Growing up in an agriculutral area and on a farm, I have seen my fair share of tractor brands. The one that I haven't seen much of (only two at the same farm) is Fendt. I have been loking at them online and have heard great things about them. I know durallymax owns a few, so what are the opinions of them? They seem great, and growing up with old internationals and John Deeres, they seem high tech. Any opinons and discussion is appreicated, Thanks, John (ps not looking to buy one, just wondering what peoples opinions of them are)
They have been around here for about 15 years but I don't know anyone who has run one or have any ties to the dealer that sells them. When they first come in the price scared everyone but that was somewhat apples to oranges at the time. Fendt had a IVT transmission and no one else did. Being European made, the Fendt also had a lot of features most Americans wasn't smart enough to use:usa
They must be pretty decent. I see that the ones who buy them typically have several generations of them.
I have only worked on one Fendt, about 8 years ago so can't remember the exact model but it was around 100hp with front wheel assist. Very nice tractor, I did brakes, which was the only major repair it had required in the 6500hrs it had on it. The owner has a large dairy farm and owns several John Deere's as well. His Deere's were in the shop more often the the Fendt but there were a lot of variables (mostly abuse)... Parts were fairly easy to come by for the Fendt and priced around the same as any other make. This farmer preferred his Fendt over the Deere's.
RODDYO.. You have to delete some of your inbox/saved mail for us to chat.. I had to do the same thing.. Lol
Communication by smoke signal. I like it. Looking forward to your reply
In my area, custom operators use them because they can do 35 MPH on the road and with all the traveling they do with manure tankers and chopper wagons time is important. ( Who's time isn't important ?)
Like most modern agricultural tractors the Fendts are fairly complex. It is a case of positives and negatives. The previous models of Vario had a smaller than average cab. The diesel filler was not the easiest to access. The cab is now a bit larger on the new ones etc. The vario unit can be pulled out without splitting the tractor. There was a bad batch of Deutz engines that had to be fixed was not really Fendts fault. Where Fendts have gone well they have usually been driven by an experienced operator who cares for the machine and drives it the same way the whole time rather than a tractor that has a different person driving it every day. Mostly the larger Fendts are imported here so they are considered a specialist tractor rather than mainstream.
i dont know if it's still interesting, but i've been working on fendt for quite some time. i've seen my share off fendt tractors and i've replaced a dozen off transmissions. one of the most common things(atleast in my work area) that wrecks the tranny is when you're driving with a trailer which isnt braked or has bad brakes. the Fendt will engage his front axle brakes first before they engage the normal rear-end brakes. When your trailer isn't braking propely these plates of this front brake will get to hot and will bent. Then the brake won't come off completly and then the vario has issues to get into the 100% mechanical state and it will keep running in the hydraulic state. This will heat up the oil and within a couple of long days (or weeks) the tranny will go. also if you have a driver that will jenk the joystick back when driving on speed and slow the tractor down pure on his tranny. The Vario's are pretty good and simple compared to the other brands, but it is a replacement which almost every fendt (if not all of them) will need to have in his lifetime. i've replaced the first vario's from 2500 hours all the way to 9000 hours on his first vario. Since it's european made, Fendt did keep this in mind when they designed the tractor and its quite easy to replace them with the help of some special brackets etc. If your looking to buy a Fendt, first simple thing is to check if the coverplate of the transmission (under the cab) has been taken off the transmission, this way it's 80% sure that the vario has been replaced. For the rest the tractors have one off the best electrical systems in the ag business, they are full specs but do have a good way to build there electrical system. we had a few issues here and there with the electrical systems but nothing really majure and looked like it was always on just on tractor and not on a complete series of tractors. good luck with buying one.