Belarus and Zetor tractors???

JD Seller

Well-known Member
These two brands came to market in this area in the early 1990s. I think the fall of the USSR made these companies look towards the American market.

There is one Zetor dealer in the area but he has sold a limited number of tractors over the years. I would say 10-15 would catch the total. I have drove several Zetors and they seemed to have a good motor but really clumsy controls. The over 100 horse power ones had some issues too. I think it was limited hydraulics.

Then there is/was Belarus. There where two different dealers for them in the area. The dealers where just mainly repair shops that picked up the brand to sell. Real limited parts and selection on tractors.

Now my question: The one Belarus dealer sold quite a few 925 MFWD, Cab, with loader tractors for a few years. He was selling them for $25,000 new. This would have been 1992-95???. The buyers where usually livestock guys. I think that AC was an extra option that did not work very well. Slowly over the years there are none of these tractors left in my area. I think mainly due to lack of dealership support. I know I replaced a clutch in one years ago and it took awhile to get the parts, maybe 2-3 weeks. This was before the internet so it would be easier now I think. I never drove or used one other than driving it in and out of the shop. How did they actually handle?? They looked impressive with the MFWD and all.

I think Bison has a few Belarus tractor or is it Zetor. Any other owners out there?? The post below about a Zetor 7745 just got me to thinking about these brands and how they seemed to come an go around here. The only smaller brand going strong in that type of market would be Mahindra as that dealer has sold them now for 10-15 years and seems to be doing well with them.
 
A guy I went to HS with bought one of those Belarust tractors back in the 90s.
About a 60-80 horse size.
He ran it a few years and then resurrected his old Ford 5000 and is still using that today for the little work he still does.
Belarust is long gone.
 
(quoted from post at 20:00:27 05/24/15) These two brands came to market in this area in the early 1990s. I think the fall of the USSR made these companies look towards the American market.

There is one Zetor dealer in the area but he has sold a limited number of tractors over the years. I would say 10-15 would catch the total. I have drove several Zetors and they seemed to have a good motor but really clumsy controls. The over 100 horse power ones had some issues too. I think it was limited hydraulics.

Then there is/was Belarus. There where two different dealers for them in the area. The dealers where just mainly repair shops that picked up the brand to sell. Real limited parts and selection on tractors.

Now my question: The one Belarus dealer sold quite a few 925 MFWD, Cab, with loader tractors for a few years. He was selling them for $25,000 new. This would have been 1992-95???. The buyers where usually livestock guys. I think that AC was an extra option that did not work very well. Slowly over the years there are none of these tractors left in my area. I think mainly due to lack of dealership support. I know I replaced a clutch in one years ago and it took awhile to get the parts, maybe 2-3 weeks. This was before the internet so it would be easier now I think. I never drove or used one other than driving it in and out of the shop. How did they actually handle?? They looked impressive with the MFWD and all.

I think Bison has a few Belarus tractor or is it Zetor. Any other owners out there?? The post below about a Zetor 7745 just got me to thinking about these brands and how they seemed to come an go around here. The only smaller brand going strong in that type of market would be Mahindra as that dealer has sold them now for 10-15 years and seems to be doing well with them.

My dad and brothers had two 925's and I think an 825 when they first came out. I used the 925 for field work once and it was ok. Tires seemed a little small on the front for that size of tractor and it was fairly rough riding. I was selling a couple of tractors back then and a buyer came to look at a diesel tractor I was selling, but it was 20 below and it wouldn't start. Only thing that we could get started was the 925...fired right up without ether or a heater plugged in. I was impressed. They traded them off before they had any major problems with them.
 
The case IH dealers around here picked up the Belarus line back for a period.

It didn't go well.

The 825 I believe, they sold a fair number, nice sized tractor for these parts, was cheap.

But too many issues, you couldn't get rid of them, you bought it cheap new, and then you had it no one wanted to buy the problems they developed. Some folks got along ok with them. Just so e tho.

