NorTrac Tractors

[avalancher]

I have been looking for a good tractor, and noticed the Nortrac tractors in the Northern Tool catalog. Price is very attractive, you can get a 4wd 20 hp diesel tractor with a loader and a box blade for 9K, and I am considering a purchase. Anyone know anything about these things? I called Northern tools, they tell me that they build them here in the states and supply the parts themselves, none of my local dealers carry their parts which makes me a little hesitant. Anyone got one or know anyone that does?

 

[Butch(OH)]

I have no first hand experiance with Nor-trac but can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that they are NOT made in the USA and that the only part Northern supplies (if any) is the "Nor-Trac" name plates. They are the same China built tractors that are sold under quite a few differant names. When not badged with the sellers name plates they are sold as Jimna brand tractors. If like everything else made there you might get a deccent one, maybe not, need parts? tough tootles. Id take a loan out and buy a New Holland if it were me but there are also others who sell and service a better quality product. None of the compacts are made here that I am aware of.

 

[Ductape]

Northern is filling you with BS

Yes..... they are Jinma tractors made in China. Though there are folks who like them, I personally, would stay away. If ten thousand is the price you are trying to stay below, find a nice clean used tractor by a major manufacturer. You'll be happy you did the first time you need a part.

 

[Marc]

Yes..... they are Jinma tractors made in China. Though there are folks who like them, I personally, would stay away. If ten thousand is the price you are trying to stay below, find a nice clean used tractor by a major manufacturer. You'll be happy you did the first time you need a part.

If you want good price and quality, look at Kioti. They were started by a guy who left Kubota and all their tractors are based on older Kubota designs. They're so similar he even kept the same part numbers... the last time my father needed a new part for his 1984 Kubota L2250 he got a part made by Kioti.

 

[johncinco]

The nor trac is the same as Jinma, and a couple other names. All made in China.

I have a Jinma 345 LE. 45 Hp, 4 cylinder, 4 wd, front end loader, PTO off the back. 3 pt hitch. Paid $10,000 and it was already assembled for me. That is going price, if you assemble it yourself, I got a good deal from the dealer that needed to move it out. I have 60 hours on mine now. Theres a few things I dont like, the low gear is VERY low, and the high is too high. The 3 pt is very hard to control, there is no "adjustable" setting, your either moving it up or moving it down, you cant set it to a spot and have it go there all the time. Its a B*tch to start in the cold, you have to use either no matter what you try if its below 40 degrees. I live in MI, its that cold 9 months out of the year. Stuff I like, it'll pull like mule! when it gets hard going that extra cylinder keeps it turning instead of stalling. The design is easy to maintain for oil and fuel, all filters are located withing easy reach. Comes with all the lights, horn, rollover protection, seatbelt. The hood and fenders are fiberglass, which may seem cheap, but I never have to worry about rust, and again I am in MI where its wet and snowy. All spots that should be greased have zerk fittings, which I am a grease nut. For the money you spend on it, I dont think you could find a reason not to own one.

 

[jdboy9]

I have been reading up on nortracs I was considering the 80 horse cab version because it seems like a good price. A john deere of the same thing would cost at least twice that, yet you would know what you are getting. Kubota was an import years ago and still is and it has a pretty good name for itself these days. I really don't know I am really considering a nortrac/jinma tractor in the future.

Oh and like others said most if not all of the compact tractors are imports these days.

 

[sawyerDave]

If you want good price and quality, look at Kioti. They were started by a guy who left Kubota and all their tractors are based on older Kubota designs. They're so similar he even kept the same part numbers... the last time my father needed a new part for his 1984 Kubota L2250 he got a part made by Kioti.

Actually the story I heard is that the Japanese sold the tooling for their older gear tractors to the Koreans, who are making the Kioti's to this day. No matter which story you believe, they are better tractors than the Jinma CRAP that Northern sells:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Zodiac45]

I think you could get yourself quite a bit of used tractor for that money Ave.
If you are set on going new take a look at Mahindra's. They are made in India and a tough little tractor. Kioti's are nice too and quite a bit less money than the comparable Kubota's.

 

[jdboy9]

I heard as well Kioti was a failed design by kubota that they got rid of, I find it hard to believe kubota would sell something they know is bad and allow someone to make a tractor that everyone knows was a kubota design but hey I dunno.

I agree a used is the way to go if you want to buy a JD Kubota NH etc. you can find some pretty good deals out there in the used market.

 

[cruzer]

yanmar???

look over at tractorbynet.com and mytractorforum.com both have tons of info

Stew(wanna be tractor owner)

 

[GeeVee]

Here's a reality check for everyone.

NO ONE manufactured their own machines in the compact hp ranges, they were all produced, still are, by a japanese company, Iseki, Yanmar, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, and painted and badged for JD, Ford, Case- just about every big "american" name. Some claimed it over "assembling" the end product, which amounted to putting on the wheels and seat.

The gray market tractors are every bit as good as a used one from a private party. In fact, better. You can see the amount of new parts used to renovate the tractors right away. A used machine is more of a crap shoot.....

I'd by a used Yanmar in an instant if I didn't have Pedro the ASV. A gray market 25 hp with loader be about 5500 in FLorida.

There are RC 30's in the ten g range with 6-7 hundred hours on them. Depends on what you want to do with yotu tractor for sure, though.

 

[Marc]

I heard as well Kioti was a failed design by kubota that they got rid of, I find it hard to believe kubota would sell something they know is bad and allow someone to make a tractor that everyone knows was a kubota design but hey I dunno.

