Your Montana information

[hadrosaur]

What model Montana do you own?
How many hours on your Montana?
What do you use it for?
Would you consider buying Montana again?
Any other input?

What?
I own a Montana 4540 with FEL, bought in March, 2005.

Hours?
250 hours.

Use?
Bush hogging with a 5 ft Bushog, small tree removal, field reclamation, road maintenance, trail maintenance, and otherwise general use, on a 200 acre plus wilderness farm in middle Tennessee.


Would I considering buying Montana again?

Probably not. The dealer that I bought it from offered service and support, even though they were a good 75 miles away. They no longer sell or service Montana tractors. The next closest Montana dealer is about 100 plus miles away, basically worthless to me except for ordering parts. I cannot order parts directly from Montana Why Why, WHY? Don't talk to me about Montana's need to support their dealers.) The service manual (yes, I have one, but it was hard to get and is about as entertaining as the user manual. Anybody need procedures for safely crossing a rice paddy levee?)

Is this beginning to sound familiar to any other Montana tractor owners?

Some of the parts of the tractor are beginning to appear a bit fragile to sustain My needs. Specifically, the bottom side exposure to the clutch and brake mechanisms and the location of the hydraulic filter. I have to be careful to avoid rock and stump damage. The boom on the FEL(apparently I have the old straight kind) is easily bent out of alignment Occasional tree therapy is required to keep it some what straight. There are other complaints, but this is not the forum for them. Many could be overcome with the help of a cooperative local dealer and with owner improvisation. I feel left out in the cold.

For a replacement tractor, I will go back to where I started from, and look for a suitable previously owned Ford/New Holland or JD.

Other Input?

My Montana 4540 is a stout tractor, mostly very well built, and seldom fails to perform. I like the Mitsubishi engine. Based on my complaints, you may be inclined to say that I didn't buy enough tractor to fulfill my needs. you may be right. A larger new Montana would have been out of my price range.

I am not necessarily down on Montana tractors as much as I am on the lack of support.

Having said all of this, I guess any and all blame associated with dissatisfaction of my tractor selection lies with me. My previous tractor was a Belarus. LOL anybody?

 

[Big Daddy]

I have the 3644 HST with FEL that has about 180 hrs. Great unit and great local dealer in Nichols, NY. I use it for finish mowing on 4 acres, box blade on quarter mile long access road, root grapple for tree & limb clean up and loader work. Great product and will purchase another if needed.

George

 

[Maka]

I love the 3644HST. It is so quiet and has bunches of power.

Maka

 

[Gavman]

- Montana 4940, purchased May '05.
- 900ish hours.
- Used for contract mowing, contract box blade/front loader work, and other random tractor chores.
- I would consider buying Montana again. My local dealer quit selling them, and never knew how to work on them. I found another dealer who is very good, but is 3 hours away,(Williams Tractor & Powersports). So there is a sacrifice for me personally, on the distance for service.
- All in all, its been a great tractor for me. By the time I am called to brush hog the 32, approximatley 2 acre sized sites I maintain, they have let the weeds grow between 5' to 8' tall. I mow with a 6' brush hog, and it handles this decently. (The stuff that grows above my roll bar is definetly slow mowing though.)

 

[potatobeeboy]

Montana 5740C with a curved FEL , R4 tires, Montana grapple, box blade, hay spear, hydraulic remote 84 inch rear blade all delivered April 13, 2008. I owned a Zetor 5245 with loader we traded in. I own a post hole digger, 72" snow blower, Bush Hog Squealer 60" brush cutter, 2 furrow plow and a discer which all should be a breeze for the Montana to run! Now I have many implements.
hours-came with 9.9 (dealer demo), now at 12.0
-used on our 25 acre farm. We have mini horses, quarter horses, 4 Irish Dexter cows and honey bees and lots of poultry. We will be fencing the perimeter of the property and building my wife Sandy a large horse barn this summer.
I have already moved some large round hay bales, effortlessly! Played with the grapple, I have over 60 large, 50 foot felled Spruce trees to move...and more to cut down! The grapple works like a charm!
-Thus far, I would buy another Montana, but I hope this won't be necessary for many years, I plan on babying this one! We were looking at a JD 4720, but they charge for every little thing, whereas the Montana had all items included. $744 for a radio... come on JD what are you thinking??
-Our dealer, Bob of RC Weidmark in Magnetawan ON has been great!!
Now if the ground can only dry, I will be able to go and play!

Marc

 

[Big_Charlie]

I have a 2006 model R4944HST with FEL and about 85 hours on it. Should I ever need a larger machine, I'll definitely look at Montana first. I use it to mow my 7.4acre spread with a 6' finish mower, move materials around, smooth the driveway with a box blade, disc the veggie garden, and soon it will be used to move and turn compost from the small scale fresh egg business I'm getting into. I have yet to find a job around here that it can't do. At 6'6" and 285lbs, the platform on the R-series tractors is just perfect. I looked at the 3040's and such, but they just weren't comfortable, I was cramped, and the CK series Kioti's were terrible. I was waiting for Kioti to release the HST version of their DK series tractors when the R-series came out and I was sold. I am so glad I went with the top power level in that series too. I have never managed to run out of power and feel like I could probably tackle some good sized jobs with this machine - and the hydrostatic drive is so stupid simple a monkey could drive it.