New Tractor Decision

[ChrisB]

In light of my chore tractor problems I am probably going to get a new loader tractor. But I would like some opinions on some things. I will be using the tractor mostly for 6X4 round bales and loading silage but would also like to be able to hook up to a baler (again 6X4 bales) and an 11' discbine. All tractors will have a CAB and be MFWD with shuttle shift.

I am looking at New Holland -T4.75 (74 Eng./64 PTO HP) & T4.85 (84/70 HP), John Deere - 5085E (85/70HP), and Kubota - M8560 (85.5/76 HP), & M9960 (100/89 HP). The T4.85, 5085E, & M9960 are all about the same price. The only thing the John Deere has in it's favor is resale value and I think the nicer cab. The T4.75 and the M8560 are also about the same price (about $7000 less than the others).

Will I wish the T4.75 was bigger? How will it handle baling? Will it be heavy enough to pull a couple of loaded hay wagons? Is the extra 20 HP of the M9960 worth being about 1100 lbs. lighter than the 5085E and T4.85?

Does anyone have opinions on any of these tractors? I have read really good things about the Kubota's but I don't know anyone that has one over 30 HP. I am really wondering about the T4.85, this tractor as it is has a mechanical shuttle, will I regret not having a power shuttle? And again, is 70 PTO HP plenty big for baling?

How would you rate them if money wasn't an object? How about if money WAS a big part of your decision.

The New Holland Dealer is tops and have been more than satisfied with them in the past. The Kubota dealer is another 15 miles away and I have no clue about their service or parts availability; but they have been around a long time. Nothing really bad to say about the John Deere dealer either but the local one mostly deals in lawnmowers in seems.

 

[Calhoun Farm]

I priced a new holland cab tractor about 6months ago, I don't remember the model but it was 75 or 80 engine hp 4x4 with loader and cab. Price was around 46k no tax.

 

[OklaBrangusBreeder]

You're making pretty much the same decision I made a few years ago. I pull a JD 467 baler (which is a 4x6 baler) and had a 65 PTO horse tractor at that time that I thought was too little. So, my suggestion would be to eliminate the T4.75 from the mix. I don't think you'll be happy with that size tractor for what you are wanting to do.

I looked at JD 5093E, Kubota 8540, Case Farmall 90 and a New Holland.

I bought the JD5093E and have never regretted the purchase. I thought the JD gave more value for the money over the others. I'm not a Kubota fan. I know many on this board are. I think the John Deere "5E" series gives you a superior product compared to Kubota. Folks that are not familiar with the price point of the 5E tractors would say Kubota is a much less expensive tractor than John Deere making the Kubota a better value purchase, but as you are seeing that is simply not true. I've used my cousins Kubota M125 and much prefer my tractor over his. New Holland was my 2nd choice. I liked that John Deere had several items in the base configuration that New Holland offered as options. The MFWD and the shift reverser on the column (which is a must if you have loader) are the two that come to mind. Similarly equipped, the price was close and so I went with the John Deere based on parts availablity, dealer location, and resale value. My tractor is 5 years old with low hours and I'm pretty sure I could get what I paid for it out of it to this day.

 

[John SD]

Not familiar with any of the specific tractors you mentioned. Overall I am satisfied with my Kubota M126GX (126/108) I got new in June last year. Same dealer also sells CIH and NH, so it's a good place to compare orange, red, and blue side by side.

Have had a few little glitches but Kubota and the dealer have been very good to deal with. The mfwd quit on my tractor. Splined coupler held in place with a roll pin on drive shaft. Roll pin works out and coupler comes off. The fix is a new coupler with longer roll pin and baling wire to hold the roll pin in. :roll:

Two of these couplers on the front drive shaft. Dealer tech came to my place and took a couple hours to fix it. A mfwd tractor with only 2wd is about as helpless as a 4wd pickup in 2wd. :roll:

FWIW, my Kubota easily handles my Hesston 856A baler. I make 5x5 bales weighing about 1300 lbs. I'm sure it would make 6' bales as well if I chose to do so. I would think a 4' wide baler would pull a lot easier.

 

[highgrit]

John Deere all the way, parts availability and quality sell tractors. I would look at the weight of the tractor, and HP. John Deere tractors make some real HP, cubic inches equal HP and torque.

