I'm going to make some enemies here, because most folks love those Whites. And I know Tom personally and trust his mechanical knoweldge far better than mine. But just to give a conflicting opinion, here's what I wrote for another poster a few months ago about our experiences and my feelings on those tractors:
I have a 2-105, which is really just a 2-85 with a turbo. Before I give my thoughts, I'll make these points:
i) Most folks absolutely love these tractors; you'll get loads of responses from people who use these as their primary work-horses.
ii) I have loads of seat time on older Olivers, but my only experience with Whites and Olivers built after the merger is limited to our 105, helping a neighbour fix his two 2-85s and some time on a neighbour's 1855. So my opinion doesn't count for much.
iii) I absolutely hate, hate, HATE our White. But about 90% of my complaints are personal preference, so you probably shouldn't judge from what I write hereafter. As I say: Most folks love those tractors and feel they're very reliable.
My biggest bone of contention with these tractors is the hydraulic pumps. These tractors used a Vickers PVB or PVE (depending on serial #) closed-centre/variable-displacement pump, which really should have only been used on industrial, stationary HPU's with completely closed circuits and excellent filtration systems. In my opinion, they did not belong on tractors operating in Ag environments and subject to occasional dirt, dust, and cross-contamination when implements were swapped between tractors. There are loads of these pumps still operating just fine - especially when owned by folks who've had them for decades and have thus been able to maintain their hydraulic system properly. Unfortunately if (like me) you buy it used, you have no idea what kind of goofballery has been done before, and if the fluid/filters have ever been changed or whether the PO has taken care to keep all dust/dirt out of the system. The pumps can wear out, bypass, and essentially render the tractor useless as so much depends on good and consistent hydraulic pressure. Thankfully a lot of the time the problem isn't the pump, but a tiny bit of dirt in the compensator or priority valve, which can be cleaned up and put back into service. But the pumps do wear out unless the system is meticulously maintained. Search these (and other) forums for 2-85 and 2-105 hydraulic pump issues and you'll find oodles of threads where people have had them go, and the cost of a new pump (if you can find one) is often more than it's worth to repair the tractor. If the one you buy has a good, working hydraulic system and you take exceptional care with it you'll probably be good. And if you can turn down the compensator a little to have the pump de-stroke at a lower pressure, you'll also add some longevity. I have ours set to about 1300 PSI, which is about as low as I can have it to operate my JD 435 baler. Just be sure to check this before bidding: Let it run for at least 10 minutes and listen to the pump and feel for excess heat. Ours had hydraulic issues, but thankfully most were perished o-rings in the compensator & priority valves and hammered-out shims in the relief valve (which was making the relief pressure lower than the de-stroke pressure when we first got it). Cleaning and re-setting the relief pressures has got ours working, but the pump is still worn and bypassing far more than it should. It gets hotter than I'd like (180-190ish while baling), but it's still working ok for us. Especially since we only use it for baling, and seldom bale more than a couple hours at a time.
The cab is another thing I hate about ours, and the thing that really makes this tractor take the fun out of any summer work. The only other cabs I'd used in the summer before our 105 were an Allis 7000 and a few Fords. The White is certainly easier to get into than the Allis, but once in it I thought it must be some kind of joke: The windows only crack open about 8'' on the bottom no ability to swing and lock them open. Unless you take the windows completely off, you're pretty much consigning yourself to sitting in a loud, silver pressure cooker. Any fun there was in haying soon evaporates - along with every ounce of water in your body.
I've spent lots of time on the two-digit and three-digit Olivers and have gotten to love the H-pattern transmission. On the White, however, I've grown to hate it. It feels like some engineers took the wonderful Oliver pedigree and butchered it. The stroke of the shifter, ease of shifting, and buttery feel of the old Olivers is all gone. It wouldn't be an issue on flat-land farming, but up in the rough and steep hills of the Canadian shield, you end up having to shift on-the-go occasionally. Try as you might, there will always be some time you'll be pulling a hefty load and have gauged your gearing a little wrong, and want to shift. Bringing several tons of tractor and implement to a halt on our steep hills is something of a no-no. Put me in any Ford or IH or even an old Allis, and within a few hours I can double clutch and rev-match to shift at speed without any grinding. You can't on the White especially if you have to cross the centre neutral. Very irksome when going from 5th to 6th on the road. A lot of this is mitigated with the three-speed over/under, but in some steep hills that's not enough.
