#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  Tractor which brand is best

## donald36

Here in Chaiaphum everyone has Kubota Tractors but have seen a few very smart looking New holland ones around --I would appreciate views as which are best value and also whether its better to but the larger engine models from a wear and tear point of view and fuel economy 
Also does anyone know where the local New holland dealer is in Chaiaphum province --we are near Teppasit

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## poorfalang

^ hard question

I personally like kubota,

i first had the ford 6610 second hand, plenty power but to do the paddy fields was shit, two wheel drive the biggest problem.then swaped for a 6640 kubota just as good but better :Smile:  as it have 4x4.

i got it a few years back, back then there were not many brands available in my area
now you can get
yanmar, mitsu,euro,champion and offcorse ford and john deree
ford has many new 

if i would buy today i probably would go for mitsu.

whatever you get remind everyone who paid for it, and it needs servicing and who will pay for it.

by the way there is a ford dealer in khon kaen, near the central plaza on the way down to kosa after the railway line on the left,
they will deliver to your house.

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## S Landreth

> Tractor which brand is best



Deere: Dealer Locator

the only brand we purchase (For farm/ranch equipment)

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## Bung

Lamborghini. 

HOME

 :Smile:

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## Little Chuchok

> Originally Posted by donald36
> 
> 
> Tractor which brand is best
> 
> 
> 
> Deere: Dealer Locator
> 
> the only brand we purchase (For farm/ranch equipment)


Nothing Better.

Although nothing much goes wrong with the New Holland, but nothing is a patch on a JD.

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## jamescollister

Think the type of tractor best suited, will depend on your needs. All the above brands are good and you may not need a top of the range job if it is hobby or small scale farming. 
Guy out here [dead now ] had 2 ford Hollands, doubt they saw more than a few weeks a year of operating time. A big waste of money. Jim

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## Boon Mee

Kubota

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## palexxxx

Chamberlain

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...w=1920&bih=976

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## khmen

Massey Ferguson. 










Oh hang on, they went bust like the vast majority of the British automotive industry!  :rofl:

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## Marmite the Dog

> Oh hang on, they went bust like the vast majority of the British automotive industry!


Damn! Why didn't we think to use tax money to prop them up?!

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## Thormaturge

There is always...



Porsche Tractor Overview

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## Norton

Get one of these to fit your need. John Deere. Available in Thailand

6100D Utility Tractor


6115D Mid Tractor




Cane Harvester

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## jamescollister

Tractors need servicing, nearest JD from me 140 Km, guys come out when under warranty, after that you pay. It's just not the tractor that counts, but the parts and service you have to look at. 
As said all good tractors, but do you want to go may be 100 KM to get it fixed or call, the guy down the road from the service center.
Jim

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## Gipsy

Would love to have one of those 1940s/1950s diesels... perfect for a small scale nursery and a gardener that gets more lazy by the day.


Borrowed from the net. Ford 9n tractor

If anyone ever sees one for sale here in Thailand.. Engine and mechanics should be in working order, the rest is the fun part!

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## IsaanAussie

Quick fact. Yanmar and JD have an engineering and technology agreement globally. Little ones Yanmar Big Ones JD. The difference in the colour. Not just tractors but ride on mowers etc... Here, go look at the front end system on a 4 wheel drive "K" brand then look at a Yanmar. Game, set and match.
If you have serious acreage go JD. Small patches Yanmar.

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## IsaanAussie

Given the resources and the vanity,what would I buy? No doubt, a 90HP 4x4 JD.

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## IsaanAussie

What do I have? A 1980 large frame 4x4 28HP Iseki. It can do everything they can all do, just slower. Watching most of the "Contractor" lemons around me, slow is good!
Why did i BUY this old heap od sh1t? Because I can use any Isuzu pickup motor in it and it can only get better!

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## wasabi

The best Tractor,that all Thai's agree on,is the best,and the most sort after are: Farang  buy for family.
No bank loan,and all maintenance costs are billed to the Farang sponsor.

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## kingwilly

What happened to a water buffalo? Did they all get sick and die?

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## poorfalang

^ its in the water?

