Iseki Tractors

[Anonymous Poster]

I've wanted a compact tractor for years, and finally have the wife seeing the light! We recently bought 20 acrea and are currently building a pole building, which we will live in for some peroid of time until we build our new house-probably next year. Excavating, stump clearing and road building costs have been an eye opener, to some extent for both of us.

Anyway, I'm looking to buy a used (grey market) tractor with FEL and a back blade for backfilling, finish grading, road maintenance and snow plowing. I have some old skid trails to clean up for access around the property and to a lake. Probably will want to add a bush-hog for clearing brush at some time, and will also be doing some log skidding.

Anyway, I visited a place called Tractor Outlet up in Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. Spend a couple of hours with one of their guys, who is a mechanic as well as salesman. He was great to work with, provided quite an education. They have several Ieski tractors in stock, from what I can tell they look to be pretty well made, with Isuzu engines in at least some models. Does anyone have any experience with these tractors, and advice on sizing for my needs? I'm thinking 25-30 pto range (4x4).

Here's a link to the web site with some pics of the units in stock:

http://www.copsrus.com/tractors_inventory_iseki.html

Any input is appreciated-it's been a lot of years since I spend much time on a tractor, and I'm looking to learn.

Thanks.

Brian

 

[EFC]

Iseki's are great tractors and seem to have a good shelf life. Unless you are planning on running a piece of equipment that has a specific PTO hp requirement I would go for a heavier model over a lighter one and not worry as much about horsepower. I have tractors that are 30 hp than weight less than 20hp models. Weight is everything for snow plowing and log skidding....after the tires start to spin the hp is useless. In the future when you get your brush hog under 25 hp is 4' and over is 5'. Hope this helps

Buck
www.efcconstruction.com

 

[stnickstoys]

Brian,
I would have to agree with Buck, I have seen a few different Iseki tractors now and like the slightly older, heavier ones. Don't get me wrong, the TU series are cool looking tractors and fun to use and drive, but a TL series seems to be much heavier, more cast iron and mass and it sounds like you could use the heft in your tractor for the jobs you are doing. I'm not yet sure on parts availability for Iseki, check with guys like Buck and Bob to see where their parts come from. I have contacted Rainbow Dist. in Hawaiil and Anna Acker at Southern Global for parts.

Happy tractoring
Nick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Are there any other sites that have any specs on these tractors, and maybe any idea of years that they were made? From what I gather based on the web site I posted, the TU series looks to be the smaller "landhope" series, the TL is more a mid size (25-36 or 42 hp) in a conventional construction. The TA looks to be the same general size range as the TL, but with a "flat platform" operator station. The TA series uses a drive shaft to connect the engine and rear end (not sure if the transmission mounts to the engine or the diff-I assume to the engine). According to the guy I talked with, he really likes this (flat platform) style-he says they are much easier to get at things to work on. He claims you can drop a clutch in an hour. OTOH, there is a seperate frame to connect the ends of the tractor-doesn't seem like it would be as strong as a solid cast iron trans-diff assembly.

I'll really show my ignorance now-which of these styles of construction is common in most modern compact tractors these days?

 

[pudding]

i am use to the older bigger ones that often the USA got as WHITE

my advice......if you are american, dig round for a good WHITE 2-32 or similar, they were the iseki 4451 model, about 40-45hp, and only wiegh 1800kg, great wee tractor, enough mussle for a 70inch hoe, 12ft field cultivator/crumbler, and 7 disc hay mower, yet a perfect match for tight areas, or tasks prevously performed by a ford 9n or 641taskmaster? (i not familar with american models)......

the 2-32 had either a 18 or 12 spd, shift ranges on the move, and forward reverse on the move was easy, it also had electro-hydraulic pto clutch engagement.....

.....also....some smaller iseki at mitsubishi motors in them, our 2160HST we once had, had that motor, good rig......18hp

tractors in the HP braked you are looking at are usually isuzu

laters

pudding