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Neil, from Messick's here.
We had the opportunity to have a bunch of current competitive models on our lot.
It presented an opportunity to go around and do some videos on them.
Now, we need to prefix this was saying that,
"Talking down another competitors equipment is not a way that we typically like
to see business and sales transactions done."
Generally worthy opinion that our dealership, our experience,
the products that we sell
can stand on their own without having to talk down
about other products.
Unfortunately, any more we find a lot of customers developing opinions
about things through YouTube videos that may be really based upon half-truths.
While we had this product here on hand, we wanted to take the opportunity
to walk around and do a video of our own and try to show how some of those comparisons
are made in dishonest ways
and also make an attempt to make our own comparisons
and maybe do it a little bit more honestly than what you typically would find.
Take a quick look here at this video and let us know down in the comments how we did.
If you watch John Deere's YouTube videos on competitive comparisons
with this tractor, or you go to their website and you choose their compare feature
to look at another model,
they'll choose to compare this tractor against the Kubota MX5200,
which is right over here.
The reason why they probably choose this tractor,
if you can see,
it's very much smaller.
If you watch their YouTube videos, never will you see the same tractors
in the same shot.
That's very clearly done because they've cherry-picked a model
that's not nearly as large
to show increased capacities over here and 30% more lift and
obviously, this isn't nearly as big of a machine.
If you're in the market for a utility farm tractor,
an MX is not the machine for you. This is geared towards hobby farms
and smaller lighter applications than what this machine is.
You're in the market for a tractor more like this,
you should be looking at this machine over here.
This is a Kubota M6060,
which includes Kubota's more deluxe hydraulic transmission,
what Deere would have is a power reverser,
is a much larger tractor in size with comparable lift capacities.
From the get-go, if you're looking for a tractor to compare for your application,
really dive into what your needs are.
Are you looking for a mower tractor where you need PTO horsepower?
Are you looking for a loader tractor where you need specific amounts of lift?
Engine horsepower alone is not really a fair way to compare these machines.
You really need to get a lot deeper into what your specific application is.
John Deere very famously stands very firmly behind their choice of plastic.
I'm not here to tell you that plastic is bad,
but when we go and we pound on the hoods of these tractors and you
docile the side panels, you'll find that there's usually
a lot more slop in them than, say,
a metal design tractor which is clearly a lot more solid.
You can hear a thud versus a rattle when you pound on these machines.
As for the longevity of these,
if you look in John Deere's owner's manual, they actually will make references
to how you're supposed to clean the plastic,
telling you that you should really only wipe this tractor with a dump, smooth cloth.
Not saying that you're going to scratch your tractor up,
you can clean this thing however you damn well please.
These comparisons between plastic and metal are less than genuine.
Another thing that drives me absolutely batty about John Deere is the picture
that they try to put on of themselves as an all-American company.
In reality, all of these tractor companies are global brands.
John Deere's 5E Series tractors are actually made in India,
and so this is an Indian built tractor that's imported into the United States.
If you look on the tractor down here, they do absolutely everything that they can do
in order to hide that fact.
On the serial number plate down here in the bottom,
it actually says that this tractor is assembled in the USA,
which it may be,
but I'm surprised that they'd be doing a whole lot more than bolting one set of tires.
Reality is that this is an Indian manufactured tractor.
We typically find, when we look at Indian machines from different companies,
they are more crude than their American counterparts.
Again, painting is a broad brush that may not always be the case,
but be aware of what you're buying.
Another item of John Deere’s so-called advantages
over some other tractors is their more advanced transmissions.
In their videos they'll point out that Kubota uses a dry clutch in their transmission
while they're using a wet one,
that is a half-truth.
In their standard transmission, the 9x3 that's typically expected in this tractor,
they also use a dry clutch.
The wet clutch is only available in their upgraded
more expensive transmissions.
The Kubota to compare this to really would vary depending on what your needs are
as far as that transmission goes. If a 9x3 is adequate for you,
a Kubota M5660
has a standard transmission of an 8x8,
which is a little bit more advanced, actually, but comparable, a lot more fair.
If you need that more advanced 12x12,
an M6060 or an M7060 is going to give you those options.
Again,
comparing tractors really needs to be done based upon what your needs are
for a transmission
and not just based upon engine horsepower or what the manufacturer tells you to look at.
Another curiosity with the transmission on this tractor is the amount of PTO horsepower
that's available for your implements.
While this tractor's 55 horsepower at the engine,
it's only 38 horsepower at the PTO.