Not sure if they sold many/ any of the bigger units.

Paul
 
Can not really comment on those bigger tractors....
But dad bought a new Belarus 250 with frontend loader in the late 70's

It was a OK hobby farmer tractor at best.

While or winters are mild; never had a problem starting it because of the compression release lever.
Had power down on the 3 point that I sometimes miss having now.

Using the gear selector took some getting use to as the high low selector; forward and reverse selector; and the gear selector was all the same handle.
The tires seemed to small for the weight. Just driving within 5 feet of a mud puddle seemed enough to get it stuck. Sure glad ours had a loader you could use to push yourself out.
Castings seemed crude and some of it seemed harder to work on but that may have just been my inexperienced age showing.

It was a little over 10 years old when he sold it with no real problems so I can not really say it was a bad tractor.
In fact for the money it was most likely a good tractor.

Today I think MTZ has less that 25 dealers in the U.S. nation wide.
For that reason I would find it a hard buy today.
 
John I just look at MTZ web site and they do only have 24 dealers listed for the US. WOW I knew they had fallen off as a brand here locally but I had no Idea that they had fallen that far.

Your correct in that would really make new sales hard.
 
The reason they never sold in any numbers is because they were crude unreliable pigs. There were a number of Belarus and Zetor tractors sold around here. I don't think there's a single Zetor that clocked more than 5k hours on an engine. The Belarus.... much the same. Crude to handle as the steering is quite wonky on them. Poor brakes. Abysmal electrical systems. Leak oil constantly... The main good point about Belarus was fuel economy... and yes, they were good starting engines in that it only took a short tug from something else and they were running. The red pig is long gone from here. The blue ones all remain...

Rod
 
I have a 1978 Belarus 800 (2 wheel drive version of the 825) i bought it in 87 with 5000 hrs on it for a dollar per hr on it
I used it as my only feeder/loader tractor til 2013.
I put at least 10.000 hrs on it with very little trouble, i re-ringed and re-bearinged it once when the axial crank bearing went out, (courtesy of my brother riding the clutch loading hay) , it had 2 blown head gaskets in the first 2 years i had it(got the wrong head gaskets from the dealer) and I rebuild the waterpump and put 2 new bearings in the injection pump and rebuild the starter twice. The engine still starts in a split second even after sitting all winter.
I never had any hydr or transmission/rear end/ clutch problems in the 28 years i used it. It has been an exceptional good tractor for me but it is getting tired so it is only used as standby now. It is not worth rebuilding as it is worth nothing.
I also have a '93 model 925, i bought it 3 years ago cause it was cheap,was front assist and had only 800 hrs on it and had a better cab with heat and airco. the engine and transmission/rear end is still the same as the 800 so most parts are interchangable. I paid 4 grand for it.
So far the 925 has been a good tractor also, no issues to speak of, i put around 1000 hrs on it
Dealer parts support is good although there is only one left in a 300 ml radius.I don't know of any other farmer in my area who has a Belarus, i have never seen another one in the 28 years i had mine.

I would have no problem buying an other one.
 
Always been both Zetor and Belaurs dealers near me for the last 25 years.Myself, I don't want one. But the guys that buy them, usually cow/calf farms that put up some hay, and feed cows over winter, and have off farm jobs.These tractor seem to work very well for this group of farmers.When round balers came along , these tractors could run them, where an old IH M or MH 33 couldn't get the job done. They can but the tractor fairly cheap, don't work it all that hard , and can have a new tractor every now and then without having a lot of dollars tied up. The thing that surprises me is , there always seems to be a guy willing to buy the old ones.It is all about price!
 
Dad bought a 825 4x4 Belarus Just before he died and I bought out my mother so it came in the deal from the estate. They were advertised as easy on fuel and easy to start in cold weather. Those claims were true. The 4x4 was weak and always breaking, the AC never worked and the cab was crude and it took a lot of room to turn. It was underpowered for it's size, I could do more work with my little 4630 Ford. Shifting was at best sloppy. If you used it as hard as any other brand it would be in the shop within a few hours. I sold mine for export to Vietnam with only 1800 hours. I've got a neighbor that has a 925 and he likes it but he only puts a few hours a year on it.
 
