spitter
Platinum Member
I also bought my TC 45d sight unseen from a dealer halfway across the country couldn't be happier with the purchase. He gave me 2 video's and around 50 stills. The only problem was that the 3 pt developed a hiccup which I had to do the seals on the 3 pt lift cylinder which I did fairly easily.
Parts availably has not been a problem except for the price, which seems to be on par with every other original manufacture parts. I order everything through Messick's which usually gets delivered in 1 or 2 days. There is a great NH, Ford tractor boneyard by them it's called Long Lane Tractor where the owners are a guru on these tractors and has been very helpful in finding original equipment parts.
From what I heard is that NH was forcing Shibaura to cut their price of the tractors which could only kill the excellent build quality which you can see in the change from D models to DA models. The D models had thick fiberglass "sheet metal" and the DA models went to plastic which had problems with cracking on the fender mounting points where they left out rubber gromets that the D models had. Also, the grab handles on the D models where steel and the DAs are plastic.
There were some improvements on the DAs over the Ds, a mid pto could be had on a 45 and something with the battery but I don't recall also the hood vent was deleted. Plus, the ugly ass head lights.
I see a lot of dealers marking As and Ds as DAs either out of stupidity or to try to get more money out of it. Turkey foot has a D marked as a DA and Kan equip has an A their selling as a DA. Buyer Beware.
Parts availably has not been a problem except for the price, which seems to be on par with every other original manufacture parts. I order everything through Messick's which usually gets delivered in 1 or 2 days. There is a great NH, Ford tractor boneyard by them it's called Long Lane Tractor where the owners are a guru on these tractors and has been very helpful in finding original equipment parts.
From what I heard is that NH was forcing Shibaura to cut their price of the tractors which could only kill the excellent build quality which you can see in the change from D models to DA models. The D models had thick fiberglass "sheet metal" and the DA models went to plastic which had problems with cracking on the fender mounting points where they left out rubber gromets that the D models had. Also, the grab handles on the D models where steel and the DAs are plastic.
There were some improvements on the DAs over the Ds, a mid pto could be had on a 45 and something with the battery but I don't recall also the hood vent was deleted. Plus, the ugly ass head lights.
I see a lot of dealers marking As and Ds as DAs either out of stupidity or to try to get more money out of it. Turkey foot has a D marked as a DA and Kan equip has an A their selling as a DA. Buyer Beware.