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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Hey folks. I know there are plenty of opinions on these things, but I'm interested in hands on experience and not hearsay. Aside from electrical and leaks, what are the weak points that would stop me from buying one? My use is hay, moving water tanks, round bales, and 3PH containers full of manure. Doing everything with my 26HP now but there are a couple reasonably close that are 1976, 55HP AWD with diff lock, cab and hydraulics with compressed air also (sure I could find some kind of use for that). No plowing, disking, just some mowing and maybe a little blade work.
What are the downers? Someone said something about the PTO setup and controlling the 3PH.
The one in the pic is a cleaned up version of what I'm looking at.

Thanks, Dave


a29940.jpg
 
If you want to find out why Belarus are all but extinct buy one. The one in the picture looks like it got its styling from a UDLX, way ahead of its time...in 1938! Not so much in 1976. Where will you get parts? You will need parts sooner or later and if you can't get them, you've got an expensive pile of scrap. Dave
 
Oh, you're in Germany...

Most of what you'll find is American experiences with the brand. You're a lot closer to the source of the tractors than we are, so parts support may be much better for you.

Are there many Belarus tractors in use in your area? If so, see what those owners think.

All I know is, they have a bad reputation in the USA mostly due to lack of parts and dealer support.
 
I'll just tell you,we had a dealer here that sold the heck out of them for a few years. You don't see any of them sitting in fencerows or boneyards.
I asked the dealer one time for his honest opinion of them. He said that there are a lot of things loose when they come in for their 100 hour checkup,but after that,pretty trouble free.
If you ask any of the folks who bought them,their only complaint is about the options that they DON"T have,but then,they knew they were buying a cheap tractor when they bought them. That was WHY they bought them.
 
Dave you're getting mostly hearsay. My neighbor operates a large dairy farm in PA and has two of these. I can think of three more in the immediate area around me. I've worked on a few, but never owned one. Everyone here uses them mostly for PTO work silage blowers etc or spreading. They are pretty much trouble free and simple to work on. Parts are readily available on the internet or by going to the OEM. The reason people don't like them is b/c they are no frills and manual. Besides the fact they are ugly. I would not want one for my primary tractor, but as a spare they are just fine.

Short of it is if the price is good and you need it buy it. People said the same things to me when I bought my little Deutz and it turned out to be one of the nicer tractors I have.

There will always be people that just have to say something negative especially if they have no experience with them.

They are easy to work on, robust, and ugly.

Your call if the price is right give it a whirl.
 
(quoted from post at 12:37:07 01/14/11) If you want to find out why Belarus are all but extinct buy one. The one in the picture looks like it got its styling from a UDLX, way ahead of its time...in 1938! Not so much in 1976. Where will you get parts? You will need parts sooner or later and if you can't get them, you've got an expensive pile of scrap. Dave

Parts aren't really a problem. All over ebay and reasonable compared to non communist brands. Don't know of any in my immediate area. The ones I found are in the former East Germany. Guess the reason they aren't in the area in model years prior to 1989 is that big farmers are all buying new stuff and smaller folks are still using 70's and 80's tractors and belarus wasn't available on this side of the wall then. Understand they are built really simple and maybe even backwards, but those folks really didn't have the luxury of running to a shop whenever something broke. They were lucky to get the tractor in the first place.
So, with parts availability, think these would be good enough to keep me happy with my chores?