Generally, in most tractors you usually use, it lose about 10 to 15% of your horsepower
between the engine in the PTO.
In the case of this machine for some reason, it's losing nearly 40%,
over double what most tractors do,
Not comparing to any other models here, but that is odd.
I don't know exactly what to contribute that to,
other than the transmissions that are in these machines
are very, very inefficient.
In loader and tractive applications, that may not matter
but if you're going to be doing mowing with this tractor,
it doesn't have nearly as much horsepower available to your implements
as what pretty much any competitive machine would have.
Another feature that John Deere pointed out as an advantage in their YouTube videos
is their 540 EPTO.
I'm sitting up here in the seat and looking for it and
I can't find it.
It is not included on this included standard 9x3 transmission
that's on this machine. If you need a 540 EPTO,
you need to upgrade to a more costly tractor with a more costly transmission.
Again,
making this comparison between this tractor and the MX is completely invalid.
When we move into more advanced utility class tractors,
you'll start to see that feature added from virtually every manufacturer.
Again, a John Deere advantage that's not exactly legitimate.
Another John Deere talking point usually revolves around their front axles.
They generally will point out that many manufacturers choose to put
their steering components in front of the axle,
where in their case they choose to put theirs behind.
In this case,
good solution, right? It's behind the front axle
and it's also up as well. Some of their tractors,
they put the front axle components down below the axle.
They'll try to sell this and giving you an impression
that this is a tractor that's hardened for off-road use.
It shows videos of it crashing through fields and through the woods.
Again,
if we look down here underneath the tractor, we see a lot of things
that really bring that into question.
In particular, is the four-wheel drive propeller shaft.
On this tractor right here, if you look underneath the machine,
the four-wheel drive propeller shaft that goes between the front and the back
of the tractor is not only completely exposed, it's also housed in a plastic cover.
If this is a tractor you're going to crash through the woods with,
I certainly would want a little bit more down there than that.
If you look under most competing tractors, a lot of companies
choose to put their four-wheel drive shaft up inside the machine, inside of castings,
and not completely exposed down on the bottom.
Part of the reason they probably choose to do this
is because there are frequently two-wheel drive versions
of this tractor sold.
That makes it very easy to offer four-wheel drive
and two-wheel drive variants.
An engineering decision made here? But again a less than honest comparison
to say that you're good to go to go crash through the woods
when you have a plastic enclosed four-wheel drive propeller shaft
below the tractor.
John Deere will also point out the extended maintenance intervals
on their tractor which is another half-truth.
Now, with the advent of purely synthetic transmission oils,
the maintenance intervals on these tractors are starting to stretch out a lot longer.
John Deere's taking advantage of the fact that Kubota hasn't really given
a lot of clear direction on exactly what the maintenance intervals are.
They offer a UDT transmission fluid,
super UDT which has now gone obsolete
and super UDD2.
With super UDD2, there is a synthetic transmission fluid option now
which offers those extended intervals.
They're exploiting the fact that the older transmission fluids
are still out there and a lot of the published information
hasn't been updated for that.
Again, another half-truth.
You're not going to be pouring gobs of money into the maintenance of another tractor
where this one is going to cost you nothing.
Most machines have very similar requirements as far as maintenance goes over the long haul.
If you notice my goal here is not to point out that my brand tractor is better than this one.
It's not really fair.
It depends upon exactly what your application is.
As you can see,
when Deere chooses to do those kinds of things, they really employ a lot of half-truths
in order to make those points.
In an effort not to engage in exactly the same thing,
I'm not going to do that.
Instead, what we will do is try to give you some impressions of this tractor
as an operator. As somebody who has the opportunity
to get on and off of a lot of equipment,
we'll hop up here, we'll run it, we'll walk around
and point out some of the things that are positives and negatives
of this machine.
Join me here and we'll take a quick walk around and look at those things.
From the operator's platform up here, this feels like a fairly
standard economy series tractor.
There's a hump in the middle across your feet, it's not a flat decked platform tractor
which does definitely crowd your foot area down here.
The hump in here is really large compared to most tractors.
There's probably a solid eight inches down here at the bottom
that your feet have to clear over as you go back and forth.
Again, not uncommon among economy tractors but large in this one, for certain.
My gear selector over here on the side includes the parking brake,
over from the side.
If I want to go to the parking brake positions, I need to slide the whole way over and go over
and lock in to the parking brake.
