Best Condition To Buy A Tractor/Machine

mikefoxo

Do you buy brand new? Secondhand with low hours? Or a heap of scrap to do up and use?? I wouldn't mind picking myself up a MF 290, do it up a bit and use with a frontloader. They seem a bit steep now though. Would get a machine that's seen better days and repair it or blow a hole in your wallet?

just do it

All depends on the workload it will have to preform. I've a MF 165 I bought for €3,200 in '07 and it does what's needed.

1chippy

we buy what we reckon will do the job comfortably without breaking the bank. it would be lovely to have a fleet of new machines but with the way farming is i have better ways of spending money than having a big mickey extension to go out and feed a few cattle. I think the only brand new machines bought around our place was a mccormack international (before i was born)a shear grab and a power washer.
Fixer uppers are a complete waste of money (most times).

Juniorhurler

Depends on the machine. Mostly we do what chippy says above and get whatever will do the job capably second hand and won't break the bank on purchase price or on repairs.

However this year the slurry tank sucked in on me. The tank looked perfect from the outside but was rotten from the inside out. We were looking at second hand ones but any of them at 5 years old or less were less only 2k off the price of a new one. We were afraid that they would be like our own one and be rotten inside, so we bought a new one and will wash it out and look after it properly ourselves and it should do 20+ years for us.

The other side is I bought a second hand post driver recently and it is rough enough bit will amply do what I need for years and years. Like I said it all depends on what machine it is.

maidhc

Buying "scrap" to do up is rarely cost effective, but what I mostly do because I am pretty good at fixing things and I love doing it. Rule of thumb to work out the costs involved: Price all the parts you can image you need and multiply x2.

New tractors are quite expensive. We bought a new TS115 back in 2000. It now still has less than 4000 hours up and will last indefinately. It cost about 50,000, is now worth 25,000, so about €2,000 depreciation so far per annum which will decline steeply. Buying new definately makes sense on that level.

reilig

There are loads of guys around here who spent a lot of money on nearly new tractors with low hours believing to have saved a fortune. I know one guy who in 2011 bought a 2005 MF 4wd with only 600 hours on it. Come on, who has a tractor like that and only puts 600 hours on it in 6 years? He was told that it had light duties on an English veg farm. Funny thing was that the tractor had 2 new tyres on the front. What tractor with no loader needs 2 new front tyres after 600 hours? My tractor has 1800 hours and the front tyres have less than 10% wear? Another neighbour was impressed by the MF and he went to the same dealer in NI and looked at a similar tractor with similarly low hours and was told the same story about it coming from a Veg farm in England. God these veg farms must be making a fortune and must love changing machinery. Neighbour's tractor gave problems at the end of last summer and needed a lot of money spent on the engine. Indy mechanic who did the work on it reconed that the engine showed a lot more wear than 600 hours would have caused.

On the other hand, we bought an old hedgecutter 10 years ago. It was in good shape, but over 20 years old. It's still going strong, cuts a lot of hedges every year and has saved us a fortune. Only ever had to put 4 booty flails into it.

You can be lucky and unlucky. There are lots of crooks out there with machinery - especially those with hour clocks. There aren't many low hour tractors traded in this country. The loss would be too big. Why would english farmers trade low hour tractors? Every tractor imported into this country seems to have low hours - they can't all be genuine. Isn't it funny that a lot of our high hour tractors and plant machines are exported?? I wonder how their clocks read when they reach their destination.

You gotta know what you're buying. Something that's cheap isn't always a bargain.

Muckit

Leaving four wheel drive engaged will also wear front tyres in no time.
Easily done if you have a manual level at floor level to engage it.

100 hrs a year on a small hp eng reg tractor off a veg farm is very plausible.

reilig

Muckit wrote: »

Leaving four wheel drive engaged will also wear front tyres in no time.
Easily done if you have a manual level at floor level to engage it.

100 hrs a year on a small hp eng reg tractor off a veg farm is very plausible.

Why would all these veg farms trade their tractors at approx 600 hours?
The tractor in question has electronic 4wd and is 120hp. Not small by my standards.

caseman

mikefoxo wrote: »

Do you buy brand new? Secondhand with low hours? Or a heap of scrap to do up and use?? I wouldn't mind picking myself up a MF 290, do it up a bit and use with a frontloader. They seem a bit steep now though. Would get a machine that's seen better days and repair it or blow a hole in your wallet?

Secondhand always hours would be the last thing i'd look at .You need to know what to look for, wear and tear an diffrent machines can vary alot.

pakalasa

If you are thinking of buying a used tractor, always get an independent mechanic to look at it. Because of Donedeal and the likes, there are a lot of backyard cowboys selling tractors with dodgy paint jobs. I've met a few of them.
As for other machinery, the newer machines do tend to have a lot less metal in them and so more prone to rust. Bearings are relatively cheap and worth changing before they go. After that it's the condition of hydraulic hoses, wear in gearboxes, oil leaks (seals are cheap too) etc.
Powerwash, let dry, grease bearings, cover with black oil for the winter and machines will last a long time. Most of our machines here are over 20 yrs old, tractor included.

mikefoxo

I suppose when you buy an older machine you tend to look more at the lower price tag than the host of potential problems that could come with it:D:D:D

Muckit

reilig wrote: »

Why would all these veg farms trade their tractors at approx 600 hours?
The tractor in question has electronic 4wd and is 120hp. Not small by my standards.

