Rural King Tractors - who would buy ?

Who would but one of the tractors sold by Rural King? I believe they are made in China. It would seem there would be a problem getting parts and have someone know how to repair them years from now. I have seem them pick up a lot of rust on exterior after a few months of sitting outside in weather.

Heard the same things said about Kubota and Ynmar in years past...yet neither one appears to be in danger of going out of business anytime soon.

Low price and inferior quality will nnalert good design and durability every time. That's why Packard and Hudson are gone, and Chevrolet still exists.

Had a guy selling new Chinese tractors near me at his used car lot. They were under names like "Nortrac" and "Buffalo." I noticed they were pretty rusty already. Maybe from salt water on the boat-trip over here?

I supposed like anything else, some is pretty good and some pretty bad. But, unless you buy something based on a long-used design, you'll probably be out of luck when it comes to parts.
Might take some research. I know that some of the Chinese tractors have been around for years; just not around here.

The Indian Mahindra tractors are good examples of using old designs with some models. Some are 80% original to some 1960 IH tractors and parts are easy to get.

Kubota and Yanmar were very well established before they entered the US market. Some of these Chinese brands are also, and some are not.

Back in late 50s early 60s Japanese invasion to the USA market, there was just as much good and bad, as there is now with Chinese stuff. It eventually got filtered out.

As to quality versus longevity . . . it can go either way. Some stuff is too good and can't make a profit to survive. Some is so bad, it also disappears once word gets around.

John Deere and Ford are examples of companies that have made some pretty good products (along with some bad) but were able to stay in the middle of things - that is quality versus profit along with good product support. Seems Deere is one of the few that hasn't been taken over. Same with Ford. Ford is the only US independent car company that exists. And, the Model T was an out-of-date car when sold new. But, since it was cheap and buyable, the old design was not as important as the price at the time. Now ?? Ford is actually making some cutting-edge stuff, and I'm not a chronic Ford fan. In fact, I'm a former GM and Sunbeam fan. Still like Sunbeam-Rootes, but can't stand the new government owned, bailout hungry GM.

who would buy them, its the same who would buy a honda,kia or toyota

Agree on accepting the fact that Kubota's etc are (or seem to be) respectable makes. I used to think with a 1950 model M farmall still kicking strong no way would one of those orange things hang in there like that. But...a guy who owned a landscape service told me about his 30 year old Kubota that had un Godly hours on it that still ran like a top and didn't have a leak from front to back...he made his living with it. kinda changed my mind knowing my Farmall probably had 1/5 the hours his orange one had. Have never felt the urge to run out and buy one but made me respect tham.

Mahindra has changed over the last few years. Several of the models are now built in Korea. I believe by Kioti.

Buzz sez...."Low price and inferior quality will nnalert good design and durability every time. That's why Packard and Hudson are gone, and Chevrolet still exists."

Chevrolet still exists because the king bought it with OUR money to payback his union donors, plain and simple. They should have been forced to take care of themselves, sink or swim. I will never buy another one now and I have been a Chevy guy all my life.

If these "American" car companies would build a better vehicle as well as not allowing the unions to choke themselves to death, they would be as competitive as Toyota and Honda.

But to stay on topic, haven't there been "gray market" tractors available for some time?

Not the same safety equipment standards, emissions controls etc. Parts are hard to get and they are more or less junk.

I used to try to be loyal to GM and other US companies. But after the way Hussein external_link treated GM stock and bond holders compared to the uaw, I'll try to buy products that are foreign owned and non union built.

There was a guy on rt20 selling some red ones, heading out to MacFaddens toward the west. I seen last time I went by there all gone! Must be he couldent sell them to good.

Another site I hang out on, ( tractorbynet.com )has a forum dedicated to china tractors. I thought about buying one, but decided that I wanted something with dealer support. There are no small tractors built in the US. Pick your flavor, Korean, India, China, Mexico, Brazil.

I live in the United States of America. Land of the free and Home of the brave. You will never see one of those pieces of Sh1t on my farm!

The Rural King here got three in years ago when they started advertise'n them (notice I didn't say sell'n). Not sure how long it's been since they got them in but I can tell you the paint ain't too good on them. 3 to 5 years of setting in a KY parking lot all three look like they have been out side since the white Carter was in office.

Dave

The man that owns Rural King is a real horses butt to deal with , at the Mattoon store 15 years or so the wifes brand new car had a nail in the tire . So being it 3pm on sunday I thought let there shop fix it ,well one big mistake . The tire guy tore the sidewall all the way around put big gouges in the rim . and all the wimp manager at the time on roller skates running around the store said was to bad it's not our fault . So being that we lived 100 miles away at the time the owner refused to call us to discuss there mistake , finally I got fed up and called the BBB and then he noticed we may have had a problem . So he starts asking questions like how many miles on the car and such as he thought he could just pull off another scam by trying to prorate in his mind how much wear the tire may of had . But thats were his idea of further screwing me went south . He thought he should not have to pay full price for a new rim a new Goodyear Eagle to replace what his employee destroyed in 10 seconds + the cost for the off brand tire I had to buy so she would not have to drive on a donut spare for over a month .It took some time and a letter from the Lawyer that I worked for at the time he farmed also , but he finally paid everything in full but it took 2 months . So IMO I would not trust anything they say at Rural King unless it's in writing and notrised ,bacause they will try to gip you at every corner .

So I guess you would never buy any small new tractor then? Look at where alot of the utility tractors are made. Got a CIH JX55 made in TURKEY!!!!!! Some Deeres are made in MEXICO!!!!!! It is a world economy now, the cheapest bidder gets the contract. Except when the government (both parties) gets involved. Then it becomes "Who paid me off the most?"

I think that's the guy I'm talking about. He had two or three used car lots all in that general area. Besides the new Chinese stuff, he also sold sold used American stuff. Last time I saw him he had an IH TD9 and a 500 crawler for sale.
I think he either died or moved to Florida. He lived on Route 7 near Cobleskill. I had to go to his once to look at some stuff. He knew absolutely nothing about tractors. Just bought and sold. In fact, he tried to convince me that all the new Chinese stuff used Perkins engines (and they obviously were not).

Yes, but they still make some of the old design tractors and also parts for IH. Last time I went to Catskill Tractor for some Case/IH parts, they came over-the-counter in Mahindra boxes.

So I suppose you now make all your replacement parts in your barn, to avoid buying any foreign components?

Much of American equipment has been based on European designs for just about forever.

If you want to stick to USA only, then I guess you also refuse to use a diesel engine, or a gas engine that runs on the Otto Cycle?