Hi Biochemist,
Good to hear you have found the problem, it's unfortunate when dealers don't do their job, we get a bit of that round our way aswell, and unfortunately it does a big disservice to the brand they are selling.
Good catch on the tyres!, the general rule of thumb is if you position your rear tyre with one lug pointing straight down, the lug either side should just be touching the ground, this normally equates to around 15-20psi, Basicly traction is the main thing you want, so the more lugs on the ground the better (obviously don't go to low or you could pop the tyre off the rim!)
Not Glowing (pre heating) the engine make's a lot of sense as to the smoke, I didn't think of that, as we don't normally get cold temperatures over here (it's unusual to get a day below 20ｰC! even in the middle of winter)
Filter changes can make a huge difference to the running of the tractor and the longevity of parts, They are reasonably cheap (Compared to a part failure) so I would do them at least once a year or every 300hr, If it's done 250hr and has never had a filter change, it probably means it hasn't had it's first 50hr & 100hr run-in service? if not I'd do these asap! The engines come with run-in oil so the 50hr service is a critical one.
Don't be disappointed in the tractor or brand, SAME - Deutz-Fahr are probably one of the best tractor brands out there, they are actually the same company and have different brand names for different countries. For example in Italy you will only hear of SAME, in Switzerland you will only hear of H?limann and in other parts of europe Lamborghini is the King pin, For Germany and the rest of the world Deutz is the name you can trust, Deutz are the people behind the design and Deutz are where the technology stems from, however Deutz have really only focused on the 112+hp market, so anything smaller has always been SAME technology. At the end of the day, it the same company, same engineers and same testing tracks, the only thing that changes is where the unit is built and what colour it is.
For a bit of history, SAME were actually the people who invented 4WD on tractors and pioneered Power shift transmissions, and until the patent ran out recently everyone else has had to come up with inferior design copies, Deutz on the other hand have also had a long heritage as a top quality brand, Deutz started mass building tractors back in 1927, but more importantly invented the 4 stroke engine back in 1864. Back in 1995 SAME & Deutz-Fahr merged, to create the super power we know today. The technology, Reliability & power in these tractors are un-match by anything else on the market!
If you want to have a good read of their history have a look at
History
and for more about the mother company
Home
As for the Agroplus, It's a shame the dealer didn't give you more information, but the SAME engine's up to 100hp are some of the best in the world (even better than the Deutz in that range. They are built in Italy in there Treviglio Plant (unlike most other manufactures who out source parts from china) so they are quality European Engines, they are rock solid! in fact to tell you a side story, just the other day we had an old Frutteto 85 come into the workshop for it's yearly service, this tractor has 7500hours on it and has only every had standard service done (i.e. no major parts replaced) anyway as we had the Dyno set up, we thought we would see what it could do, so we through it on, and to our surprise it quiet happily managed 78hp @ PTO, (it's rating new is only 75hp) I don't know to many tractors that are able to boast those kind of stat's at that age!
So really, you've got a first class tractor, with Heritage other brands can only dream about. As long as it's looked after it will last you many many year to come!
Cheers
Andrew
