# I watched a Nortrac Tractor this morning.



## Teslan

It wasn't pretty. I delivered 18 3x3x8 bales of Alfalfa to a guy today. They told me they had a loader tractor to unload the trailer. So they brought out one of those Nortrac tractors. Wow. They sound cheap, look cheap, work cheap. Even the tires are only about 5 inches wide. He did get the trailer unloaded. Kind of shoved off the bales. He was able to move the bales, but the Nortrac got awful light on the back. When he was done he said those bales must be wet since they seemed heavier then bales they had gotten before. No sir they were baled just right. I just bale em a bit heavy. 900lbs. I was totally unimpressed with that tractor. Go find a good used any other brand and it would be better.


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## deadmoose

Cheapest always costs more. This guy doesn't know it yet.


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## RockmartGA

Never even heard of Nortrac tractors before now. Looked them up. Northern Hardware sells them. They go up to 82 hp.

Of course, Northern Hardware doesn't sell parts, or have mechanics, or........


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## deadmoose

Yup. No support. Either their tractors are so good that dealer support is not required. Or they are a problem waiting to happen....


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## somedevildawg

Saw one on eBay the other day, cab bout 80-90 hp clean, 4-wheel drive, 400 or so hours 3-4 yrs old, sold for 10k....that ought a tell ya something.....guy probably paid too much....it said it had a Perkins engine, looked really cheaply made....


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## FarmerCline

I had never heard of them before, just looked them up. My personal opinion is if someone were to bring me one for free I would turn it down and ask that it would be removed from my property. On the other hand I might should accept it so I could take it where it belongs, the scrapyard waiting to be melted down.


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## rjmoses

I saw them and had to wonder about the quality. Same thing with Mahindra, Kioti and Green Mountain (their dealership only lasted one year here.) Neighbor bought a Kioti but he only uses it for shredding a little and feeding round bales to 2-3 head.

Causes me to wonder....

Ralph


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## Strikefalcon

Northern is basically a chinese warehouse distributer. In my opinion.


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## RockmartGA

rjmoses said:


> I saw them and had to wonder about the quality. Same thing with Mahindra, Kioti and Green Mountain (their dealership only lasted one year here.)


Yanmar is another one that you see a lot of in my area.

Father-in-law bought a Mahindra several years ago. He just uses it to run a 5' bush hog and to scrape the driveway. I tried to get him to find an old Ford 3000/3600, but he felt he wanted a new tractor.

It's been a decent little tractor. Of course, it only gets about 100 hours per year put on it.


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## bluefarmer

We got a neighbor with a mahindra, not a bad tractor


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## rjmoses

RockmartGA said:


> Yanmar is another one that you see a lot of in my area.


Yanmar makes the diesel engines John Deere uses in its 4x10/4x20 series of compact tractors. The 3 cylinder in my 4710 seems to be a great engines--sips fuel, start on the first revolution, has good power.

I like it.

Ralph


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## somedevildawg

Yea, yanmar/mahindra is a pretty good little tractor, I think the kioti is not bad for the price either.....neither of these two are even in the same league with nortrac.....all of them seem to be made for midgets in my opin....


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## hog987

I test drove the kioti 90 hp tractor at the dealer about a month ago. I thought it was a well built tractor and the price was good for a tractor of that size. Only thing is most people in north America seem to be leary of new tractor makes, yet in the auto world the imports have most of the market.


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## JD3430

Nortrac is Chinese junk. Period.


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## crashncowgirl

I have a bobcat ct230 it pulled my 1209 haybine. Not fast but it pulled it when my primary tractor suffered a starter malfunction. If you want a 90 hp tractor try a zetor most fuel efficient line of tractors in the world. And best of all no Chinese parts good a d rugged jd sold them as the 2400 series in South America and they did well the bobcat tractors are made by kioti


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## somedevildawg

crashncowgirl said:


> I have a bobcat ct230 it pulled my 1209 haybine. Not fast but it pulled it when my primary tractor suffered a starter malfunction. If you want a 90 hp tractor try a zetor most fuel efficient line of tractors in the world. And best of all no Chinese parts good a d rugged jd sold them as the 2400 series in South America and they did well the bobcat tractors are made by kioti


Forgot about zetor, not many of them here but the ones I've seen seem to be solid little tractors, still made for midgets and damned levers and stuff all in the way, but good quality from what I've seen...


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## Mike120

somedevildawg said:


> Forgot about zetor, not many of them here but the ones I've seen seem to be solid little tractors, still made for midgets and damned levers and stuff all in the way, but good quality from what I've seen...


