robpm
Silver Member
Hello all. I am new to this forum. I grew up with tractors and am now 51 and am looking at purchasing one. I own over 2 acres and it is wooded and has a lot of rocks etc. I want to build a barn. I burn about 6 cord of wood a winter. I have found a 2005 JD 990 MFWD with 300CX FEL, JD 8B BH, JD pallet forks, JD Ballast Box, and a speeco log splitter which you can find here SpeeCo Inc. - Log Splitter, Tractor Parts, OEM and Farm Accessory Contact information.
The owner told me that it was purchased when he bought a piece of land so that he could use it on the new property but then he had to sell the property and the 990 was hardly used. It has 171 hours on it. The BH has been used once for pulling a stump and all the rest of the hours have been used running the wood splitter. It has been garage kept except when splitting wood. I don't know about the maintenance yet. The price the owner is asking is $25k firm unless I pay cash. Then he is willing to negotiate some.
I have attached 4 pictures of the unit. I have looked at all the forum posts on the 990 that I can find on TractorByNet as well as some others. Most of them are several years old because this model is no longer made and has been replaced by the 4005.
The negatives have been more about the standard transmission than anything else. standard trans are the tractors I drove while growing up. They were a MF 35 and then an IH 330 utility. I drove a friends Kubota about 10 years ago (I don't remember the model #) but it had a syncro Trans and I liked it. It had a FEL and I moved a lot of dirt with it filling in a driveway etc.
The other negative I have read is that it can become fuel starved if you are going down hill and the tank is below half empty.
One other item is that some have found the battery getting corroded easily.
finally I have heard some complain about the 300CX FEL noting it was made in china and the cast was not as good as the old 440 FEL.
I priced out a new 4005 with all the same attachments on JD痴 web site and it came out to be $35k and some change. That did not include the Wood Splitter. Buying new I can get 0% financing for 60 months on a new one with good credit which I have. I will have to use my home equity to buy this one if I were to buy it.
The good things that I have heard about the unit is the 40.4 HP Yanmar engine 4TNV84-EJKM is superb for fuel efficiency, power etc. I talked with a Kubota dealer several months ago and he noted that the Yanmar engine is excellent and he wished that Kubota could use it and hinted that it might happen at some point.
Also the tractor is simple and not so complicated and that it would work for many many years like the tractors of yesteryear. In addition all the parts are metal (e.g. fenders etc) where newer tractors are being built with plastics etc.
I won稚 be driving it every day but there are some days when I would work it hard at least in my view point. My questions are as follows:
1. Is this a good buy or is it overpriced?
2. Is this JD 990 a good machine to buy as opposed to the other guys comparable models, Kubota, Kioti, Mahendra, BobCat, New Holland, Massey Ferguson, Cub etc?
3. I like some of the newer capabilities that you can get like a skid steer capability to change out the FEL with something else easily and also having a thumb on the BH so you can pick things up with it etc. Can some of these things be added after the fact like the thumb on the BH?
I know that this is a long post but I thought that it would be good to give you all my thoughts and hear what you who are much more experienced have to say regarding this possible deal that is before me. I was thinking about buying something new but when I saw this, this past Saturday I thought that this could be a real good deal but again I don't know.
Thank you for your help.
Rob
The owner told me that it was purchased when he bought a piece of land so that he could use it on the new property but then he had to sell the property and the 990 was hardly used. It has 171 hours on it. The BH has been used once for pulling a stump and all the rest of the hours have been used running the wood splitter. It has been garage kept except when splitting wood. I don't know about the maintenance yet. The price the owner is asking is $25k firm unless I pay cash. Then he is willing to negotiate some.
I have attached 4 pictures of the unit. I have looked at all the forum posts on the 990 that I can find on TractorByNet as well as some others. Most of them are several years old because this model is no longer made and has been replaced by the 4005.
The negatives have been more about the standard transmission than anything else. standard trans are the tractors I drove while growing up. They were a MF 35 and then an IH 330 utility. I drove a friends Kubota about 10 years ago (I don't remember the model #) but it had a syncro Trans and I liked it. It had a FEL and I moved a lot of dirt with it filling in a driveway etc.
The other negative I have read is that it can become fuel starved if you are going down hill and the tank is below half empty.
One other item is that some have found the battery getting corroded easily.
finally I have heard some complain about the 300CX FEL noting it was made in china and the cast was not as good as the old 440 FEL.
I priced out a new 4005 with all the same attachments on JD痴 web site and it came out to be $35k and some change. That did not include the Wood Splitter. Buying new I can get 0% financing for 60 months on a new one with good credit which I have. I will have to use my home equity to buy this one if I were to buy it.
The good things that I have heard about the unit is the 40.4 HP Yanmar engine 4TNV84-EJKM is superb for fuel efficiency, power etc. I talked with a Kubota dealer several months ago and he noted that the Yanmar engine is excellent and he wished that Kubota could use it and hinted that it might happen at some point.
Also the tractor is simple and not so complicated and that it would work for many many years like the tractors of yesteryear. In addition all the parts are metal (e.g. fenders etc) where newer tractors are being built with plastics etc.
I won稚 be driving it every day but there are some days when I would work it hard at least in my view point. My questions are as follows:
1. Is this a good buy or is it overpriced?
2. Is this JD 990 a good machine to buy as opposed to the other guys comparable models, Kubota, Kioti, Mahendra, BobCat, New Holland, Massey Ferguson, Cub etc?
3. I like some of the newer capabilities that you can get like a skid steer capability to change out the FEL with something else easily and also having a thumb on the BH so you can pick things up with it etc. Can some of these things be added after the fact like the thumb on the BH?
I know that this is a long post but I thought that it would be good to give you all my thoughts and hear what you who are much more experienced have to say regarding this possible deal that is before me. I was thinking about buying something new but when I saw this, this past Saturday I thought that this could be a real good deal but again I don't know.
Thank you for your help.
Rob
