New Holland T1520 BREAKS in Two?

arnoldziffel · Jun 28, 2008

While considering the purchase of a new TC40DA my wife and I also looked at the T1520. A nice little tractor. My wife really likes it and would be much more comfortable operating this machine. It would meet our needs. I did some internet research and came across a website that shares
"tractor reviews". I was amazed that three different owners of the T1520 claim their tractors have broken into two pieces??? Can this be possible? Is the T1520 a terribly flawed tractor? Now my wife thinks we should avoid ALL New Hollands. What do you think or know? Is the T1520 capable of loader work, lawn cutting, brush hogging, and garden roto tiller work? Is the TC40DA considerably stronger and therefore less likely to break in two? We aim to buy this week and I need advice from you folks with real world experience.

smitty9266 · Jun 29, 2008

The 1520 has had some problems. Most seem to be related to working the tractor HARD, backhoe or excavating with the loader bucket, not moving dirt but true digging. For normal hard use it should not be a problem, just keep a eye on the bolts to make sure they don't come loose.

The tc40 is a bigger tractor, but ask the dealer to show you how the loader comes off. I take it off when mowing and it is a totally different tractor.

I have a kubota the same size as the 1520 it rides rough makes my back sore, the tc40 rides good with the loader on but like a Cadillac with it off.

Also remember most people don't take the time to get off their tractor to write a good review they are having to much fun....but have lots of time to write a bad review when their tractor is broken and they can not play!!!

good luck

Jeff

davitk · Jun 29, 2008

My brother-in-law is a landscaper, has a NH TLB sitting in two pieces at the moment. His help (ahem, pay them enough and maybe they would treat things better) were using it and it broke right between the operator's legs

The tractor is 10 - 15 years old, not sure of the model number. YMMV

JMER · Jun 29, 2008

I'll be in the market for a tractor shortly (hopefully 3 months...). I've been wanting to get a NH for the longest time. My dad is a NH engineer working on the round balers and we've always had Ford/NH products. However, I've been reading this site for about a year now and it seems NH owners consistently come up with pretty serious issues w/their tractors... more so than the other brands. This has led me to consider other brands a lot more seriously. (Mahindra, Kitoi, Kubota) I don't have any personal negative experience w/NH tractors to share but have to admit I've been getting a negative vibe from the information I've gathered over the last year.

vettemanwight · Jun 29, 2008

We have a 1520 NH at work its an 88 or 89 we basically use it for mowing 15 acres of lawn but we do bush hog about 15 acres every 3 weeks. We also have a 5' disk 6' york rake and a 5' box blade we use from time to time. Ive ben there 4 years and we have put over 2100 hrs on this tractor with only minor problems hoses and belts. I cant tell you how many hours are on this tractor because the tach was replaced when one of the "former" employees took it swimming in a 40' 25 acre lake. Oh yes the boss wasnt a happy guy It was before I started. Seems he hit the reverse hydro pedal he thought enough to shut it off though before it went in. Yes a crane and a scuba diver to get it out.Drained all fluids and changed all filters and well that was 7 years ago and it still runs great everyday. So you can say what you want but we love our 1520. V

davitk · Jun 29, 2008

I think the problems stem from having a loader in the front, backhoe on the rear and hot rodding back and forth on uneven terrain. Most of us would never dream of treating a piece of equipment like that. FWIW

dynasim · Jun 29, 2008

In one of those incidents, one guy broke two.

If you look through this site about comments on the tc30, you will get high praise, interspersed with huge threads on about single incidents.

The incidents you have highlighted have been discussed in detail, and if you do a search, you will find the threads. In my opinion, NH's have the same reliability/robustness as the other brands, and mine has been better/more robust than advertised(tc45D).

Chris

MessickFarmEqu · Jun 30, 2008

One word of warning, many of the stuff thats showing up online about the TC30/1520 is all comming from the same guy posting under different names. I'm a moderator at another website and can see the IP addresses of people. No doubt it happens, but its probably not as serious as it may seem. Apparently someone has an axe to grind.

EX3200 · Jun 30, 2008

Rightly or wrongly, I crossed NH off my list based on these reviews when I made my purchase recently. I'm sure there are stories and explanations as to why it happened in each circumstance. But you just don't see this level of dissatisfaction with a JD 790 or Kubota B3030 - you'd have a hard time finding a single dissatisfied customer for either tractor.