Dave
 
Transmission Straght cut gears all mounted in ball bearings, 9fwd 2 rev. Gearbox and rear end similar to the Farmall H and M tractors with the addition of high low range added.
Engine Similar to the International BD261 engines fitted to the B450 tractor.
Depending on your location parts can be hard to obtain- depends on your local importer. Parts like oil seals, hydraulic pumps, starting motors etc can be retrofitted with better quality wesern made replacements as and when they fail.
The PTO is indipendant and is engaged and braked by 2 band brakes which are adjustable and easly replaceable, and can be relined locally.
Engine glow plugs were difficult to obtain at one time, but by drilling the centre out and retapping M12 X 1.00 modern parraell wired glow plugs can be fitted.
They are noisy, heavy to operate and like to leak oil. I would not want to spend 8 hours a day on one. Reasonably good on Diesel.They are very simple and easy to work on if you are mechanicly minded. No special service tools are required to do any thing on the tractor. Get hold of a parts book, the sizes of all the bearings, seals, pins etc are in the back so you dont have to go to a dealer. The tractor in the picture is an MTZ52 and is fitted with the Russian cab, most tractors exported to the West had locally made cabs, tractors in England getting a RSM cab. All the major castings have the date cast in them (day/month/year). The hydralic hitch has a double acting ram, another legacy from Internatinal Harvester, this time the Super BWD6, but it can be used double acting with a float position or single acting, most have a lift limit valve which is adjustable fitted to the ram. Front axle oil levels need to be checked regularly,one compatment can leak into another, bearings and seals all standard replacements. In 1988/9 a Direct injection diesel was introduced, soon after 24v starting was introduced. Product quality nose dived in 1994/5, the serial number plates having Republic of Belarus on them instead of CCCP at the same time, I left the Belarus dealer I was working for soon after.
 
Dave, I have no experience (more hearsay coming!) but I was at a tractor dealer buying hydraulic hoses recently and they asked if I knew where a Belarus might be, they had an eager buyer. I did. It belongs to a guy down the road here who has no business with such a large tractor, mostly pushes show off a tiny parking lot.

He likes it, but I don't expect there are many hours on it. OTOH, the tractor dealer had a buyer with experience who was hot to get another one.

Sounded to me like the guys I know who run Deutz.
 
(quoted from post at 15:15:00 01/14/11) Sounded to me like the guys I know who run Deutz.

Looking at them also..... Like the idea of air cooled and simple to work on. Auto mechanics in vocational school and vehicle mechanic in the army and always tinkering with stuff. Just didn't stay up with all the electronics and updates.

Dave
 
We had 4 total at one time. Had an 825 and 922 on the farm (not our main tractors) and a 822, 520 that i used for my logging business. Tough tractor in the woods, easy to work on. Had a winch on one and a grapple on the other. Sold both when I bought my skidder. Wish I didn't. I liked the 20-22 series better than the 25 series. As said I wouldn't want to spend 8 hours in one but they did do the job. We converted the 922 and 825 from 24 to 12 volt. Eliminated a lot of problems. They still make Belarus tractors but they dont pass emissions here. Never had trouble getting parts.
 
Sounds a little like a SAME. Talked to a big dairyman who had 2 or 3 of them- beat to death, but still working. He said it was kind of like the old saying- "If I'd known I was gonna last this long, I'da taken better care of myself". He used them mostly out behind the barn, where the general public couldn't see them- Oh, and to pull-start all the others when it gets cold.
 
The tractor in the picture is from the Minsk tractor works in the Republic of Belarus and is water cooled, the air cooled tractors (there is a twin and 4 cylinder versions) are from the Vladimir tractor plant in Russia, we sold some of these, parts for these were difficult to obtain and I did not like them one bit. We had a good run with the Minsk tractors.
 
Yes, just dont expect the ease and comfort of operation that you will get from a Deere or Case etc. At the time I was working on them we sold a lot to upland stock farmers in the north of England, in the early 1990s a 572 70hp 4WD was the same money new as a really worn out Ford 6600 with 2WD. The Belarus would start easly down to -12 Centigade and pull a Howard muckspreader up a hillside in a foot of snow, and stand up to neglect. They cost 5300 pounds new, they would reduce in value to around 1800 pounds in 5 years, thats 700 pounds a year depreciation. A new Ford or Deere at the time was around 16,000, and would reduce to around 10,000 in a similar time, thats 1200 a year, big difference, and on those farms the expensive tractor would only do the same work.
 