I agree a used is the way to go if you want to buy a JD Kubota NH etc. you can find some pretty good deals out there in the used market.

No one ever said failed design here... just old designs. Models Kubota wasn't producing anymore. Which I know to be true because of the matching part numbers with older Kubota's.

 

[jdboy9]

Marc,

Don't get me wrong Kioti is Kubota tractors. What I'm getting at though is from what I was told is that the designs kioti gets their hands on from kubota are failed designs. For instance if a ROPS bolt hole wasn't in the right place or a certain area of metal was known to crack then kubota got rid of it and kioti bought it.

I worked at a Kubota dealer for a few years and that was just what I was told by our owner. I honestly don't believe it but maybe its true maybe it isn't.

 

[eric_271]

Marc,

Don't get me wrong Kioti is Kubota tractors. What I'm getting at though is from what I was told is that the designs kioti gets their hands on from kubota are failed designs. For instance if a ROPS bolt hole wasn't in the right place or a certain area of metal was known to crack then kubota got rid of it and kioti bought it.

I worked at a Kubota dealer for a few years and that was just what I was told by our owner. I honestly don't believe it but maybe its true maybe it isn't.

Seems to be a lot of different storys on this subject. The story I heard is kubota owed a good some of money to a korean foundry that supplied parts to kubota '' not too hard to believe'' and to settle up kubota offered to give the molds to the company who made trannys and rearends for a number of different brands of tractors,including kubota and new holland, again I might buy that. Unless kubota has caught up for comparative size tractors kioti uses larger size hyd. pumps in their tractors which is a plus over the kubota and this is factual. Not saying there was never crack prone kubota parts but I have never heard about it if there was. Right now I would buy a kioti over a kubota though both are good tractors the larger hyd. pumps in the kioti's will out preform the kubota's and this is unless kubota has up sized the pump capacity lately. I compared kubota, new holland and kioti. The kioti's use same size pumps as new hollands at least in the 30 hp range but are about $2500 cheaper price wise.

 

[day52]

I was looking for a 30 hp tractor about two years ago and looked them all over. I was almost settled on the Mahindra. I really liked the feel of it. Very heavy build, nice platform, little plastic, handled well for the size. I ended up with New Holland for about the same price (after negotiation). I only turned away from Mahindra because the dealer had just taken the line on and didn't know that much about them--I feared service problems because prviously they were not tractor dealers. Anyhow, compared to the Nortrac or any of the other rebadged Jinmas, I think the Mahindra is a much better machine. I also am very happy with the NH and would probably make the same choice again although it would be close.

 

[Marc]

Seems to be a lot of different storys on this subject. The story I heard is kubota owed a good some of money to a korean foundry that supplied parts to kubota '' not too hard to believe'' and to settle up kubota offered to give the molds to the company who made trannys and rearends for a number of different brands of tractors,including kubota and new holland, again I might buy that. Unless kubota has caught up for comparative size tractors kioti uses larger size hyd. pumps in their tractors which is a plus over the kubota and this is factual. Not saying there was never crack prone kubota parts but I have never heard about it if there was. Right now I would buy a kioti over a kubota though both are good tractors the larger hyd. pumps in the kioti's will out preform the kubota's and this is unless kubota has up sized the pump capacity lately. I compared kubota, new holland and kioti. The kioti's use same size pumps as new hollands at least in the 30 hp range but are about $2500 cheaper price wise.

Yup. Lotta urban legends regarding Kioti and Kubota apparently.

It it seems most of them have no merit:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-ever-made-kubota.html?highlight=kioti+kubota

From everything I read there, Kioti and Kubota have no connection. Kubota never had a relationship with them, and Kioti's just look like Kubota's by coincidence. The most likely thing it looks like is that some Kioti dealers fabricated these myths early on to sell product, because Kubota's then were already selling well.

Well, I'm not going to perpetuate any more myths or rumors on this subject.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1279948

 

[Marc]

I'm going to have to have a word with my old man and his stories too, looks like...

 

[wkpoor]

If you read this far I'll tell you my story.
Some years ago I was looking at buying a Long tractor. I asked my dealer about parts years down the road as I was familiar with Old Fords and Farmall which parts are still readily available 60yrs+. He said straight up no guarantees. Well I didn't buy and am glad for it as I believe Long is long out of business. I don't even know anyone with a Long let alone know where parts could be had.
Basically any of these fly by night outfits could pack it up tomorrow and you would be left with a pig and a poke.
Go Green, Blue or Red and you'll be OK for yrs to come.

 

[tanker]

If you read this far I'll tell you my story.
Some years ago I was looking at buying a Long tractor. I asked my dealer about parts years down the road as I was familiar with Old Fords and Farmall which parts are still readily available 60yrs+. He said straight up no guarantees. Well I didn't buy and am glad for it as I believe Long is long out of business. I don't even know anyone with a Long let alone know where parts could be had.
Basically any of these fly by night outfits could pack it up tomorrow and you would be left with a pig and a poke.
Go Green, Blue or Red and you'll be OK for yrs to come.

Yup,you get what you pay for(or are'nt willng to pay for)

 

[NC Firewood]

tractor

I'd rather have a 30 yr. old IH with 6000+ hrs. than anything comming off the assembly line today. Don't worry about new paint, think reliability and HP per dollar. Also, I strongly doubt any rice tractors will ever hold their value to American iron if you ever wanted to sell. I'm sure some overseas manufactures can produce "quality" but how many proven hrs. do they have? Sounds like a MF 135 diesel would be right up your alley. There are still some good 1010's out there. Why do you think IH ever went bust? They built a product that never broke.