Low hour used tractors

[Too many Kubotas]

I wouldn't spend much time trying to figure that out.
rScotty

Gotta occupy the brain cell with something while doing menial work.

 

[rScotty]

Are used low hour tractors something to be concerned about?

For example, local dealer as a 2021 MF 1835m with 72.4 hours. That's like 18 hours per YEAR that the tractor actually ran!

I once bought a low mileage F150 that had sat a lot and it was nothing but problems with leaky seals, gaskets, etc.

Looking back over half a century of trucks and tractors, my wife remarked the other day that we may look at 'new', but somehow always buy "low hour used". Might as well let someone else pay the depreciation, hassle warranty issues, and prove the model is reliable.

There is very little competition in the "low hour used" market locally. That's changed in my lifetime and now there are lots of choices. I wonder how much of that change is the recent preference of credit vs cash.

BTW, those old tales of leaky gaskets and seals are just another urban legend. Mechanics have been kicking stories iike that around the shop forever. Those tales are speculations for fun and for teasing new guys - not solid facts for believing....& sugar in the gas tank won't crystallize the motor.
For best use, season those tales with salt and discrimination.
Fact is that neither leaky gaskets nor seals have much to do with sitting.
Some things change slowly. I heard the same old stories in my dealership shop 50 years ago.

rScotty

 

[scootr]

Agreed. I buy low hour tractors and low mile cars. Let somebody else take the financial hit. My tractor was 4 yrs and 149 hrs old, garage kept. I put 300 hrs on it in 2 yrs. It hasn't missed a beat or dripped a drop. I do think it takes a bit of knowledge to buy the right used vehicle but if you're not confident, bring a friend who is. That's how I bought my first used tractor. 30 yrs and 3 tractors later they have all been used. Never a repair bigger than a starter or battery. More people buying new means more used tractors for the rest of us lol. To each their own. I saved a bunch of $.

 

[ptsg]

I was all dead set into buying an used tractor, except they all seem to be more expensive than the new one I ended up buying. I wasn't even looking at really low hour ones, because low hours over here is typically up to 1000 hours or so.

One tractor that I looked and stuck to my mind, was a New Holland TCE50 with 3000 hours and ball tires. They were asking €15000 for it. I paid about €2000 less than that for a new tractor. I liked this TCE50 because it was the typical European tractor, low profile, radial tires.

I was also interested on a low hour-ish Kubota, can't remember the model now, but no one in that Kubota dealer even bothered to lift their rear end out of the chair to even come talk to me, let alone showing the tractors.

 

[scootr]

Sometimes it takes patience and luck to find the right deal. It took me a year to find my tractor but I could wait. I already had a tractor.

 

[ptsg]

I had 3 tractors at the time. I had no hurry at all.

The same day I went to this dealer, he drove by my house a couple hours later to check on the tractors I had to trade. Gave me a price for each one and we made the deal right at my house.

The dealer that was actually interested in selling tractors, got me the better deal and got my business. It really came down to this.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Fact is that neither leaky gaskets nor seals have much to do with sitting.

It can. When buying backhoes and cranes at auctions, some of which had sat around (outside) for decades, I generally went for the ones they couldn't get started.

Getting a simple diesel engine running is easy, but the ones they had photographed "in action" to show that everything worked usually needed new seals on many cylinders...because of the crud on the rods that they didn't bother to clean off.

But other than that, machinery doesn't seem to mind sitting still. Or cars, or pickups, for that matter.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

Speaking of leaks, has anyone seen a cylinder with only one hose and the other end with a mini flapper on it?

Well, it was more of a very enthusiastic spritz than a leak, but anyway.

 

[ptsg]

Speaking of leaks, has anyone seen a cylinder with only one hose and the other end with a mini flapper on it?

Well, it was more of a very enthusiastic spritz than a leak, but anyway.View attachment 3540044

That's a double acting cylinder being used as single acting. Usually the non used port gets a breather, instead of an oil cup meant, well, to oil things.

If it's leaking from there, you have bad piston seals in that cylinder.

Sometimes they also route that port straight to the tank using low pressure hose. This way there is no moisture that can possibly get in there and any leaks go straight to tank.

 

[Tractorable]

I recently priced a low hour used Kubota cab tractor vs the same model new. A three year old Kubota with three hundred hours was sixteen thousand dollars less.

I’ll take that.