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## poorfalang

> Quick fact. Yanmar and JD have an engineering and technology agreement globally. Little ones Yanmar Big Ones JD. The difference in the colour. Not just tractors but ride on mowers etc... Here, go look at the front end system on a 4 wheel drive "K" brand then look at a Yanmar. Game, set and match.
> If you have serious acreage go JD. Small patches Yanmar.


not sure about that IA
sure there are connections but
Yanmar is for the most part a corporation specializing in diesel engines, and also makes light fishing boats, hulls for ships, tractors, combine harvesters, rice-planting machines, snow throwers, transporters, tillers, mini excavators, portable diesel generators Side by Side UTV and Heavy Utility Machinery. Yanmar is one of the most famous among the top brands of agricultural, marine machinery in Japan and the world.
Yanmar was the first to put a diesel engine in a rice planting machine with a passenger seat. Small, light, air-cooled diesel engines are Yanmar's speciality. Yanmar also supplies engines to John Deere tractors and Thermo King Corporation used in refrigerated trucks and trailers.

yanmar timeline
1912 Yamaoka Magokichi sets up business under the name Yamaoka Engine Workshop.
1931 Inauguration of Yamaoka Engine Workshop Limited.
1936 Inauguration of Yamaoka Internal Combustion Machines Limited.
1940 Yamaoka Internal Combustion Machines amalgamates with Yamaoka Engine Workshop.
1952 Company name changes to Yanmar Diesel Limited.
2002 Company name changes to Yanmar limited.

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## Khonwan

I can’t add much to the debate other than to say that I’ve been very satisfied with my Ford 6600. It must be over 30 years old - owned by me for around 15 years – but it just keeps going despite my oft times poor maintenance and is very cheap to repair with parts readily available along with many very capable mechanics. It’s my understanding in my local villages that Kubota owners would prefer to own used Fords but the finance deals make the purchase of new Kubota tractors easier.

  Rgds
  Khonwan

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## rubberdiesel

my local mechanic said ford tracker easy to fix and  no problem finding parts.

matt

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## donald36

The old Fords are unbeatable easy to fix and no real technology to cause problems when they get older -of course now all tractors are going to be more technology dependent in future and parts correspondingly more expensive 
From othert comments John Deere need to be looked at

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## Mr Earl

Yea those old Fords are great, my pal used one as a log skidder in Vermont.

Tractors are pretty mission specific. I just needed something small with a PTO and 4x4 for the wet hilly stuff. Found a grey market 28hp Kubota for 140k baht. It sips fuel and is tough as nails. And runs my wood chipper fine.

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## Koetjeka

New Holland for sure.

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## Mas Gib

Steady on old boy! Massy Ferguson the Fergy  was the revolutionary mother and father of all modern tractors developing the hydraulic lift and link system, it was pretty bomb proof to boot. (Respect please)

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## mykthemin

Here in Thailand has to be Kubota, dealers and spares everywhere.

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## rickchap

I am a fan of Kubota.

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## johnnaylor

Buy the biggest you can afford. Both new Holland (ford) and kubota are good tractors on our farm in west Yorks we run John deere.  But my friends have fords and very little problems.  A. Always remember a big tractor can do less. A little tractor can't do more o

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## piwanoi

> Think the type of tractor best suited, will depend on your needs. All the above brands are good and you may not need a top of the range job if it is hobby or small scale farming. 
> Guy out here [dead now ] had 2 ford Hollands, doubt they saw more than a few weeks a year of operating time. A big waste of money. Jim


  Spot on Jim , quite a few farang erstwhile farmers in my area have bought tractors (on the advice of their wives) only for it to be being parked up for at least 10 months of the year ,and woe betide the farang who refuses to lend his expensive purchase to one of his wife's extended family , yeah in IMHO a complete waste of money which could well cause internal friction within the family were the wife almost always sides with them and not the farang husband  :Smile:

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## Troy

Bumping an old thread to ask the same question yet again.

I am after a tractor that can do the family fields and provide some work during the season. A two-wheeled 'donkey' has served it's purpose for the last 24 years but is on its last legs. It had a smaller engine than the modern day ones (I think it's a 90cc vs the 110cc diesel) with better fuel economy.

Should we go for a 4x4 tractor? ... thinking of having a baler, many around here like the bales but not many balers around and possibly a thresher for the harvest season as well.

We have a New Holland and a Kubota dealer close by but not a JD. The NH looked better built when I looked around earlier this year.

Would also use for wood chipping, water pump and ditch digging if attachments available.

Any thoughts?

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## Backspin

New Holland if you are in Europe..Deer if you are in N
America. Kabota if you're in Asia

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## IsaanAussie

> Should we go for a 4x4 tractor? ... thinking of having a baler, many around here like the bales but not many balers around and possibly a thresher for the harvest season as well.
> 
> We have a New Holland and a Kubota dealer close by but not a JD. The NH looked better built when I looked around earlier this year.
> 
> Would also use for wood chipping, water pump and ditch digging if attachments available.


