China Diesel tractors

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For some time now, we have been reading ads for China Diesel/Hardy Diesel farm tractors. Hopefully, some folks have bought equipement from this import company, located in southern California. It is time to come forward and speak out! (Certainly before i buy one!) Please let me hear from you. I am interested to learn if you have gotten value for your dollar. Do the machines work well, do they last? What kind of service have you gotten after the sale? How about repair and replacement of parts? In the near future i will make my purchase. Forwarned is forearmed! Thank you.

Stuart in Alaska.

stureder@gci.net

-- stuart a. reder (stureder@gci.net), December 18, 2000

Answers

Stuart-if you go down into the older messages, and click on farm equipment, there is a thread on the China Diesel tractors which you might find interesting...good luck!

-- Joe (Threearrs@AOL.com), December 18, 2000.

There is only one answer in that old thread. The rest are a diatribe about China or some other subject.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), December 19, 2000.

The China diesel, Hardy diesel and a handfull of other name tractors are available. Northern tools is selling a similar unit. Issue tobe concerned with.

Product build by a communust government, often my slave labor or very poorly paid workers. Do you want to support that enviornment.

Since there is no real dealer, support after the sales is nil. Parts may or may not be available from dealers. Many "tractor repair" establishments will not work on these tractors so its a self maintenace tractor. Some have non-standard PTO speeds, 3pt configuration issue.

If might be a good deal if you go into the purchase with the understadning that the tractor is not going to be handed down to your kids, when it have a major break its going to be scrapped and is not the best built tractor.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), December 19, 2000.


Stick with a FORD or John Deere. A friend bought the China Diesel/Hardy Diesel farm tractor. Worked well for 1 year then some minor problems and no dealer support led to a quick sell and a investment in a new (1999) Ford.

My dad uses a 1948 Farmall Cub and a 1996 Ford. He looked at Kabota's and the China Diesel tractors and decided to go with Ford. Price was comparable.

Hope this helps.

-- Kenneth in N.C. (wizardsplace13@hotmail.com), December 19, 2000.


I think China Diesel's are junk. I have a friend who buys & sell older tractors, he gets the old Rhinos, (made in China) now and then, parts are very hard to come by. 20 years ago Northern Tool, (then caleed Northern Hydraulics) sold a 25 HP Russian, deisel tractor for $2400. it was a Belarus, I talked to them several times about getting one and what to do about service, they had no way of servicing them, and none of the local tractor dealers work on them. 8 years later I bought one from a local Belarus dealer, then it was $5500 (80 miles from my farm) I had problems at first and the dealer was pretty good about coming and taking care of it but eventually they got tired of making the trip and I was on my own. "China Diesel" ships the tractor to you or the nearest freight depot, you have to install the wheels and get it home. shipping from southern CA. to my place in southern Oregon, is $800 and that is only to the nearest depot, 50 miles away. I bought a new New Holland 57 HP tractor a year ago June, they delivered it, came back for a 50 hour service and a couple of other probelms I have had, I can call any NH dealer for parts if I need them, or I can buy all the filters & hoses from NAPA.

A good old Ford N series tractor will do all the work one needs done on a homstead, including, plowing & fitting, snow plowing, mowing, lifting and moving junk and they run on very little fuel, parts are available everywhere, there aree hundreds of thousands of them out there that are 50-65 years old and still running strong. Ford N's will cost from $1500 to $3500 depending on year and condition, I have done complete overhauls on them for as little as $1100.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), December 20, 2000.



I am also a Ford N fan. We have a 1948 N that we do all our farming with, including baling hay. We don't hurry, just go along at a steady pace and are very happy with the results. Bought it, and all sorts of equipment, for $2000 ten years ago. Have put a starter on it and some tires (it had the originals when we bought it), husband has the manual and it is very easy to maintain. The local ford dealer can order any parts we need, and even stocks some of them. diane in michigan

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 20, 2000.

I took delivery of a Hardy 25 Hp Tractor w/loader in March 2000. Since then with less than 80 hrs on the machine I've had 17 parts break or bend. Both front tires blew out. Spacers coming out of axels, pin hitches snapping off. Every part in the steering linkage has broken etc., etc., etc. It doesn't have much power. You call up for replacement parts, you might get it, most likely you won't get it. This Hardy Diesel tractor is made from cheap castings. I won't buy anything from these people again, even their customer service will give you a run around. Roger

-- Roger Steward (Reugenes2000@Quest-net.com), January 30, 2001.