I owned a Zebra 3520 35HP which is a Zetor built in India,I used it mostly to mow with
and used it for about 1000 hrs over a 10 year period.Ran great,easy starting as any diesel I have ever owned,very economical to operate,wiring was poor.Overall it was a good deal for me the reason I sold it was a dairy farmer in Somerset PA was looking for one and I sold it for about what I had in it.This diary farmer had 3 of them already, said it worked just right in his operation to scrape manure and they milked 3X a day.Also said he had one that had 9,000 hrs on it and had never been in the engine.
 
Had a Belarus for about 10 years. It was a decent tractor. Neighbor is still using it. Transmission was weird, and yes it leaked oil. Other than that, it pulled a grain drill great, spent most of its time on loader duty. Shoveled a lot of gravel, and pushed more snow. Put one clutch in it, but the plates were fine, throwout bearing went. I thought it was a pretty good tractor for what it cost. Finally replaced it with a 416 Cat, that was more in line with the amount of loader work.
 

I have a friend who has a bunch of Zetors. probably from 40 to 200 HP, who really loves them. He runs beef and a very big sugar operation. His main business however is his "blacksmith shop" which he and his brother took over from their father some years ago. They do mostly fabrication and repair, which is I expect why he likes the Zetors. I think that he just buys them cheap, is familiar so that he can repair whatever goes wrong, and has enough spares so that he can park a few while waiting for parts.
 
I never drove the Zetor, but the township had one for years. The patrolman that ran it put over 10000 hours on it with out any engine trouble, the only trouble it had was the wheel center broke, but he ran that thing way up the side of the road steeper than the dickens! Used a Bush Hog mower on the back, one that sat off to the right and had a counter balance could stretch out to the left.I think it was a 6640 Zetor, and they traded it for a 7040 Kubota. I asked the patrolman about the two and he said they went backwards by trading off the Zetor. The Zetor was a much heavier built tractor than the Kubota. They use the same mower and one day the top of the three point housing broke on the the new Kubota. He can't use the Kubota on such slopes for fear of it breaking. The only dealer that is even close to me is in Holy Cross Ia, so I don't think I will get one anytime soon, just don't like the thought of buying one and the dealer dropping the brand!
 
Several years ago I had to wait for an eastbound CSX freight in town. On one of the flat cars was a Zetor mixed in with the CASE-IH tractors on the flat car. With the wooden box over the cab they were all bound for export.
 
I see people complain about the AC.All the AC units were American made add ons,not made by the Russians.We have an 820,85 hp 4wd,no cab.Leaks some hyd. oil, electrical is quirky,converted it to 12 volt,but it's never had the valve cover off,never been split.Have had a Westendorf loader on it since new.Always starts,doesn't use any oil,pretty low maintenance.
 
It seems those two came here earlier than the 1990's. There was a Belarus dealer in the north country that advertised the heck out of that make. He got customers wound up over how we were going to endlessly trade food for tractors which never happened. The bottom line around my area was very few were sold and mostly to guys who had to have new tractors regardless of the source and could not afford anything else. To me a totally reconditioned White 2-70 or 2-85 beats the pants off a similar hp Belarus even though the Belarus was factory new. This dealer for Belarus was a fairly smart guy as he was located on the edge of logging country and I think he did better selling the Belarus as a cheap logging tractor. Zetor and Long dealers used to be around but had similar results locally so they faded away. Depending at how you look at Same they had better results and were hooked up with dealers who carried major brands such as Deere and JI Case. Their best day was the late 1970's and early 1980's when US tractor prices skyrocketed and farmers were trying to find alternatives.
 
