FarmTrac Tractor owners?

[Blue Horse]

I am interested in hearing owner's, or driver's, impressions of the "Farmtrac" tractors, of Tarboro, North Carolina. They closely resemble the later Ford general-purpose-type tractors, and I believe use many of their components...engines, trans, etc. Price on them is good, but my nearest dealer is about 3 hours from me. I am interested in the 435 or 535 models....three-cylinder diesels, and look much like the Ford 2000 and 3000 models of the 60's and early 70's. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I got a 2004 Farmtrac 80/675. Just under 1,000 hours now and well pleased. Lots of the models you listed in this area. Haven't heard any complaints and the dealer is still selling them.

 

[Mathias NY]

They look similar because they are. When New Holland merged with CaseIH they sold off their production plant in India, along will all the castings and plans for the tractors. 'Long' bought the plant. They changed the name to FarmTrac to avoid the stereo type of poor quality. Aside from engine upgrades to meet new emissions standards they are the same tractor Ford was making in the '80s. Our local dealership has actually ordered parts (like flywheels) for use on the old Fords, since CNH discontinued them.

I believe them to be a pretty good machine. There are a lot of them popping up in our area. I was looking into buying one, but realized I can't afford a new tractor at this point. Three hours does seem like a long way to for a tractor though.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You got most of it right. LOL Escort got the plant in India and then Escort bought just over 50% of Long. Then the name changed from Long to Farmtrac and a new plant was built in Tarboro.
Farmtrac kept several models of the Long tractor for about a year.Renamed them Farmtrac. Now Montana sells those Long models. Farmtrac no longer has any of the Long design tractors.

 

[Newboytotractors]

They did not build a new plant in Tarboro. They are in the old buildings that Long built years and years ago. The tractors come from overseas (Korea) they just add wheels, batteries to some and on other models they have to put a few more things on. They have a bunch sitting in the yard ready to go.

 

[Anonymous-0]

From Farmtrac website:Farmtrac North America, LLC is a subsidiary of Escorts Limited – an Indian Engineering conglomerate involved in manufacturing of Tractors, Construction & Material Handling Equipment and Automotive Components. Escorts currently owns 75% of Farmtrac North America, LLC which it acquired in a series of equity investments starting 1999. The company was originally incorporated in 1946 as Long Mfg. N.C. Inc. and has been in business in United States for nearly six decades. Farmtrac currently distributes its products through a network of 300 dealers spread in 32 states. Under a $10 million Business Process Re-engineering Project started in mid-2004, Farmtrac is in the process of upgrading and expanding its manufacturing facilities at Tarboro to triple its manufacturing capacity using Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) as its core philosophy. Other than John Deere, New Holland, AGCO and Kubota, Farmtrac is the only tractor company that has invested in manufacturing facilities in United States – making investments which are so very necessary to become a major player in United States.

That's what I referred to as a "new plant". Our county planning commission approached Farmtrac before the upgrade to try and lure them to Va. in our county. Farmtrac received money/monies from (Tarboro?) to stay where they were and stopped the move.

Farmtrac also added machinery to build all the loaders for their tractors and supply Montana with loaders too.

 

[Mathias NY]

lol, I'm just relaying the story that the dealer gave to me...

 

[Newboytotractors]

I guess there is some truth there, some things can be made to sound good. If they supply montana with any loaders , it must be done at another one of thier plants because that is not done in Tarboro.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Thanks for all of the replies and information. The reasons I find these interesting is that I like the opportunity to get a simple, basic tractor at a reasonable price; and that I own Ford tractors and like them...it seems that these are about as close to a Ford of the 60'-80's as you can get in a new tractor.