Re China Tractors I have a Power Track LT 450 which is a track dozer with a backhoe. I purchased the unit in Canada with very few hours on it. I have recently had the clucth's and brakes rebuild and love the machine. It starts in any weather and is very strong for it's size. We were able to rebuild the unit from off the shelf bearing and brake pads. It now spins both tracks when you hit a really solid tree etc. Rhino has some parts and I am now looking for a new set of tracks as the present tracks are cast and I have become very good at repairing the tracks. Would I buy another one? Yes, it was a good deal and a knock off of a John Deere. Service is a problem so you have to either repair yourself or find someone who has the ability to read the rather cryptic manuals. I have gotten my money back on this unit, but would not recommend it for an area such as our ranch in British Colombia where there is a lot of big rock. Here in Texas it works absolutely great! The 12 way blade is really handy and the unit is small enough to be very manuverable. It is defintely not a D6 but can get the job done. If anyone has a line on replacement tracks for this unit I would really appreciate the lead.

regards, ken

-- Ken Clifford (cliffordkr@aol.com), March 15, 2001.


I have a China diesel tractor 254 that I bought 5 years ago and have had none of the problems described in the other answers. The parts I have had break (pitman arm broke and injector pump froze solid in 0 degree weather) were shipped overnight with no charge and no questions asked. I use it on a small farm, 30 acres, in south central PA. You have to be handy with this type of tractor as service is based on your own skills. I've not had a any problem with implements or PTO speeds. It has a standard catagory 1 hitch and 540 and 1180 rpm pto speeds. I would buy another without a second thought.

-- Greg Culler (gregculler@blazenet.net), April 18, 2001.

I purchased a 254 china built tractor. I currently have 52 hard hour on this machine no problems so far. I plan to bet it to death, just to see how long it will last. I have owned John Deere's and IH's and was worried about part but a location in AK and MN has a warehouse full of parts.

-- bob (rschwartz@boku.net), September 11, 2001.


I've been working my 30 acres with our Hardy now for a year now. I've put in several hundred hours on it now. No problem to date. The only part that I had to get was a service manual and that came with out incident in three days. While there isn't the power you'll find in bigger tractors, it's still a work horse. I'm a merciless master, yet the hardy has answered everything I've given it so far. Jon

-- Jon (zyxjag@hotmail.com), October 06, 2001.

I do not own an Hardy tractor but, it should be noticed, this machine is identical to many other Chinese tractors. Parts etc. are generally interchangeable because they are all made to standard Chinese designs ( not copies of Masseys as some mal-informed and biased respondent tried to let us believe) and are surely available from a variety of sources. I currently use a Chinese diesel with excellent results: several thousand hours with only oil and fuel filters. Should I need to purchase another, I would not hesitate two seconds. But the real reason I am responding to this enquiry is to comment on the remarks made on this column by others respondents who seem to be about to suffocate by a combination of poor English and overwhelming xenofobia. Perhaps they should at least try to be a little more objective when so freely dispensing their "advices" to a fellow farmer; this forum is not the proper one for sputtering their own political biases. I took particular attention to a respondent that insinuated the Belarus tractor was a piece of junk. Well.. I must tell you my story because this comment make my blood turn blue. Ten years ago I purchased a Belarus, against the advice of my brother in law who was a John Deer rep, and I have been using this machine with superlative results. Not one penny has ever been spent for repairs, other than regular maintenance consumables. Even the original batteries are still viable. It will start first shot, in the coldest weather, and it is incredibly parsimonious with fuel. Had I bought a tractor from the "big boys" could I have been able to match the Belarus performance and reliability? Probably yes or probably not.... but one thing is certain: I saved enough money to purchase a second one and be left with enough change to have a good dinner and a toast to the well being of the Big Boys.

-- adella (adellacoletta@yahoo.com), December 02, 2001.

I too disregard any statement made by someone who can't spell or at least won't even try to look it up. Chinese diesels are not any better or worse than the big boys - just cheaper. Horror stories can be found with every product that has ever hit the market.

-- Mike (onsite@hurricane.net), January 13, 2002.

I just stumbled onto the conversation about China Diesels and found it amusing. I sold my mini-farm and two Kubota's with it. When I purchased the first one I looked at every "big boy" small tractor out there. John Deere is Yanmar, Ford is Shibiruo, Massey is Toyosho and Case is Mitsubishi. I looked at some top of the line European tractors and they were Japanese as well, so I bought the best Japanese tractor (which in my opinion is Kubota). My wife is from China and we visit her family every year. Based on what I have witnessed China has more than enough labor without resorting to slaves or children. Most of my wife's former classmates who work in manufacturing are being given early retirements to make room for younger workers. The ruling party may still be communist but most of my mainland Chinese friends are capitalist to the bone. The quality control and engineering in several industrial sectors may still lag but we said the same thing about the Japanese forty years ago. I don't have any direct experience with the China Diesel brand but I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. If the source bothers you, change the name to Stars and Stripes Diesel and enjoy your savings.

-- Bradley Allen Haslett (flybrad@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

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