10 things to consider when buying a compact tractor

So you’re in the market for a small tractor for your property or hobby farm. No matter big or small, a tractor is a big-ticket investment, so it's important to lay the groundwork before you part with your hard-earned dollars.

With the plethora of brands, makes and models out there, it is indeed a mammoth task to decide which is the most ideal unit for you.

We asked Bernie Teasdale of tractor dealership, O’Connors in Shepparton for some guidance and he’s provided a list of 10 questions to ask yourself before making a purchasing decision.

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The tractor is a truly versatile unit that can be used to carry out a wide array of tasks, so the most important first step is to work out what you will be using the machine for mainly, Teasdale said. This, in turn, will determine what horsepower and what size tractor you need.

“Are you lifting big square bales or just little round bales? Or are you slashing or cultivating?” he said.

You wouldn’t want to be in a situation where you’re trying to unload a couple of big square bales off the truck with your new tractor, only for it to be tipping forwards and the rear wheels lifted off the ground because it doesn’t have the weight or power to handle the job.

“There are tractors under 100hp that will comfortably do that job of lifting two square bales off a truck and will run a 2.5m multi-disk, a six-foot slasher, a rake or a round baler, but probably just okay,” Teasdale says.

“But if you just want to bale a bit of hay and cut and rake, under 100hp will do the job.

“It will do most jobs on a small-to-medium-size farm, I believe.”

Teasdale said there are people operating larger properties who have found use for smaller tractors. For example, farmers who just want to run a twin rotary rake have bought a 75 to 95hp tractor for the job.

“They’re a great little tractor,” Teasdale said. “They’re easy to manoeuvre – you can turn them on a 20-cent piece.”

There’s no point spending $60,000 on a tractor only to find out down the track that it won’t do four of the five things you want it to do.

“It’s all about the best value for money,” Teasdale said.

“Establish what you want it to do, then you can go to market and pinpoint which model will get the job done comfortably and safely.”

Then there are the other factors to consider. Is there good service and spare parts backup? Is it a reputable brand? Does the machine come with a good warranty? Is it built to a good spec? When you come to sell it three, four or five years down the track, is it going to have good resale value?

“Your traditional brands, whether it’s Case IH, John Deere, or New Holland, they’re always going to sell well in the second-hand market,” Teasdale said.

“And then you get some of these other new brands on the market which are cheap to buy, but when you decide to sell them down the track, you can’t get rid of them.”

So all these factors come into play when considering the value of your new rig. What you need vs what you get and whether it’s worth the money.

It’s more expensive to put a wet clutch setup into a tractor, so manufacturers tend to go for dry clutches to keep the price down.

While they work fine, loader work is best done with a wet clutch so if you will be going forwards and backwards a fair bit on your tractor loading material on your property, consider paying a bit more for the wet clutch.

It’s a matter of longevity, Teasdale added, and clutches are expensive to repair because you have to split the tractor.

“Again, that comes down to the first question: what are you going to do with it?” Teasdale said.

“If you’re doing a lot of loader work, every day of the week, and you know it’s going to be a $10,000 difference, I’d be buying a wet clutch tractor as opposed to a dry clutch tractor.

“The key to it is to look at the long term,” he said.

“Most of the smaller-horsepower tractors aren’t going to be doing heaps of hours so you’re going to have the tractor anywhere between five and eight years.

“They’re not like some of the higher-horsepower tractors which are turned over every three years because of the number of hours put on them. So, if you’re going to make that investment, look long term and look for value for money.”

This again boils down to that question: What are you using the tractor for?

“Some implements only require two remotes,” Teasdale said. “But, for example, if you’re producing a lot of small square bales for the horse market, you’re going to need three remotes.

“You need two remotes for your baler and most people now use bale handlers to stack, so you need an extra set of remotes to run those machines.”

Most tractors, particularly the smaller-horsepower models, come standard with two remotes, but due to the nature of many modern implements you’re best to have three just to be safe.

You need to ensure that the hydraulic pump in the tractor is big enough to get sufficient oil flow to the implements you plan to use with the tractor now and in the future.

Common examples of attachments that need a minimum hydraulic flow to operate are post-hole augers and loaders.

Teasdale said tractor hydraulic pumps are not upgradable, so looking for a more powerful one will mean looking at a different model tractor altogether.

“Some of the models might only have 56 l/min oil flow, and you might need 68,” he said. “So, you’ve got to go up to either a higher model in that range or a different tractor altogether.

“For example, in our range of under-100hp Case IH tractors, we have the JX, the C and the U. Now, each one of those has a different hydraulic pump.

“If you don’t need the bigger pump, the JX is the cheaper of the three. So, if you’re not doing a lot of loader work and only using a slasher, then the JX is the tractor for you,” he said.

“But if you’re running a lot of loader work, the C and U have got wet clutches and bigger hydraulic pumps.”

“Tyre spec is another important consideration,” Teasdale said. “We do a lot of tyre swaps on tractors, to cater to the specific job the customer wants to do.”

For example, if you’re farming in the hills, you’d probably need wider tyres than skinnier ones for better stability and traction.

But if you’re doing row crop work or vegetables, you’d want the tyres to fit in between the rows – so instead of 540mm wide tyres, go for 420mm wide ones.

“Is it a full warranty? Some people offer five-year warranties but there are a lot of exclusions,” he said. “You need to ask what it covers.”

“Our two-year, 2000-hour warranty is a full warranty. So, it covers everything in that two-year period.”

In the smaller-horsepower tractor market, the warranties apply more to the years than the hours because the machines don't tend to do as many hours.

You also need to check that the manufacturer is able to back up the warranty with parts and service.

You might’ve heard horror stories about farmers buying cheap tractors and then left high and dry because they’re unable to get parts for them.

“Parts availability is an important thing,” Teasdale said. “No point having the tractor sitting in the shed when you need to cut hay.

“At O’Connors, if we don’t have a part here, we can get it out of Sydney overnight. If we order by 4pm this afternoon, it’ll be sitting in our parts office by 10am the next day.”

“I always advise the customer to do their research, and hop on to farmmachinerysales to see what equivalent tractors are bringing in the market,” Teasdale said.

Some brands will trade every day of the week, he added, while some of the more obscure makes might not get too many people picking up the phone to enquire about.

“Buyers know a good tractor when they see one, even though it’s got a lot of hours on it,” Teasdale said.

“It might be a bit rough but someone will get another life out of a good rig.”

Regulations dictate that all tractors have to sell with a cab or ROPS protection, so you’re guaranteed some sort of protection when you buy a tractor. But will your dealer show you how to use your new tractor safely, that is the question.

“That’s a key thing for us when we go and do a set-up with a customer,” Teasdale said. “We’ll go over it before we hop in the tractor and start it up.

“We really focus on the safety as people tend to get a bit blasé.”

As for other safety equipment, Teasdale suggested fitting a fire extinguisher on your tractor which will cost about $150.

“A fire extinguisher is a pretty important thing,” Teasdale said, “as are flashing lights and so on.

“A lot of that comes standard depending on the model of the tractor, or we just factor that into the pricing.”

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