Need help deciding on Mahindra

[APSMAHINDRA]

I'm finally getting ready to take the plunge and decieded on a mahindra tractor but not sure on which one. I have looked at the 5010 gear cab, 3550 hst no cab and the 3540 pst all pretty close in price. The 5010 w cab is the cheapiest but it seems im sacrificing a heavier duty tractor(3550 or 3540) for the cab? I am going to be using this tractor for putting small food plots in, getting wood for the wood burner, plowing and maintaining a 1550' drive way. I need some opinions on these choices.

 

[DHD]

A John Deere / Kubota tractor dealer in my area use to carry the Mahindra tractor too but dropped them due to problems with getting parts. This all happened about 5 years ago so maybe that parts supplying issue has been resolved.

 

[mddorange]

:welcome:
To TBN from Alabama. My two choices were Mahindra and Kubota. I went with Kubota because of the dealer. The Mahindra dealer was small and didn't have a repair shop or even sell parts. I was surprised that Mahindra even allowed him to sell their product which made me worry about Mahindra.

 

[Sysop]

Wow, way to stick with the OP's request of "info on these choices". Sorry about your experiences, but perhaps he has a great dealer? Mine is pretty good, they just built a new location where they keep about 200 tractors on the lot (all Mahindra except a few trade-ins), a ton of implements, and advertise their parts department as having a million dollars in inventory...

Welcome to TBN! First, the 5010 is made to be a big basic workhorse. The 35 series generally have more bells and whistles and are a little more compact in overall dimensions. The 3540 is the new version of what I have, and the 3550 is the slightly larger 50HP variant. A lot of what you are talking about doing, dragging logs, plowing, etc., is going to be better performed by a heavier machine (sorry Kubota fanboys). Sure you can add weight to a lighter machine to help it along, but you can add weight to a heavy machine too and still be able to build more tractive forces than the lighter machines.

Your choices are among the heaviest in their classes, so for the tasks you have laid out, in my opinion you're on the right path.

 

[mguitas]

:welcome: take your Mahindra choice to the Mahindra forum, you will get a better answer.

 

[Sysop]

Any reason no-nonsense/useful/helpful answers to the questions asked cannot be provided all throughout the site? If there is, my guess would be too many flaming pot-stirrers...

 

[APSMAHINDRA]

Have you had any major issues with your 4035? I know all brands have there issues just looking to see what i might be up against.

 

[Sysop]

I wouldn't call any of the issues I've had anything more than a minor annoyance, but here's my list:

Upon delivery, after taking the backhoe off and putting the 3pt linkages on for the first time, it lowered one time (enough to connect the rotary cutter) but then wouldn't lift. Dealer fixed it over the weekend (took it Friday and returned it Monday) and found it was an assembly error with a seal of some sort (QA likely doesn't hang a weight on every one, just makes sure it goes up and down and fact it was up when I took the hoe off indicated it had raised itself at some point. My first test in raising it was to lift a 6' rotary cutter on the back, so that could have taken out an improperly seated seal; afterwards the lift arms just flopped loosely in the casing). This seems to be a really rare issue that was unique to my machine. I've not seen any other folk mention anything remotely the same.

Fuel lines are a known source of some headaches on some models. Easily identifiable by the type of line used on a given machine (braided covering = old/bad style, smooth wrapped high pressure style line = new/good style) unless it is a repair job in which case it will have typical autostore fuel line and hose clamps on it. Either is perfect and once done, no worries...

Only other thing that persists is the cold start assist stuff, but again it is a minor annoyance that I easily work around. 20 minutes after startup, the cold start assist timing advance kicks off. When at operating RPMs it just sputters a moment and continues on. If it is at idle it normally shuts off. My workaround has just been to bring it above idle a minute or so after starting and don't idle it until after it has done it's thing. Generally whenever I start it, it will be worked several hours before getting shut down or even spend much time at low RPM so I consider it more of a startup issue to keep in mind rather than an operating issue as I am generally still getting things into place to start working at that 20-minute mark rather than performing operations for it to be any sort of hindrance. On a plus note, I've started it when it was below -10F outside when it hadn't been started in 10+ days and it fired right up with no block heater and only a single cycle of the glowplug/intake heater. So the cold start assist does do it's job for sure...

I did a lot of research both online and locally and found most folk who have issues generally would have had issues with any choice they made. There are a lot of good reasons to choose a Mahindra (as with all the other brands and models), but your needs need to match those reasons. For me, I wanted to move earth and needed something the physical size of what I have. Other brands and models simply didn't match up. Even though there are some things I can see that could have been done better in manufacturing, I would repeat my purchase 100x over.

 

[Glocker]

I have a 5010 gear cab.It will be two years old next month and I would buy it again. I plow a 700 foot driveway, load logs on a sawmill and drag full size trees out of the woods.The cab is awesome in winter or summer.I recommend it.

 

[APSMAHINDRA]

How is using the FEL with the gear? i have only ever ran FEL with hst. Do you run through the woods with it if so how is it as far as keeping windows intack and all around moveablity around woods?