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are Massey Ferguson tractors useless??

D

derwen1959

Member
ivor from UK here and last night I was talking to a contractor who had just bought a 7 year old 250hp John Deere tractor, he said that he will only have JD and nothing else, he told me about a contractor he knows who has a 15 month old MF which has spent more time at dealer being fixed than used as intended!! another big farmer he knows buys a new MF as soon as his other is out of warranty and the reason he buys MF is he is short distance from dealer
 
You get a lemon with all of them now and then. A neighbor bought a new Deutz back in the 70s. That thing was in the shop so much the first year,I honestly forgot he even had it.
 
He is just full of BS, just like a guy that says all other brands of trucks are no good and his is the best.

MF is owned by Agco, they are not going away.
 
Yes they are.....that's why they sold more than any other tractor worldwide....and copied more than any tractor in the world....MF 35, 135 series.
Ben
 
My neighbour bought a Kioti that has spent more hours being trailered to the dealership than working, it?s a lemon, every brand has one once in a while. Many big farmers trade in their tractors at the end of the warranty period because they have the capital and income to do so, that?s where all the nice looking pretty new units on the lot come from.
 
......and fits in with their depreciation deduction on their 1040 Sch. F. Gonna bet that's the main reason.
 
Care to add the 1970 era 165 to that list or not? Local guy has a 165 with the Perkins, says 2000 hrs, looks good, says no problems, $5500. Thinking about it to run my 6' drum mower......dedicated tractor.
 
The more electronics and gov. regulations they put on them, the less reliable they'll be. It doesn't really matter what color it's been painted. There isn't really a MF dealer to close around here so I can't give personal experience on their newer line of tractors. I would bet they're no more or less reliable than any other out there now.
 
The contractor sounds like three bachelor uncles I had, now deceased.

The were such JD freaks they wouldn't even buy any short line equipment. If John Deere didn't make it, they didn't need it. In retaliation, my father refused to have a piece of JD equipment on our farm.

My uncles did custom corn shelling, and once while shelling at a neighbor of ours, "Carl", who had Massey Harris tractors, yelled at his father-in-law, "Art", who had Olivers, "Hey, Art, do you know why they paint Olivers green?"

Art bit and asked, "Why?"

Carl said, "So you can hide them in the weeds while a good tractor goes past."

Since John Deeres are also green, my uncles' whole day was ruined.
 
My Fergie moves firewood and materials around my place all the time. I bought it as-as and use it as-is. I turn the key and it goes. The tractor is older than I am and I'm 56. Only time it's let me down is when I forgot to put gas in it.
 
Most of the latest big MF tractors are based on Fendt technology. Fendt is generally considered one of the best tractors built in the world.

While there are some models of all brands that have issues (including Deere), the dealer makes a huge difference if they are hiring help that is good. I work with many dealers of all the brands, I'll just say I would never let my equipment near some of those shops. Some dealers pay the shop help twice what others do. You don't get what you won't pay for.
 
90% of a tractor problem is the operator that is with any brand or color .we bought a Massey 2805 back in the 70s that the guy that owned it could not get a weeks work out of it with out some thing going wrong. we put over 7000 hr. on it and never went in for repair we had a few little things but it was things we could fix .he bought a JD and it came to the point the dealer did not want to see he come in to the shop because he was at his JD
 
They are painted red, so when they break down in the field, it makes them easy to find. The ones painted green, so when they break down in the field, your neighbor can't see them. Tractors are just like anything else, good ones and bad ones from any manufacturer. If it's old....I like it, if it's new, that's a different story.
 
In the USA all colors of tractors have become complicated electronics nightmares, there is $15,000 plus of emissions stuff on them that burns up fairly quickly. The software that runs the tractor and controls it is not sold to you, so if the company decides not to support older software the tractor (or combine) will simple not work, that's just tough you own a lump of iron and plastic that won't move.

There will be no more 40 year old tractors out in the fields 30 years from now.

You need to lease it, run it as long as the warranty lasts be sure to rent enough land to wear the tractor about out in 3 years, and the. Roll to the next lease.

You do not want to own one of these new tractors. John Deere either, they are just as bad, and they are getting rid of their dealer network for a big non competitive regional setup, not at all farmer friendly.

Paul
 
Brother bought a 1981 986 IH 32 years ago and seems like there has been a thousand little things wrong with it. My son bought a 1978 986 about five years ago and just seems like a lot better tractor. Brother said his must of been built on a Friday afternoon.
 
Jump on the 165, they were a swell tractor. I liked the 8 speed and not crazy about Multi-Power. Need to watch the power steering ,can be a problem some times but not a deal breaker. I worked for a dairy farmer as a kid that had just bought one new , and I got to cut and bale hay with it all summer.
 
This is always an amusing subject. 1: IH, Case, AC, MM, Oliver, Ford, MF and others all disappeared years ago. Only one ag equipment company in the US can claim any semblance of heritage and sadly enough is JD. And nothing is going to say that CASEIH, AGCO or even Deere can't fail. I actually think that with current markets one of the three, CASEIH/NH, AGCO or JD is apt to fail. Would not be surprised at all to watch Kubota or Mahindra suck up whichever one fails.