Had a New Holland dealer that sold Belarus in the early 90's. He almost had my dad talked into one. At the time they were attractive to some people. MFD, simple and cheap. I talked him out of it and we bought a CIH Maxxum. He sold several in the area but they have all disappeared. A guy came thru several years ago and ran adds in the papers offering to buy them. Don't think he paid much for them but he hauled a lot of them away.
 
About 6 or 7 years ago I bought a Long 900 witch is a Zetor 8011 that was imported by Long and sold under there name. It's 85hp 4cyl diesel that uses very little fuel to the point I have never been able to stay on it long enough to empty the 22 gallon fuel tank in a day. Like all tractors it took some getting use to as the controls are different than a JD or IH AC Oliver Ford well you get the idea, But it's not bad and was easy to get use to. There is a dealer about 22 miles away for parts or I go to anyone who sells parts from A&I parts and get them from them. Most of the filters on this tractor are fine wire mesh so you just take them out and wash them out and re-install and away you go. The hydraulics are good with 3 remotes outlets that can use a one way or double action cylinder witch is nice to have. The only problem I have had with this tractor is the injector pump witch has had a leek sense I bought it and now has to be fixed and its no worse than the pump on my Oliver that needs to be fixed, A pump rebuild is a pump rebuild no matter how you look at it and it just has to be done. I really like this tractor and would own another.

Now the Belarus I have never thought much of them, The first ones I saw were at London Ohio at Howard and Sons auction barn. There must have been 12 or 15 of them setting in dead row in the back, They looked new to me but they leaked oil every ware and most of them were coming apart because of very poor castings. I was told that only the best were exported to the U.S.A. and after seeing these I wondered what the poor sobs back in Russia were using. I guess that's why I never liked them and have never been impressed with them. Bandit
 
Around here, Belarus showed up in the early 80's or before and all but disappeared by the 90's. There were a few around but I only know of one today and I don't know if it has ran recently. I worked with a mechanic that had worked for a Belarus dealer in the past and he said they were crude but not a bad machine. Zetor came around in the late 80's but I don't know of anyone that ever had one.
 
(quoted from post at 03:36:09 05/25/15)
IIRC JD tried for a brief time to sell some Zeter tractors re-badged as JD's back in the 90's.





The Zetor Crystal series were joint venture tractors made by Zetor & Ursus in Poland. Also sold in USA by Long.





In early 1990's JD bought a large share of the Zetor tractor company to get smaller HP tractors built at lower cost so they could compete in other Countries. JD staff in the Zetor factory did improve build quality.

But there were political problems in the Czech Republic and JD sold off its share of Zetor back to the Czech government.

In 1970-90 era Zetor were one of the biggest selling tractors in Britain, especially popular in livestock & hilly areas - cheap reliable 4wd's.

Belarus is the export name given to various Russian built tractor factories. Always very crude by Western standards, and cheap to buy.
 
Hay WIZZO it's funny how my old Long pop's up on the internet after I redid it. Hears one that will make you think it's in your neck of the woods and I know you will know the drill for sure. Bandit
a192211.jpg

a192213.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 09:20:21 05/25/15) Hay WIZZO it's funny how my old Long pop's up on the internet after I redid it. Hears one that will make you think it's in your neck of the woods and I know you will know the drill for sure. Bandit
a192211.jpg

a192213.jpg

Thanks for the photos, no - not a drill thats sold over here. But I do own a {straw} hat similar in style to yours :lol:
 
The Zetor/Urus/Long Crystal 8011/8045 tractors were very good tractors in their time. Rugged and reliable, only weakness was the hand brake cable would snap. Parts though now are becoming hard to get.

Like any tractor the controls take a little while to become familiar. Zetors are still basic no-frills tractors with minimal electronics to go wrong.
 
Still running my 530 on a regular basis. A little less now that I bought a MF 698 with cab/ac. Still as handy as a pocket on a shirt, for the $. Have had virtually no issues mechanically, but it is a crude looking and clunky machine. Power steering not the best, especially with the over-sized loader that came with it. Would I buy another? Maybe, if dealers were more available.
 
