Belarus any good?

I was curious to get some opinions on Belarus tractors. There is one for sale near me in NE ohio, I believe it is a 1994 model 310. Somewhere around 36 horse maybe, but big stout chassis, heavy looking 4WD. Kind of strange 2 cyl. air cooled diesel. Tractor has 287 original hours, and the price was 6k, but has been reduced recently. Seems like a lot of tractor for money, and it looks heavier than a compact in that HP range. Also has live power,PS, and it looked like 3 point down pressure. Thought it might make a good update for my Ford 600, although it is uglier. Any thoughts?

I have a 78 belarus 800,been using it since 87.
Hardly ever a break down in all these years,put 15000 hrs on it.
i bought a 925 (105 hp,frnt assist,cab,3pt)the other day,less than 800 hrs on it .
Paid 4 grand,looks like new. :wink:

I have no experience with the 310, six grand seems a lot for a 16 yr old little 36 hp tractor,i never even seen one.

I have no problem with Belarus,i buy an other one in a heartbeat.
Be prepared to do your own repairs,dealers could be hard to find,Dealers that KNOW these tractors are scarcer than hens teeth. :shock:

A 1994 Belarus 310 for 6K is way too high. I have seen them sell for the 3-4K range. They are not that bad of a tractor but parts are just about impossible to find. They also are a hard tractor to work on. Many of the bolts are not standard metric threads or size. Neighbor broke the draw bar hitch bolts off of his 925. I was able to get the broken pieces out with out too much trouble. Took him a month to find bolts. He even tried to order them through a Belarus dealer and they where not right. The water pump went out and the fan went through the radiator. The parts where going to be more than $4K so he sold it to some southern salvage yard. He had bought it new. He bragged about how he had a 100 hp, mfwd, cab and air for $20,000. He used it five years and the air work six months never could get it to hold freon after that. If he had bought any other main line he would still have it.

SO I would run from that tractor. If you want to up date for the 5K you can buy a real fine main line tractor for that. Seen JD 2040s bringing that 5-6K. Ford 4000s will br in there too. MF 165 are about that price. So I would look at any of these before buying that Belarus.

I'd sooner have the 600.

Several Case-IH dealerships around here got into Belarus a decade or 2 ago. That lasted 5 years maybe, by then the repairs & warrenty work drove the dealers nuts and no one wanted to buy any more new ones after hearing all problems.

--->Paul

It'll pull a lot more than the little Ford and it'll burn a fraction of the fuel but in my opinion it would be a step backwards in just about every other way. Drive it and see how you like it but I expect you'll find it clumsy.
I also think Bison got the only good Bel-a-rus ever made. Most were not nearly so fortunate. We had a 520A for a long time that we used in the woods. It could pull... but it was not a nimble or user friendly tractor. I can't say that we ever spent much on it either but well could have if we'd fixed all the incessant oil leaks and constructed an electrical system for it...
This one will get a good deal cheaper yet before it sells, or it should. By half or more.

Rod

Nobody is advertising themselves as a Belarus dealer around here anymore and there used to be two. That tells me something right there. The couple guys who had them on the farm do not anymore. Find something else.

Pro's and con's aside (and I know there are plenty) and the usual " I know a guy, who know's a guy..." I'll keep my 530. Has worked it's butt off for a fraction of the fuel of my other colored tractors and caused me very little grief the last 15 years. Would I run out and buy a new one?---probably not. 60's technology, not the most comfortable. But it was new and 1/4th the cost of a comparable one of any of those 'purty-colored' ones.