Speaking of the over-under: The Whites have one of the most robust systems: I'm told they very rarely cause any issue. So I can't complain about them too much. The only think I don't like is that they freewheel in low range. Knowing how they work I understand why they do this, but it's a little irksome for us. Once again: on flatter land it wouldn't be an issue, but on our hills, it means you can't really ever use low range: Going down an exceptionally steep hills in low range means you'll be taken for quite the ride, unless you want to ride the brakes constantly. But even if you wanted to ride the brakes, you can't: I'm really splitting hairs here, but the brakes on our 105 are almost 'too good'. Even the slightest bit of foot pressure causes both wheels to lock up. Until driving the White I would have thought your brakes can never be 'too good', but on the 105 it makes creeping or inching a pain. I suspect this might be unique to ours, however; I just haven't had time to look into.
I don't like the control layout at all. The throttle has a very small throw from low idle to max RPM. You get used to it, but if you're used to other tractors its irksome until you get accustomed to. All the hydraulic and PTO controls being on one side is also a little frustrating; you can't use two hands to do things simultaneously - and the levers are far too close together. And you have to be careful with the PTO: Lever forward is engaged, lever in its mid positions is off and freewheeling, and lever all the way back is hydraulically-locked. I've heard you can really do some damage if you leave it in the locked position indefinitely excessive heat/wear in the hydraulic pump and damage to the seals in the PTO unit.
I will say that the 354 Perkins is superb. Starts up instantly in all weather, uses surprisingly little fuel for a 105 HP tractor, runs smoothly and has lots of torque. The only problems I've had with 354's are not on tractors, but on sawmill power units where the injection pump drive gears get a little worn and has some backlash: they don't idle nicely and start to surge.
Just my thoughts. Now I'll brace myself for the oncoming tide of hatred from the White fans. But I'll also note that more recently I've bought an Allis 7045 for our Southern farm. Most folks will think I'm nuts for saying this, but I think the Allis is ten times the tractor the White is. The Allis cab may be small, but is far better laid out. The Allis power-director may only have two shift-on-the-fly positions, but given that the White's underdrive is useless for us, I find the Allis has much better speeds for several field operations. The hydraulics on the Allis are also a little convoluted (it uses three pumps - a fixed-displacement gerotor for the trans, a fixed-displacement gear for the power-steering and filter/cooler, and a variable-displacement piston pump for all else). But it seems to have better (and certainly more controllable flow) than the White's. And at least the Allis filter setup has a fine mesh screen to suck fluid through when it overdraws the filter and bypasses. The White's bypass system bypasses the filter entirely. I did read on one of these forums one time where an Oliver/White guy said those Whites were really supposed to have a less-fine micron rating filter. I can't remember the numbers, so don't quote me on this, but it was something like this: Most filters you get that interchange with the White number are something like 10-20 micron, but they originally left the factory with something like a 50 micron rating. He claimed that when high flow was demanded with one of the finer filters (when using a few functions and the remotes simultaneously, and especially if you use a thicker TDH-type fluid instead of a less-viscous hydraulic fluid) the 10-20 micron filter was too restrictive and it would instead either cavitate or end up sucking over the bypass, which would allow crapulence to get into the pump/valve bodies and cause grief. I can't find the original post unfortunately, but I have in my notes that the higher micron filter he recommended is Gressen #K25001. But admittedly I learned this after I changed the filter/fluid when we bought our 105, and I've never bothered to swap the filter for the less-restrictive one. So far no issues - except that it does bypass more than it should and create more heat than I'd like (which is a result of the pump being worn out).
Oh, and also one last bone of contention: The lack of foot throttle or diff lock is rather irksome on the White (another couple points in favour of the Allis).