 

[Nesikep]

I'd look at the weight.. there's no replacement for weight if you have to push stuff like manure... if you're just lifting bales, you'll want the final drives to be heavy for counterweight, if you pull big 3 pt hitch stuff, you'll need weight up front too. A longer tractor will do better for weight balance but comes at the price of turning radius... I would never use a 4wd tractor for haying.. the hours are far more expensive if you add it all up.

I'd also look at the controls, dash, etc... especially if it's going to get sun.. is it all going to crack up and fall to pieces? A good seat is ESSENTIAL if you don't have perfectly smooth ground (my back can attest to that)

Do you really need a 4wd tractor to lift round bales? Our neighbor has 100 cows to feed and uses old 80HP JD 2wd's (2240's I think) all winter. Warranty is nice, I'll say that, but I find I get better bang for my buck having a couple older tractors that have specific duties.. a 1964 Ford County 4x4 for scraping manure and subsoiling that really needs the uumph, a Massey 165 does the swathing and baling, and the IH 684 does the bale wagon, plowing, and disking.. We have a couple tiny tractors to do seeding and small chores. We've had the massey for 12 years and would get the same money for it now with 2000 more hours on it, the IH was a wreck that we put a total of $3500 into and would probably get about $6000 for it, even after we put 2-3000 hours on it, The County only sees about 20 hours a year, but that's all that needs 4x4 for. The biggest advantage I have is not all my eggs are in one tractor... if something breaks, I can just take another one.. it may not be ideal for that job but it'll do it

 

[bigbull338]

im not a big jd fan an nor will i ever be.but thats just me.i prefer the kubotas so id say a 9960 will do everything you want todo an more.but we do have a new jd 6105 tractor to pull the baler with this year.an i have a 6 month old kubota 7040SU.

 

[millstreaminn]

I have a Kubota 8540, with a mechanical shuttle (you have to clutch to change directions) that I use to bale with a Krone 130 (4x4) silage baler. The 2 issues I have with that tractor and transmission combination is shifting gears is extremely "clunky". It is not smooth at all. Also, the clutch seems to be "all or nothing". It is very difficult to feather the clutch and inch the tractor to hook up stuff. Make you look like a newbie when trying to inch it. It pulls a 15' bat wing mower through 2' high weeds no problem. I bought this tractor used, with 129 hours on it, never did anything to it other than change oil and add fuel. All things considered I am satisfied. I bought it 2 years ago and it has a loader, delivered I paid 31,000. Can't complain there.

 

[fitz]

I have a Kubota 8540, with a mechanical shuttle (you have to clutch to change directions) that I use to bale with a Krone 130 (4x4) silage baler. The 2 issues I have with that tractor and transmission combination is shifting gears is extremely "clunky". It is not smooth at all. Also, the clutch seems to be "all or nothing". It is very difficult to feather the clutch and inch the tractor to hook up stuff. Make you look like a newbie when trying to inch it. It pulls a 15' bat wing mower through 2' high weeds no problem. I bought this tractor used, with 129 hours on it, never did anything to it other than change oil and add fuel. All things considered I am satisfied. I bought it 2 years ago and it has a loader, delivered I paid 31,000. Can't complain there.

Good deal.

fitz

 

[millstreaminn]

Yeah. It came from a guy that bought it to plow snow in the winter. He had a contract to plow a strip mall. He lost his contract for the strip mall and summer came around so he couldn't afford the payments. I paid off what he owed. He was happy, I was happy.

 

[John SD]

I like the looks and cab design of your 8540. Might be one of the smaller/immediate predecessors of the MGX tractors?

Saw a guy the other day who just bought a used 80hp Kubota with loader and MDS bucket/grapple. Didn't remember the model but it has a lot of manual stuff instead of electronic stuff like my tractor has for mfwd and such. I plan to stop by his place and check it out sometime.

The one thing I'd like is that my tractor was a bit simpler without all the electronic do-dads. Especially the Tier IV emmission stuff kinda concerns me how it will hold up down the road.

 

[John SD]

Yeah. It came from a guy that bought it to plow snow in the winter. He had a contract to plow a strip mall. He lost his contract for the strip mall and summer came around so he couldn't afford the payments. I paid off what he owed. He was happy, I was happy.

What size bucket on the loader for snow? My LA2254 loader has a 7' bucket which proved to be a big plenty in heavy wet snow.

