Buying Advice New Holland TN60DA

[EdwinLBell]

I have a new pecan orchard and need a tractor to bush hog and mow, plant a few deer plots, and - as the trees grow - spray, shake the trees, and harvest the nuts. For now it seems 50hp will be adequate although I will probably want bigger in 10 years or so. Does anyone have experience with the NH TN60? I want a cab for spraying and comfort in the NC summers. They have a 2005 locally that has < 1000 hours and 4 WD for $20,000. I haven't haggled with them yet. Any thoughts as to whether this is a good machine or a good deal? I appreciate your thoughts.

 

[Utopia Texas]

I have a pecan orchard the family planted when I was a pre-teen and I am now 61 YO. We used 38 HP and less tractors for years and did just fine until the trees grew over 50 feet tall. At that point you need more PTO HP for larger sprayers, shakers and harvesters but that will be many years down the line. Check out the Savage line of sprayers, shakers and harvesters for HP need. I never could convince my father to get a cabbed tractor and when he would spray ended up all wet with pesticides though he used a decent Tyvek suit. I believe his years in contact with chemicals ended his life early. My younger brother and I both have cabbed tractors.

 

[EdwinLBell]

I have a pecan orchard the family planted when I was a pre-teen and I am now 61 YO. We used 38 HP and less tractors for years and did just fine until the trees grew over 50 feet tall. At that point you need more PTO HP for larger sprayers, shakers and harvesters but that will be many years down the line. Check out the Savage line of sprayers, shakers and harvesters for HP need. I never could convince my father to get a cabbed tractor and when he would spray ended up all wet with pesticides though he used a decent Tyvek suit. I believe his years in contact with chemicals ended his life early. My younger brother and I both have cabbed tractors.

I appreciate the thoughts - I may never need larger horsepower as I'm 59 now, but it seems 50 hp will handle whatever I'll need. The fellow who grafted our trees advised the cab saying his father-in-law died of multiple myeloma from the insecticides. It just makes sense.

 

[ksluy]

The price seems close. A new 50hp cab tractor will cost about 40k so you are looking at a 10 year old tractor for 1/2 price of a new one. The crazy thing is I bought a new Kubota Cab tractor 40hp for about 23k in 2005. Hard to beat the resale on a tractor. My new John deere 85hp this year was 50k i hope its worth 50k in 10 years.

 

[Partspring]

The NH TN60 is typically a very good tractor. As long as it was taken care of by the previous owner...it should serve you well.
The current model is a T4.75 and sells for $45,000 with 4WD and Cab.
If it checks out mechanically...$20,000 is not a bad price for a TN with less than 1000 hours.

 

[EdwinLBell]

Unfortunately when I made it over to see the tractor it was not as advertised - leak in the cab, none of the lights and switches worked, lots of rust on the engine, evidence of a couple of run-ins with stationary objects. I won't be buying that machine or from that dealer.

 

[ironpen]

I have a TN75S and have never used it to spray because I have to use the gun sprayer in a lot of the places I spray in addition to the booms. Keep that in mind if you have to spray in tight places