This may be a little bit of a personal preference issue,
but I do sell some other tractors where this is the case,
and I do have some customers complain about these designs.
Mostly because sometimes they'll go into the parking brake position,
thinking they've locked it and it's actually not engaged.
This one is fairly easy to put in, which is nice, and it definitely feels positive
once you get it into place.
My preference is usually for a foot locked parking brake,
but again, you may not feel the same.
One criticism that I have with a lot of Deere tractors
is the way that they do their loader valves.
It's typically very difficult on their machines
to take a loader up and down, and keep the bucket level the entire time.
This tractor is absolutely no exception to that.
When I move the loader stick over here, it takes a lot of force for me to move the loader.
Particularly, when I go into the lower right position,
I have to raise the bucket up and keep it level as I go.
I really have to pull hard
and what that does is make it difficult to keep your loads level
as you go up and down.
If I start the tractor up here,
and raise the loader bucket up,
I can't even tell you how much force that is,
that I have to use to go to the side
and really I can't even get it to do it.
There, just a little bit
[?]. Not that it can't be done,
but that is
actually more difficult than a lot of other equipment.
The toolbox on this side over here,
and the lever for the hydraulic quick coupler are on this side,
both really look like afterthoughts.
See how this hangs way off on this side of the machine.
Now, granted it could come in about another inch and a half
from where it's at now,
but does this scream tree branch or what?
This probably is optional will be my guest because typically
these are fairly expensive,
but clearly not thought through the whole way.
Another thing that I'm not a fan of either is Deere would make a lot of
choices, in order to lock you in to proprietary things.
You'll see that across a lot of their products. They don't want you to be able to go
to other manufacturers, who may have cheaper or better options than what they do.
In the case on the back of the bucket here, you'll notice that they don't have
a universal skid steer coupler.
Most tractor companies will put a standard to lever coupler on the back of here,
enabling you to use a whole huge variety of implements
available from a huge variety of different manufacturers,
but in their case, they choose to use this coupler,
that’s proprietary to themselves,
so you don't have a choice of where you going to buy your implements.
Now, I'm sure [?] with this quick coupler, somebody's going to try to make a case
that this is better in some way, and if
you can come up how it's better, please let me know.
We spent quite a bit of time here trying to figure out how this thing work
from the getgo. This is new to us.
In the [?], this is the first time that I've done this,
maybe there's a trick here that I'm not aware of.
In order to get this coupler to release,
we
pull the bucket up to get the weight off of it
and then pull this thing out,
and the very first thing that happened when we did this,
was that the end completely pop out of the coupler.
We're over here now trying to get [?] back up, to go back here again.
We also fought around with it quite a bit in order to get to release in the first place.
It seems that there's any amount of tension on that pin.
It's very difficult to pull that up because you have no leverage.
You're just simply having to pull the pin out of the hole.
Compared to a skid steer quick coupler, if you come over here with me, and again,
not saying Kubota is better, this is an industry standard
use.
When you want to release the skid steer quick coupler,
all you do is grab the handle and lift.
Just like that, I've released the power forks.
That's a lot easier to do because you have leverage to pull those pins,
rather than having to slide the pin out of the hole.
In my opinion, a much better system and also a system that's universally accepted
across most equipment.
To be perfectly fair, there are some things on this tractor
that I like as well.
One of those things is the draft control standard equipment.
That's something that you don't find in a lot of machines as standard.
Also, is a standard remote,
standard trailer connector is on the back, those are good things.
Nice turning brakes, they're laid out well.
The dash gives a decent amount of information.
The emissions controls to the [?] stuff are simple [?] which is here on the panel
which are easily used.
There's some positive things here, and if you opt to buy this tractor,
you're not going to hate it,
but it is not God's gift to tractorer [sic].
One thing that we think is really important when you're shopping for a machine,
is buying from a knowledgeable experienced dealership.
Buying the right product from the wrong dealer
can really have a terrible outcome for you.
The way to shop for a tractor
and the right way to make a competitive comparison
is to go into a dealership, stop watching videos on YouTube and
comparing numbers in Excel.
Take an afternoon on a nice day,
go to a local dealer, go to several local dealers,
get the keys to the tractors,
have an experienced salesman that understands your application
and the capabilities of his products
to get you in the seat, and go run the machines and decide what's right for you, that way.
Every tractor has its own pros and cons, and trying to go through and compare
one machine to another can very rarely be done right.
If we can help you through that process, give us a call at Messick's.
We're available at 800-222-3373
or online at www.messicks.com
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