Rick
 
Only once in my lifetime did I throw anyone off of my property, telling them that they were no longer welcome. This was folks from my local MF dealer, about three or four years ago.

I bought a new MF tractor in 2007 and another new one in 2013.

I had multiple issues with both. Some of these issues were resolved under warranty but the most serious turned out to be recurring issues that required repair of the same thing more than once. The dealer would repair such issues until the 2 year/2000 hour warranties expired on lapsed time (240 hours on the first about 95 yours on the second), but thereafter washed his hands of me even though several issues had already been "fixed" once or more in the past before the warranties expired. This is a very long and frustrating story and I will not air this laundry again here.

By comparison, I bought a new small Kubota in 1994. In the 24 years that I have owned this tractor it has needed nothing. NOTHING, not so much as a fuse, light bulb or fan belt. NOTHING. Yes, it is not abused, gets good maintenance, and is kept inside. The same wss true of the MFs.

After the last straw, I dumped both very low houred MFs and replaced them with Kubotas within months.

I now own four Kubotas and plan to buy a fifth this week.

There is no going back and I will have nothing to do with MF/AGCO again. Nor will anyone that I can influence.

SDT
 
Hello Ivan in UK. iTS always been said that massey and case are always higher on there parts. There all good tractors when they come out. How a tractor is treated will dictate mostly how it will last. I know a fellow who has a massey diesel he has had for 30 years. runs and looks great today. I have seen some jd tractors 10 years old that are a piece of crap. Location of dealerships is a problem some times. Some areas around here are big allis fans, some farmall, some john deere. Lot of the times its just what you grew up with just like the type of car you grew up with. when it comes right down to it nobody is wrong. its just all people have there preferences.
 

Funny you brought this up Dean. I was helping my BIL out with an AC tractor. The AGCO dealer was supposed to rebuild the engine, 8070 AC MFW tractor. The dealer had it a couple of weeks then called my BIL to him the crankshaft was shot, was NLA and that my BIL would have to try to find a good used one. Then offered to sell my BIL a new tractor......

I got on the AGCO site, parts look up and there it was, still available, the crankshaft. I sent an EMAIL to AGCO about this and the response I got was "he's a good dealer, sells a lot of tractors". I've been anti AGCO sense then.

Rick
 
Power steering problem U joint wear? Worn out pump? I had a Perkins 3 banger in a MF 35. Rock solid, fuel sipper.
If the multipower goes out can you run without it rather than having to fix it?
How is it in a tight turn, being long wheel base and all? Main use would be to run a 1000# 6' drum mower that mounts like a disc mower...lot of weight to the curb side. Bracket for front weights but no weights....lot of cutting square corners if possible.

Wants 5500 US but will transport for me to my place for that. Real clean, original paint, looks good, obviously been barn kept. Says it has 2000 actual hrs (wonder about that and hour meter doing the recording) and everything works, new rubber, F1 rears. Sorta hesitant to spend that for a retired guy to use just for the mower. Have 4 other tractors to do the other chores. It could run my JD 375 roller if I got in a tight with the regularly used tow machine. May hook a plow behind it but don't do much of that anymore.....going to perennials for my hay crops.

Comments appreciated.
 
Bought an MF 7495 in 2007. My brother owns it now. Not sure it how many hours on it now but will be around 6000. It had 3700 on it when sold to my brother. It has needed some sensor updates but it will outwork an older tractor hands down and do it on less fuel. Put the CVT in low range and it would pull a barn. Used it once to pull a stuck loaded semi out of the mud and was surprised it budged that thing. Gross would be around 105000 lb on the semi. I have run tractors of many different brands and they all have there pluses a minuses but I can pretty much get work done with any tractor. Operator is a huge part of the equation and the trouble with deeroids is they are not smart enough to make anything non green work so their opinion on tractors is best ignored.
 
MF gained a few large farmers around here 15 years ago. Then about 3-4 years ago they have lost all of them but one. I asked a couple of them why and it was to do with how MF changed the cab suspension and the transmission. They all loved the MF 8470 and 8670. Then they traded them in on the newer models and hated how they rode. I can not remember the new model numbers. The owner says in the right filed conditions they would make you almost get motion sickness. The transmission issue was default codes like crazy making the tractors go into "Come home" mode. Dealer would come out and "flash" the controller and they would be good for another day or two. The one guy said the dealership loaned him one of their computers and show him how to flash it so he could keep going during planting.

They all liked the local dealership but all the ones that switched stated AGCO was terrible to deal with on recurring warranty issues that where out of the dealership's control. So the majority of them got rid of them before the tractors went out of warranty.

Two of them went and found MF 8470s used that had fewer hours then the ones they traded off. One had JD for his "big" horse and another went to CNH. The one common theme is they all love the SISU motor and the local dealership and universally hate how AGCO treated them at the Corporate level.
 
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