 You see a lot of new and old Zetors in eastern Europe, they were a mainstay tractor in the old days because they were VERY easy to work on. Most even had an on-board air compressor to inflate tires/blow off chaff in the field. Parts were not easy to get so pretty much everything had to be field repairable. I'm starting to see some new NH tractors in Iraq coming out of the big plant in Turkey. They are a lot more "farmer friendly" than what is sold here.


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## JD3430

If Zetor is made in Chech Rep or Hungary then it wouldn't surprise me that they were good. There's a company in CR or Hungary I believe that makes VERY stout military equipment and vehicles on the level of Osh Kosh or CCC here in USA.

I'm real disappointed in US made tractors not offering things like air brakes, wider tires, fender flares, on board air and steerable fenders standard equipment on 100+ hp tractors. These items would make life so much easier on the farmer. 
Europe seems to get all the goodies and we get 70's technology on ours.


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## somedevildawg

JD3430 said:


> If Zetor is made in Chech Rep or Hungary then it wouldn't surprise me that they were good. There's a company in CR or Hungary I believe that makes VERY stout military equipment and vehicles on the level of Osh Kosh or CCC here in USA.
> I'm real disappointed in US made tractors not offering things like air brakes, wider tires, fender flares, on board air and steerable fenders standard equipment on 100+ hp tractors. These items would make life so much easier on the farmer.
> Europe seems to get all the goodies and we get 70's technology on ours.


.

Except for emissions systems...


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## Dill

I bought a Zetor 7745 8yrs ago. Biggest waste of money I've ever spent. I'd get a day running and 2 days of repair. Built like a Russian tank with lots of power. But it took 2 acres to turn around, the brakes never worked which got scary with my hills. And it was used hard with no maintenance for years. Also had some interesting little "quirks", like a mechanical, centrifugal oil separator which had never been serviced, and 3 position pto, with a no hydraulics setting. I bought it for 6k and probably put another 6 into, before dumping it at an auction for 4500.

The Mahindra's are catching on around here. They are basic tractors, but better built than the grey market ones. The big thing that is scaring people is what if the dealer network goes down. Mahindra seem to be selling to the people who need a real (not compact) tractor, but don't want to spend real tractor money. Kotis have a good reputation for decent money.


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## urednecku

Several years ago a Mahindra dealer opened up local. I think they only lasted a couple years. I did stop in & look @ one when I was shopping....the 1 they had in my size range had several things, including hydro leaks, that needed fixing before they could sell it. Yes, it was brand new.

Best I can remember it looked heavy, but cheap made.


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## JD3430

Dill said:


> I bought a Zetor 7745 8yrs ago. Biggest waste of money I've ever spent. I'd get a day running and 2 days of repair. Built like a Russian tank with lots of power. But it took 2 acres to turn around, the brakes never worked which got scary with my hills. And it was used hard with no maintenance for years. Also had some interesting little "quirks", like a mechanical, centrifugal oil separator which had never been serviced, and 3 position pto, with a no hydraulics setting. I bought it for 6k and probably put another 6 into, before dumping it at an auction for 4500.
> The Mahindra's are catching on around here. They are basic tractors, but better built than the grey market ones. The big thing that is scaring people is what if the dealer network goes down. Mahindra seem to be selling to the people who need a real (not compact) tractor, but don't want to spend real tractor money. Kotis have a good reputation for decent money.


Maybe if it was used hard with no maintenance for years that's the reason why it performed poorly?


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## Dill

I won't disagree it sure didn't help. And I should have know better than to buy it in the first place.

But there was just some quirks that didn't help much. Like the brake design. I replaced everything but couldn't keep them bled out. And what finally did it in was the thermostat stuck on a 100 degree baling day. But the temp probe was on the radiator side of the thermostat. So the motor ridiculously overheated and blew 3 of the 4 headgaskets. Good news was the hood opened up and I was able to replace them easy enough.

Oh and the metal on the controls was cheap and I'd have to periodically rebend the throttle back into shape.

If anyone has a zetor of this vintage, I still have the shop manual and the operators manual. And I think the hemp air filter.


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## simangus

Gotta agree with you all about most of the overseas tractors. I have a 65 horse kioti with a fel and back hoe attachment and let me tell you it has been a great tractor. Here in northern NM we are at 6500 to 10000 feet tin elevation and this tractor has been flawless. good power plenty of gears and very quiet with great fuel economy. I generally use it to cut hay with my mac-don, mo-co and it just trips hay like crazy. This tractor is built heavy and I have no problems with the work station it is roomy enough for my 6.2 frame and 245 body.


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