Price Check Should I buy a Montana 5740C?

[riderpriderking]

Hi everyone,

A guy is selling his 2008 5740C for $12,500 CAD. It has 1200 hours and comes with a bush hog, finish mower, box blade and rototiller. He says the AC doesn't work and there are a few pieces of glass broken on the cab, some lights need repairing. He figured $4k to replace it all. I might go look at it this weekend, I really only need the bush hog, but my 4944HST has had some PTO issues so it would be nice to have some redundancy in the tractor department. I would definitely sell the tiller, finish mower, probably the box blade. Might even take a chance on selling the tractor for money if I thought my 4944 was dependable enough.

Any things I should look for? I've read a bit about the reverse gears being poor. With 1200 hours you would think the gears would have been ground at least a few times. That's probably my main concern although he says it shifts good. Anything else? Does this seem like a good deal? Anyone out there with a 5740 or LS U5030 that have over 1000 hrs?

I've had good luck getting parts from my NH dealer, you just add MT to the front of the LS part number to get the NH part. I'm not terribly concerned on that front, plus I have an LS dealer an hours drive away which isn't bad. Just don't really want to take on someone else's liability, but he says he sold farm and has financial issues which is why he needs the money.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Kernopelli]

I had a coworker that had an '06 5740 that saw heavy use nearly every day, last I heard in 2012 he had nearly 5000hrs on it with very few problems. $12,500 sounds like a very fair price to me.

Edit: I should expound on my statement.

The only issue I was aware of was it tended to run hot under a heavy load and summer temps. Regular cleaning of the radiator was needed at times, however it was used extensively for pulling a heavy disc, haying ( lots of radiator clogging airborn chaff) and it saw a LOT of loader work in dusty conditions ( they owned a small gravel pit and used this tractor for loading trucks......had to be a LOT of F/R action- no reported gear issues).

 

[Turbys_1700]

As long as parts are available I see no issue with the tractor. I don't have any experience with LS but if New Holland uses them for their compacts they have to be good. You may want to double check on the glass availability for the cab. Usually body parts are the ones hard to source if the tractor has some age on it and is not a current model.

 

[Unclebuck257]

I have a 2005 5740C that I bought brand new. That price, along with all the attachments, sounds like a great price to me. I wouldn't sell you just my tractor for that low a price and I have about 1000 hrs on mine.

 

[NetworkMD]

I have had very good service from my 5740C so far, but only around 400 hours. I used to use it for bush hogging and by putting a hvac filter in front of the radiator made a huge difference in keeping the radiator clean, and running cooler.

 

[jimmy120]

Did you buy the 5740c?