I would definitely go with a 4x4 tractor. Assuming you are buying new, start with both local dealers and ask about cost or repayments, warranty period and service schedule and costing. Kubota has a full service plan which is the way to go, NH may have the same. Anyway find out what models they stock and the availability of parts. You should have a feel for which one you want to deal with. I prefer Yanmar to Kubota personally but Kubota has the best local manufacture and support operation in Thailand. They also sell their own branded models of implements rather than ending up with "unsupported unknowns."
Now for the choice of tractor, there are some things you need to know like the lifting capacity of the three point linkage which can, for instance, limit the weight of a plough that can be attached for transport. I have a five disc plough that was too heavy to bounce around on the dirt roads and saw the demise of the hydraulic pump. Can you fit additional hydraulic linkages such as you may need for a backhoe attachment. The list goes on.....
More generally is the tractor comfortable and easy to understand and operate. Test them all. Some I found built for Japanese farmers or Australian children not for me. 
Implements are next and if possible buy with the tractor to get the best deal and ensure that they do not effect warranty. Happy to comment on choice of implements but need to know a bit more about what you want to do. A thresher for instance really makes little sense if a harvester is used. A trailer will be handy to move things around and a forage harvester if you are cut and carrying cattle forage crops. A seed drill for planting, rotary hoe for seed bed Tractor size is dependant on implement need, the bigger the better is not necessarily the way to go. More HP than you need is my thought, so how much do you need?

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## Troy

^ Thanks, there's a lot of things to learn and find out before making a decision on the tractor. We only have 25 rai of rice farm and the work in the area is single season so I was thinking of something up to 50HP. We want a trailer large enough to carry the girls to the farm and bring back the rice and straw. I'm not sure how good bale making is in humid regions. Ploughing would be small 1 rai fields.

This year we put in a deep well pump and converted the top two fields for vegetables, chickens and ducks. These fields need a furrow plough to make ridges for easy planting and irrigating. 

I would also like to be able to plough in the rice stalks, left after harvest, into the ground soon after harvest so that some of the fields can be used again before the next rice season. This is too much work for the 2 wheeler...

Ideas on equipment and how the tractor can be usefully employed throughout the year would be good. I have two nieces with husbands that can handle kubotas and a BIL who is slow but reliable.

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## IsaanAussie

What sort of total budget are you looking at, if you don't mind me asking?

Here are a few random thoughts ...

No problem with baling your straw here just need the moisture content right first. With 20 something rai you will end up with a lot of bales, at a guess 5 to 600. I have 12 rai of rice and the guy who baled ours last year produced 300 bales in less than 3 hours at 15 baht a bale. Bottom line is a long pay back period on a baler. He was using a 34HP Kubota with his baler without problem which surprised me as I thought it would need more power.

Year round use will depend on what you plan to grow during the dry obviously. Given you have water available, you could grow a fodder or cereal crop after the rice. 

A friend has a PTO driven chipper/shredder on a very small Kubota. Handles up to 4inch logs and will handle wet stuff like banana stems without problem. Very solid construction and cost about 70K. 

A rotary hoe (rotovator) is a must for the veggies and good for rice land. Look at the choice of plough or disc harrow. My land is the normal degraded clay and I choose a plough so I could get down into ground and turn it over. Many people now use a deep ripper to just open it up, fine if you have the HP. 

I have a two row maker to form beds. This is used after ploughing and rotary hoeing first. 

Do you really need a grader blade on the front? I have a front end loader bucket which is very useful moving compost and soil around. If I needed a grader blade I would probably use the row maker frame and change from the four discs to steel plates on the sides and back to form a box scrapper. You can get PTO mounted blades as well, these have the advantage that you can change the angle of the blade like a road grader does.

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## ootai

[COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)][COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)]Troy
Here's a link to a thread over on TV regarding tractors. I have posted a link below and hopefully it doesn't get deleted as it would if I posted in reverse. I couldn't be bothered writing it asll again so i copied my reply and pasted it here.

TRACTORS and tractors advise - Farming in Thailand Forum - Thailand Visa Forum by Thai Visa | The Nation


douglasspade
In your original post you said:
I've been in TH for more than a year permanently (lost my job then covid hit...) Farmed rice for the past 3 years with my wife on leased land and also on our own. I pay 600 Baht to plow and rake a Rai, and another 300฿ to mulch it after I mist it. I can not choose when to do this and have to rely on others. Kindof feeling slightly helpless knowing I can do it better and in my own/right time and enjoy it. I drop over 30K฿ on machine rental just to get the rice planted. Another 20K฿  flies just to get cover crop on, and another 20K฿  flies to re-establish the soil to support pasture for the rest of the year. 

