Deutz 7120

Anyone ever owned a Deutz 7120?
Was it good, bad, terrible, wonderful whats your opinion?

I owned a Deutz-Allis 7145. Just the big brother to a 7120. Great motor. MFWD does not turn the shortest. Needed more power shifts, just the Hi/Lo limited you when under heavy drawbar loads on hills. An example was pulling loads of grain. Had to often stop and shift to a lower gear before pulling a steep hill. Cab does not have the best visibility. I had troubles with the electric systems. The push button switches where a constant issue. I kept the major ones on hand, Hi/Lo being one of them. The engine oil heat to the cab took some getting used to, slower to warm up and then temperature drops if you set an idle. Parts where high 25 years ago, I am sure AGCO is not any better today. Resale is not great. So buy it at the right price.

Here is a story on how that resale effected fellows. I had a new customer that had an Deutz-Allis 7145. None of the other JD dealers in the area would even talk to him about trading it in. The tractor only had 1800 hours. He wanted JD 7810 to replace it. He talked about how when he bought the 7145 a JD 4450 was $5K higher in price. So him being a AC guy he bought the Deutz-Allis 7145. So flash forward to 2002 when he traded. I allowed him $15K on trade, I sold it for $17,500 after putting on new front tires. It took me over an year to sell it too. What would a JD 4450 MFWD with 1800 hours have been worth then???? Easily $35-40K. So his $5K saving cost him $20K on trade. So even calculating 15 years of interest you would not have broke even. Also if he had bought the JD 4450 he told me he would not have been trading yet. Reason for his trading???? Parts/repair cost. They had an issue with the PTO. He said it took the AGCO dealership four weeks to get the parts and the total bill was just under $7500. I do not remember what the repair was but it was not a major one. He was worried about future costs and down time. Very few local dealers are going to stock many parts. With the internet you can find them world wide but maybe not locally/fast.

The dealer network here went off of the cliff when Duetz took over back in the mid-1980's. The nearest dealer was a good soldier who had built a new facility just several years prior but told the owner's son he could not take over and let the contract go un-renewed. Orange-lime went from a ten minute ride for two dealers to 40 minutes for just the one nearest dealer. Most of the dealers here did not have a strong secondary line such as NH to keep things stable. Not all the changes were bad such as the 380 planters but the other changes such as with the tractors drove the AC loyalist elsewhere. Ford NH signed up a lot of former AC dealers who were cut or just ------ over how things played out and quit. AC obviously shot themselves plenty but it is a shame that it ended the way it did.