One 5x5 bale is enough too. I can get hold of two bales all right, but the hydraulics won't lift them. Good thing to keep me from doing something stupid. ;-)

I have a new 8' Red Devil snowblower for my Kubota. It's the middle of March now so doesn't look likely I will get to try it out this season. We can still get a lot of snow, but from here on out it will probably be too wet for a blower to work good on it.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Don't buy a 8n to a big tractors job. I would not get any thing smaller than what was a T6020 in the New Holland and the M108 in a Kubota.

 

[Angus Cowman]

if your pulling an 11ft discbine you better not go with less than 90PTO hp and I would prefer more
A NH T6030 struggles on a 13ft 6in discbine but pulls a n 11ft fine

 

[Nesikep]

A lot of the HP requirements depends on the terrain and type of hay you're dealing with... some people cut a grass hay at 16", which takes a whole lot less power than an alfalfa field with an oat cover crop at 6'... Some people have the luxury of flat fields too

 

[millstreaminn]

Yeah. It came from a guy that bought it to plow snow in the winter. He had a contract to plow a strip mall. He lost his contract for the strip mall and summer came around so he couldn't afford the payments. I paid off what he owed. He was happy, I was happy.

What size bucket on the loader for snow? My LA2254 loader has a 7' bucket which proved to be a big plenty in heavy wet snow.

IDK what size bucket he had on it. I think it was a snow pusher. He kept whatever attachment he had. As soon as it was delivered, I removed the loader and it has not been back on, so I've never used the loader on the 8540.

 

[sim.-ang.king]

Weight is something the CIH/NH, and JD will have over a bota, and HP is worthless without weight to match it.

 

[Caustic Burno]

In light of my chore tractor problems I am probably going to get a new loader tractor. But I would like some opinions on some things. I will be using the tractor mostly for 6X4 round bales and loading silage but would also like to be able to hook up to a baler (again 6X4 bales) and an 11' discbine. All tractors will have a CAB and be MFWD with shuttle shift.

I am looking at New Holland -T4.75 (74 Eng./64 PTO HP) & T4.85 (84/70 HP), John Deere - 5085E (85/70HP), and Kubota - M8560 (85.5/76 HP), & M9960 (100/89 HP). The T4.85, 5085E, & M9960 are all about the same price. The only thing the John Deere has in it's favor is resale value and I think the nicer cab. The T4.75 and the M8560 are also about the same price (about $7000 less than the others).

Will I wish the T4.75 was bigger? How will it handle baling? Will it be heavy enough to pull a couple of loaded hay wagons? Is the extra 20 HP of the M9960 worth being about 1100 lbs. lighter than the 5085E and T4.85?

Does anyone have opinions on any of these tractors? I have read really good things about the Kubota's but I don't know anyone that has one over 30 HP. I am really wondering about the T4.85, this tractor as it is has a mechanical shuttle, will I regret not having a power shuttle? And again, is 70 PTO HP plenty big for baling?

How would you rate them if money wasn't an object? How about if money WAS a big part of your decision.

The New Holland Dealer is tops and have been more than satisfied with them in the past. The Kubota dealer is another 15 miles away and I have no clue about their service or parts availability; but they have been around a long time. Nothing really bad to say about the John Deere dealer either but the local one mostly deals in lawnmowers in seems.

I wasn't doing as heavy a work as you but I baled with a TT 60, the only thing done was routine maintenance.
The custom baler that I buy from now runs a New Holland and pulls some big stuff.
IMO these tractors are about 6 of 1 or half dozen of the other they all are going to break down.
The real question who is the best closest dealer again IMO.
Had a Kubota great tractor sold it had to sign loan papers for a part dang near it. That was my main
gripe with them.

 

[ChrisB]

Well, in the end price won out and I ended up going with the Kubota M8560. I'm getting fluid in the tires and if I need to I'll add wheel weights but ordered it without for now. I don't know if I'll use it for mowing or baling as I have a couple bigger tractors for that, but I think it will be big enough if I decide to try it. Now, I just need to wait until it shows up. I'm excited, I hardly ever buy anything new and this is probably the only new tractor I'll ever have. Thanks for the advice.

 

[millstreaminn]

Congrats. The guy that I bought my 8540 from had the front and rear tires loaded as well as a full set of wheel weights on the back. The hardest thing I pull is a set of semi mount 4X16" plows. It pulls it fine in stubble, okay in sod, but it should be on my International 966 for sod.