Before I talk about tractors I am wondering if you can explain exactly what you mean by the following:
"plow and rake" plow I understand but rake?
"mulch it after I mist it" I don't know what you are doing here.
'machine rental to get rice planted" I am not sure how you are doing this planting as around here the seed is just casted out using a "blower"
"just to get a cover crop on" I don't understand this?
"re-establish the soil to support pasture" not sure what you are describing here.

Anyway the one thing I did understand was when you said "I can not choose when to do this and have to rely on others." I also had this problem and used to get upset when the people who were going to do the work didn't turn up when the said they would. So initially we (my wife and I) bought an iron buffalo for her brother to use. Later after she purchased a bit more land I convinced her to buy a tractor. So about 15 years ago we bought a "Euro 55DI" and it did a good job for several years.  When we started knocking down paddy banks to make larger paddies so the tractor had more room to manouvre etc. it took a bit of a pounding. In order to push the soil around and make the new bigger paddies more level the BIL used the tractor and he had the plough hanging off the back to use to loosen up the soil. Of course he had to show everyone what a great operator he was by going back forth as fast as he could and the plow bouncing up and down on the back actually split the cast iron housing.  The served as the hydraulic tank so it was repaired but still leaks a little. Also the tractor had a double clutch system for the PTO and this was a pig of a thing never really worked properly as I suppose it was never really used properly.

Anyway  about 6 or 7 years ago we bought a new tractor, a New Holland TT4.55 and it has been absolutely great so far. As both our tractors have been 4WD and 55HP I can't say what is the best size to get for a small holding such as you have but I can tell you the following facts (as I see them). My wife has a cousin whom she works very closely with and they basically share farm his land together with hers. She puts up the capital and he puts in the labour. She keeps track of the hours he works and the capital she spends and when they sell any produce these are deducted and they share ant profit.  I should point out the profit is never very much but it provides work for him and several members of the family at different time during the year.

They also do contract tractor work plus rice and cassava harvesting which includes truck transport to the required location i.e. the owners storage place or the mill/s.
Anyway he has a smaller Yanmar tractor which from memory is 28HP and there are times when it is used in preference to our New Holland. It seems to handle wet and boggy conditions a lot better and is easy to get out when it gets bogged. It is also more manourverable in small paddies.

Just as a final word I thought I would say that the New Holland has the following improvements that I love.
Flat floor rather foot wells which make it much more comfortable.
Hydraulic "switch" that allows the implement on the back to be fully raised or lowered by the press of a button.
Forward or reverse selection by one lever on the dash (requires the clutch to be used as well.
Separate clutch for the PTO and 2 speeds either controlled by ground speed or motor revs.

Anyway that's enough waffle from me. I also thought a few pictures would be good to help improve the post.  I almost forgot to mention that you should have a look at JSSR Auctions on google as they always have lots of secondhand tractors for sale and prior to covid they held an auction every month.

In the last picture the red lines show where the plough used to be connected and the welded cracks the green line shows where it gets connected now.  The reason the plough is on the back is as a counterewieght for the when the bucket is full of cassava.



[/COLOR]









*Edited September 2 by OOTAI*[/COLOR]

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## Troy

^ & ^^ Thanks for the information. I need to have a chat with the dealers and work out what is feasible. I personally preferred the build quality of the New Holland compared to the Kubota but there is a lot more to research.

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## IsaanAussie

Good luck, hope you find what you are looking for.

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## Grumpy John

The wife and I bought a Kubota B2420 6 years ago for orchard work.   I wanted a bigger power/weight tractor with the narrow axles but no one had narrow axle models in Thailand.  The B2420 is made in Japan and imported which at the time I thought was a good thing...but in reality it is a toy much the same as the dinky crap you see in Australia and America.  It can pull the airbus and the trailer but it struggles with a 3 disc plow.  The bigger Kubota are OK from what I see.

Around here with tractors 10 years old or less I think Kubota is slightly in front of Yanmar for sales.  One guy has a New Holland and there are now 2 Ford 6600 in the village but I suspect they are way older than 10 years!

Over at Noen Maprang parked outside the BAAC are 2 new Iseki tractors and once in several visits to the bank there were reps from Iseki on site to answer questions and take orders.  None spoke English so I am still in the dark as to price.  Well designed they are.

John Deere now have an orchard model with narrow axles.  40 hp diesel. 

What would be a deal sealer for me would be a tractor with an independent PTO that doesn't disengage when you depress the clutch.  The reason being when spraying with the wand the PTO stops when you stop at a tree so you have to throw it out of gear and release the clutch to get the PTO going again, then reengage the gear move to the next tree so on and so on.  With the number of trees we have it gets really boring by lunchtime!

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## Grumpy John

I posted a reply in this thread and now it is gone!   Obviously my opinion on tractors is offensive to someone!

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