|
Nortrac tractors are chinese tractor made by jinma, and then branded by the importer ( northern tool). Jinma makes tractors for dozens of importers, including their biggest importer.. Homier / Farm Pro. Yangdong makes the engine... Also.. the big units.. like over 40hp may be made by foton for nortrac... Yep.. the fit/finish / castings are heavier and cruder. Mostly, their assembly line technology still does not turn out 100% identical parts.. that is.. each part goes thru a bit of hand fitting.. etc. I've been looking at these for a few years and almost purchased twice. in fact one time I was as far as being on the phone getting a freight quote.. etc. Most of the issues that occour are fit / finish, and leaks. These are better or wors depending on the importer. Northern charges a bit more than homier.. and has better facilities where they assemble them ( they all come over crated ). Leaks are usually minor.. orings and such. A good dealer usually sends you a baggy of orings for this purpose.. course that's a kicker.. a new machine and they give you orings knowing they will leak!... However on the chinese forum I frequent it is not uncommon to get a front steering cyl that will still steer.. but bypasses at the end of the stroke instead of relieving.. so there are some steering cyl warrantiy claims now and again. Also.. your importer/dealer size and rep will determine how well your warranty is. Personally.. nortrac will probably take care of you as long as they have the parts.. etc. Homier is the same way. Though many of their units come from traveling shows.. so you may be doing mail order warranty.. etc. I'd be leary of gas station dealers that may be gone in 2 weeks mainly for warranty issues. lots of places offer say.. 6mo parts/labor. Well.. the 6mo parts is a jinma warranty.. and you could get parts if you needed to.. but the labor is a dealer thing.. if your dealer moves.. count on -0- labor warranty. There are other issues like some cheap batteries coming over.. and also some cheap fasteners. it used to be standard to repalce all the external nuts and bolts you could find.. but from what posts I see.. that is pretty much a thing of the past. Fluid changes are also high priority. The stuff that comes over from china doesn't pass as antifreeze or oil over here.. especially gear lube and hyd oil... way to thick.. etc. Metalurgy is also behind. i wouldn't expect their cast iron and hardening process to be any more advanced than what we see on our antiques. The bulk of the problems I see are people with FEL's and doing alot of hard digging, in 4wd, and shearing front well drive gears/hubs. spider gears.. etc. Mostly front axle issues.. etc. Glow plugs are fairly cheap too. Not uncommon to have to repalce a few.. ( they are inexpensive in addition to being cheap! ) Also. many new engines are now coming over with epa certification, as opposed to epa waivers. Suposedly the new epa certified engines start like a dream.. where the old ones started as bad or worse than our N's Well. that's what I know. As for limited non-comercial use.. I wouldn't be afraid to own one... Seems like the knowledge we have to keep our N's running is enough to nurse an asain diesl past 'break-in' stages. When i started looking at them.. a 20hp 2wd, with canopy, and no power steering model was 2999.00 That's super cheap. Now that same model is 3400 to 3900. I think i should have bought one at 2999 just to play with! Soundguy
| 