In 1993 I bought a new Belarus 820M MFWD which is the same as the 825 minus the cab. We had TA-26 Westendorf loader which the dealer mounted for us. Cost for the tractor with the loader and joy stick mounted was just a hair over $14,000.00. Now at that time a deere utility of the same size was $42,000.00 and a case was $38000.00.We worked the dog out of that tractor,packing bunker silos,cleaning lots and most days when it was 10 to 20 below zero would be the only tractor that would start so then it had to be on tmr wagon and switch to 350 bu. spreader to clean barn. Yes those were fun days before heated shops. WE had a local dealer that sold about 70 of these tractors so support was good. The only trouble I had with this tractor is we would have to rebuild the starter every once in awhile. Five minutes to take off, run to town,half hour to rebuild, five minutes to put back on. For me and the time in my life it was an excellent tractor. It had over 2500 hrs. on it when I quit in 2001. Kept it around until a couple years ago and sold it to a friend for 8500.00 and he uses it daily. The dealer is long gone but do have a supplier for parts if needed.
 
I think the JD/Zetor tractor was only sold overseas.
I think JD was doing the same thing with Daedong in Korea.
Both of these were done to compete in other countries.

I think the only 3rd party tractor sold in the states in JD colors was Yanmar.

If you want to get into JD buying or selling parts (engines; trans; axles) to or from other tractor manufactures it can get real complicated as the list is very long.

I will likely be corrected on some of above as I am only going off faded memory.
 
I was told that the dealer in the north country in NY had sold a few of the articulates. As hinted at in my earlier post I think they went to the logging industry. The same dealer brought an articulate to Empire Farm Days (the outdoor farm show for NY) for a year or two. I heard one farmer pipe up that he thought it would be handy on his small dairy for a chopping and manure hauling tractor given the price. I am trying to remember the price on it and want to say somewhere around 35 to 38 thousand back in the late 1980's.
 
I know of one articulated Belarus over in Wi. I think it is around Argyle. I can't remember the fellow's name right now. He has a smaller dairy an uses it to pull a chopper and manure tank. I think it is a 1770???
 
When they were 1st sold here there were 4 farmers that helped finance the dealer. One of the farmers bought an articulated Belarus to work in the rice fields. Belarus sent a mechanic down to train the dealer and he went out on service calls while he was here. The big tractor kept blowing the A/C fuse. The farmer said that he would go to NAPA to get some but the Russian said he would "make" a fuse. They had a fuse that you put in a piece of copper wire and made a repairable fuse link. There were a few things that were pretty good about them and you could make homemade repairs. But for the most part they were just crude tractors that broke down too often for a fast paced farming operation.
 
Sounds like our 820.Has had the snot run out of it,but it always starts,has never let us down,never been apart.

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(quoted from post at 12:12:56 05/25/15) I think the JD/Zetor tractor was only sold overseas.
I think JD was doing the same thing with Daedong in Korea.
Both of these were done to compete in other countries.

I think the only 3rd party tractor sold in the states in JD colors was Yanmar.

Sorry John but you're incorrect. JD dealers tried to sell some rebadged Zetor tractors in the good ole USA.
 
Here are the 2 of mine

800 (74 hp), ugly as sin but sure a tough bugger,...I like to see you do that with a John Deere :)
mvphoto21458.jpg


mvphoto21459.jpg


925
mvphoto21460.jpg


mvphoto21461.jpg
 
Sure it is, It a Moore Uni-Drill painted red and white and sold as a GT 1006 No-Till Drill hear in the USA. Some place I have the ladies name for Moore in Ireland to get parts for it. Oh that's my 76 year old dad planting last year. I got off to refill the drill with soybeans and get a drink of water and the next thing I know there goes dad planting away! And you just don't tell your 76 year old dad he cant do something, He'll do it just to prove he still can! Bandit
 

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