Same reasons possibly that some lads religiously change their car every 2years... comfort and keeping into a yoke with the latest new technology.

Re loaders, it's easy tell if a loader has been removed from a tractor, ie plastic inserts missing from threaded holes where brackets are mounted... mismatched paint or overspray, new connections where hydraulic hoses have been tapped off, holes in floor and righthand mudguard tappings for controls , that or new floor mats (common with s/h fiats) or trim replaced in these places.

maidhc

Muckit wrote: »

Same reasons possibly that some lads religiously change their car every 2years... comfort and keeping into a yoke with the latest new technology.

A tractor is a tool used in a business, a car is a lifestyle choice for most people. Also the last major advancment in techology as far as tractors are concerned was the Ferguson system. You don't need to dig too deep in a mid noughties New Holland to find Ford 5000 designs from the early 60's!

I agree in respect of the "Low Houred" tractors. I drove a 2003 TS110 recently with only 2000 and something hours. It seemed very "loose" though; the seat wasn't right and there was play in the gear linkage.

Timmaay

A related question here, what sort of hours would the most of yous be willing to putup on your main loader tractor? Have a Landini here with almost 6000hrs on it, bought it with only 2100hrs, hmmmm about 5yrs ago. It's still going fine now, no big problems at all but I'm wondering what is high hours for a tractor as such that in being honest gets plenty of wear and tear around the farm all winter. Or am I asking how long is a piece of string ha!

stanflt

Timmaay wrote: »

A related question here, what sort of hours would the most of yous be willing to putup on your main loader tractor? Have a Landini here with almost 6000hrs on it, bought it with only 2100hrs, hmmmm about 5yrs ago. It's still going fine now, no big problems at all but I'm wondering what is high hours for a tractor as such that in being honest gets plenty of wear and tear around the farm all winter. Or am I asking how long is a piece of string ha!

regular oil changes and planty of grease and you could get 15000hours

lakill Farm

Reilig, a neightbour of mine sold a MF5455 last summer with genuine 635hours. It was 2006 plates. I use only see it out twice a year, 1st cut and 2nd cut silage. approx 50 acres all in

reilig wrote: »

There are loads of guys around here who spent a lot of money on nearly new tractors with low hours believing to have saved a fortune. I know one guy who in 2011 bought a 2005 MF 4wd with only 600 hours on it. Come on, who has a tractor like that and only puts 600 hours on it in 6 years? He was told that it had light duties on an English veg farm. Funny thing was that the tractor had 2 new tyres on the front. What tractor with no loader needs 2 new front tyres after 600 hours? My tractor has 1800 hours and the front tyres have less than 10% wear? Another neighbour was impressed by the MF and he went to the same dealer in NI and looked at a similar tractor with similarly low hours and was told the same story about it coming from a Veg farm in England. God these veg farms must be making a fortune and must love changing machinery. Neighbour's tractor gave problems at the end of last summer and needed a lot of money spent on the engine. Indy mechanic who did the work on it reconed that the engine showed a lot more wear than 600 hours would have caused.

On the other hand, we bought an old hedgecutter 10 years ago. It was in good shape, but over 20 years old. It's still going strong, cuts a lot of hedges every year and has saved us a fortune. Only ever had to put 4 booty flails into it.

You can be lucky and unlucky. There are lots of crooks out there with machinery - especially those with hour clocks. There aren't many low hour tractors traded in this country. The loss would be too big. Why would english farmers trade low hour tractors? Every tractor imported into this country seems to have low hours - they can't all be genuine. Isn't it funny that a lot of our high hour tractors and plant machines are exported?? I wonder how their clocks read when they reach their destination.

You gotta know what you're buying. Something that's cheap isn't always a bargain.

Timmaay

stanflt wrote: »

regular oil changes and planty of grease and you could get 15000hours

In car terms would 10000hrs be similar to like 100kmiles, or 200k etc? I know that 7000hrs isn't crazy for a tractor, I was just thinking that if its facing a sharp decline in depreciation, or far few problems if say it goes over the 10k mark then maybe not worth while hanging on to it. But if they should last 15k+ then that's grant, I'll keep on going, I've plenty other things like stock/reseeding etc to be putting the money towards! Having said that if I did replace it I'd be probably hunting around for an older, low hours tractor, but often better the devil you know the the one you don't.

Main reasons I would consider replacing myown one anyways are the euro/quickie combo quick attach is an utter disaster of a system (5mins spent trying to change over stuff), and the cable manual shutter box also is rubbish. Neither worth spending 1000s to replace though.

maidhc

Timmaay wrote: »

In car terms would 10000hrs be similar to like 100kmiles, or 200k etc?

My car always seems to do about an average of 30mph, so maybe 300,000.

Which isn't much when you consider how strong a tractor is compared to a car. A better comparator would be a truck where 300,000 miles would be considered quite young.