MikePA · Jul 1, 2008

EX3200 said:
Rightly or wrongly, I crossed NH off my list based on these reviews when I made my purchase recently. I'm sure there are stories and explanations as to why it happened in each circumstance. But you just don't see this level of dissatisfaction with a JD 790 or Kubota B3030 - you'd have a hard time finding a single dissatisfied customer for either tractor.

If someone doesn't find dissatisfied owners of the other brands, they didn't look very hard. A simple search for the word 'cracked' in the Kubota Owning Operating forum found the following sample.

Assuming the model is trouble free just because there aren't any threads about problems is just as wrong as assuming a model is junk because there are.

L2800 Cracked Rear End
BX2230 case damage
B2400 Cracked Front Axle

Same search in the JD Owning Operating,

2210/2305 Rear PTO Broke
4320 Cracked

shvl73 · Jul 1, 2008

MikePA said:
If someone doesn't find dissatisfied owners of the other brands, they didn't look very hard.

Boy, isn't that the truth! New Holland is a major brand for good reason. That TC30 tractor has been around for years, as has been noted.

TheHammer · Jul 1, 2008

MikePA hit the nail on the head. Reality is, if you look hard enough, you can find a dissatisfied customer for every make out there. I had a TC30 for four years, and worked it hard, but never abused it. I have a T1520 now, and I bought it despite reading the "broke-in-half" stories. I think most of the damage to equipment you hear about is the result of abuse, not bad design.

MessickFarmEqu · Jul 1, 2008

TheHammer said:
I think most of the damage to equipment you hear about is the result of abuse, not bad design.

When's the last time you've heard anyone admit to that

?

dgl24087 · Jul 1, 2008

Just out of curiosity, I stopped by the local NH dealer and posed the question of TC30's breaking. His reply was that he'd seen the online stuff, but in 22 years owning his dealership (3 branches in 2 states), selling 25-30 of those tractors per year, he's never had one break or crack or anything close. In fact, he states that 60% of his compact tractor sales this year were the TC30/T1510/T1520 models. He also sells AGCO, MF, and Valtra.

MikePA · Jul 1, 2008

dgl24087 said:
His reply was that he'd seen the online stuff...

In addition to what Neil mentioned (same person using different userids pretending to post multiple times), you can't believe everything you read on the Internet.

Even here on TBN, there have been people who join to 'post a warning' to all owners of {fill in the blank} model tractor, then when people ask questions or ask for more detail, the original poster is gone.

Also keep in mind, even with complaints, you are only hearing one side of the story and only what the original poster wants you to know.

EX3200 · Jul 2, 2008

MessickFarmEqu said:
One word of warning, many of the stuff thats showing up online about the TC30/1520 is all comming from the same guy posting under different names. I'm a moderator at another website and can see the IP addresses of people. No doubt it happens, but its probably not as serious as it may seem. Apparently someone has an axe to grind.

As moderator on that site, did you get those duplicate posts removed?

If there is one person out there trryng to create the appearance that there is a higher than normal number of these tractors that have the same problem, I would say they have succeeded. They fooled me.

I'm not knocking any of you NH owners out there. I'm just bringing my experience researching my first tractor purchase.

MessickFarmEqu · Jul 2, 2008

Those instances where removed... but we can't catch them all.

I can also say for a fact that some glowing reviews are made by employees of the manufacturer itself masquerading as happy customers.

johnnylight · Jul 2, 2008

Here we go again.

This thread has a habitt of poping up every so.
Well it didn't stop me from buying a New Holland, in fact I found the people on this forum will never tell you to stay away from JD or Kubota's, NH.
It's not like the Ford/Dodge/Chevy brand wars.

tjkadar · Jul 2, 2008

I didn't buy a New Holland because my local dealer isn't someone I can work with. New Holland builds some fine tractors. Don't let a couple nay sayers prevent you from buying your dream tractor.

Everyone knows the tractor didn't break in two. It was a form of mitosis which is how New Holland makes new tractors.

RollingsFarms · Jul 2, 2008

tjkadar said:
I didn't buy a New Holland because my local dealer isn't someone I can work with. New Holland builds some fine tractors. Don't let a couple nay sayers prevent you from buying your dream tractor.

Everyone knows the tractor didn't break in two. It was a form of mitosis which is how New Holland makes new tractors.

can you PM me with what dealers are good and bad around our area?