Opinions of Universal tractors.....

[woodbeef]

I saw the new Universal flat deck tractors at the T.O. show. It was a pretty good looking tractor with the new sloping hood,and right side mounted shifters. I know these are econo mpdels,but what is everyones opinion of them?

[Muttley]

Not a bad acreage tractor or yard. Watch out if you want to put it to work!

[s24]

I had a 640 dtc tractor. It was new in the mid 80's. A terrible tractor. It leaked oil everywhere. The front end was weak to one set of wheel bearing would always go and they were metric but odd ball metric about 100.00 a piece. Never again it is parked in the tree's. Should hae bought a green one.

[kees]

I have a Universal 640 DTC.It has 8000 hrs.Yes it had some problems, but I like to think they were due to rough work in the woods and with the loader. Right now it is still a very good working tractor and use it every day. Also reasonable nice working tractor. It was bought new on our farm in 1981 and now in my opinion, I came to a point that it is cheaper to repair (mostly by myself) then to buy another. It was a lot of bang for the buck at the time. Green seemed too much of a expendure then (and now) so to speak.I think the Universal is basically not a bad tractor, I think there are worse and of course there are also better tractors. My tractor never had problems with the front axle, which I heard of before that this was a spot prone for problems on the 4 wheel drive models.
How does the maintenance playing a role here? Or luck factor? Bottom line: economically the Universal turned out to be good choice for me.
I like to have a Valtra but that is dreaming! I also have a International 584 2 wheel drive with loader (very noisy and terrible gearshifting)and a Kubota 6950 DTF which I find is a better handling tractor. I talked to a farmer the other day who put 20.000 hrs on his Allis Chalmers 5040 with 1 motor job and 1 clutch replacement. The Universal 640 derived from that model AC tractor. But is the new model flat deck tractor still from the same family, that I don't know.