John Deere 750

[Slacker]

My 750 had 800 hrs on it and it was a nice machine. Very simple and straight forward, very proven design. However, it was 19 pto HP and that wasn't enough for the tasks I had in mind. The FEL was a 4 foot and it took alot of time to do loader work. The machine was very tippy and even slight slope work made me cringe. Look on craigslist for a Ford 3000 or Smaller Massy with 25-30 HP. I've seen alot of nice machines for $6000.
The JD's hold there value well, but the # of hrs on those two machines would make me pass.

 

[madpogue]

This is the kind of question frequently asked on the Saturn forum I visit. It's usually "can I expect much more than 150,000 miles" or the like. The best place to look for the answer is the glove box -- for the service records. A Saturn that's been serviced well will go 500,000 or more miles. One that hasn't will die an ugly death at 100,000. I'm sure CUTs are similar. To me, the cautionary note in this case is not the number of hours, but the absence of service history. Without that, I'd assume the worst, and stay away.

 

[drgrant]

If it was me I would keep looking. I don't have a lot of experience with
tractors yet, but there is a ton of used equipment out there that has
less hours. One of the things I noticed about some commercial
has-beens and some municipal equipment is it looks like it was rode hard
and put away without grease, so to speak.

Course hours doesn't seem to be a panacea- I've seen machines with
thousands of hours that looked very well maintained and then you see
ones with far less that look like a 12 year old was having fun driving it
off a cliff and then jumping out of the seat while the tractor was still
running. There is a lot behind the "hours" that often is
never known, unless the original owner was the one that drove it most of
the time and is honest about what they did with it.


-Mike