite. The fit and finish are fantastic and the whole tractor is very high quality of materials and assembly. We (my son and I) made a very good choice.

HS

 

[irvingj]

Outstanding!! Glad you got what you want! (No, I'm not horsepower jealous or anything....)