SAME (Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici ) are brilliant tractors and have always had a reputation for quality and reliability. In fact they were one of the first manufacturers to offer 4 wheel drive. You can't compare the old Belarus tractors with a SAME.
SAME
 
Are you talkig about 55 net HP or 55 PTO HP... or more specifically... a 420 or 520 model?
I'm not really sure about the 400/420 other than to say they're an entirely different tractor than the 520. They had the air cooled engine. The 520... was liquid cooled.
Guys I know that have them... and get along OK doing what you want... have mostly simplified the electrics. Move the battery out beside the engine and use a single large 12V with large cables. That solves most of the starting problems. No doubt a Delco or some similar western alternator will keep it charging. The rest can be rewired fairly easily to western standards.

Hydraulics are rather convoluted. I forget how everything worked now... but I know the pump was shiftable... the three point was funny but basically just worked on a spool and had down pressure. The PTO had a master shift on the floor and then a clutch/brake setup on a lever to the right for daily use. It also had a ground drive setup so it could be reversed. Lots of odd little things...
Beyond that... most of them around here died long before their western counterparts. PTO bearing assemblies was one treasured failure on many. Others busted every gear in the front axle. Some were broken in two at the clutch housing... I refrain from calling it a bellhousing because it wasn't... and probably why they broke. Engines are not that great either... head gaskets seem to fail on them, or did here. The one we had... was rebuilt before we ever got it. I think in it's first year.
I know of another guy that has a pair of more recent models (5260?) and has broken the cranks in BOTH...
It may be that some people have gotten some good ones and got along well with them... but there's a lot of people out there that have had problem children... Quality control was poor.
One guy I know that has them... likes them. BUT... He's now on his third. Killed two already... his basic way of looking at it is that he buys them for little/nothing and uses them up. Fixes some stuff to keep them going until the engine cooks and then sends it off to the consignment sale. For him... they work well enough for what he does. But remember that he really doesn't care what happens to them, he doesn't depend on them, is never stuck for that tractor... and when it does come up to a repair that will cost more than it's worth... he has no sentiment about scrapping the damn thing. In that context they're great tractors.
If you had to feed cows with one every day you'd more than likely think differently.

Rod
 
A friend of mine had 2 of the model 500. He bought them used and dirt cheap. They are definitely crude and awkward to operate, but he got a lot of work out of them for very little expense. (we were young and desperate to farm back then) Eventually he spun a rod bearing on one and a few years later crashed the other into a tree. There was a dealer in the area for awhile, so there are quite a few around here. Most of them seem to be used for jobs like manure spreader duty and logging.
 
There are 7 different companies that make products relabeled as Belarus. I think that tractor is made by MTZ . Some of its design was taken from the International tractors shipped to Russia for the war effort. One of the air cooled tractors uses Deutz designs from the German factory captured in the war.
who make belarus
 
If you have a loader with a heavy load, loaded tires, put the tractor in reverse and pop the clutch, you can break the bellhousing. A loader that has a frame mounted to rear axle should prevent this. If the tires are not loaded,you can break the front drive axle gears instead,shown as #25 and #26 in the link.
I find the air compressor is handy for blowing up tires when away from the shop.
page of online belarus parts book
 
I've got a 825 that I've used for haying and mostly loader work, the good: It's very good on fuel, it starts good in cold weather as long as you keep the fuel heater working.
The bad: it has the weakest 4x4 system that I've ever seen, you only want to use it to get unstuck because if you use it to pull, something will break. I quit using the PTO because I couldn't keep the snap ring that holds the shaft in from coming out. Weak hydraulics, awkward to shift and it jumps out of 9th gear. It takes 40 acres to turn around. Parts are hard to come by but if you look they can be found.
 
But you have to take our ignorance into account- Back in those days, "foreign" tractors were all thought of as cheap and low quality, because they had to be less expensive than domestic or nobody would buy them. And SAME's were Italian, to boot! Only experience we had with Italian stuff was poor quality Fiat cars, and the saying was "FIAT- Fix it again, Tony".
 

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