# Zetor Tractors?



## Dill (Nov 20, 2008)

I've been looking at a mid 80s Zetor 7745, to replace my old IH. Does anyone have any experiences good or bad with Zetors?


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## kenny chaos (Nov 23, 2008)

Well they obviously don't have the reputation of IH.


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## Poult (Nov 23, 2008)

Before you do anything, check and see how easy you can get and how expensive, parts are.  I don't have a Zetor, I have an early '80's 60 hp SAME.  It was $18K when it was new, really quite cheap, and it's now going pretty much shot.  Parts are extremely hard to come by, and expensive when you can get them.  I had to put a new hydraulic pump in it this summer, for example, and it was $1600 for the pump.  But it was either that or a tractor with no hydraulics, which is pretty useless on the farm. 

I don't know much about Zetors, but unless their parts are available easily, OR you can get it extremely cheap and treat it as a throwaway in a few years, I wouldn't bother with it.  It really depends on the parts.


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## dznam (Nov 24, 2008)

+1

If you can't get a $5 part next year, you may have a throwaway, expensive custom fabrication to do or some meaningful backyard engineering. IMHO, this is the reason to stick to red, green, orange or blue. Tractors can only be as good as parts availability. Parts availability on my 9N was still excellent 60 years after it was made and a tractor can last a very loooong time. Also, the colors I mentioned have excellent resale, reliability and meaningfully lower life-cycle costs than the off-brand units..


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## Dill (Nov 24, 2008)

From my limited searching I've found just as many dealers in NH that will handle Zetor parts as IH parts, 3.
We've even been having trouble with the "green" stuff. The local dealers are into compacts and lawn mowers not ag equipment.
One advantage to the IH is that I can get plugs, wires, filters etc at Napa. I'm not sure about the Zetor.
I'm just leaning towards 4x4, even with chains and loaded rears, I've got stuck more than a few times.


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## dznam (Nov 24, 2008)

Dill, I had 2wd with the 9N and now have a 4x4 Kubota and would not go back to 2wd for my applications which include mowing fields, winching logs, bushhogging, etc. It has opened up a whole new level of applications for me and not that I care, but resale is a whole lot better. Having said that, I have gotten stuck with 4wd, too - always with a heavy weight attachment (1000+lb bushog or flail mower or loaded log winch) in wet or muddy areas.  Seems like there's limited demand for smaller 2wd tractors up here in the NE. My point with parts is about more than just the number of dealers: do the dealers actually have a good parts inventory or access to parts, will they have access to the parts you'll need 10 years from now and will the manufacturer and the aftermarket  support parts availability in 10 years. I think part of what you have to look at is how many tractors do they sell here (and therefore will it be economic for suppliers too continue to reliably supply parts into the future) and to some extent whether they have a reputation to put at risk by not supplying parts. Having said that,  I don't know anything about Zetors and I don't know that I've ever even seen one...  ;-) Good luck with your search.


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## kenny chaos (Nov 24, 2008)

[quote author="dznam"  I have gotten stuck with 4wd, too - always with a heavy weight attachment (1000+lb bushog or flail mower or loaded log winch) in wet or muddy areas.  


At ten years of age, my kids would get the tractor stuck.  By the age of twelve, they no longer did.  There's something wrong if you get a 4x4 stuck while bush hogging.

And not to beat it into the ground but NO, NO, NO, there is NOT the parts or service available for lesser known tractors.


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## Dill (Nov 24, 2008)

We went from a 2wd 2240 deere to a 4x4 5410 for my parents farm, it makes a world of difference.For plowing snow up a grade or pulling trees out of the woods its like night and day. We did get stuck once. But it was while plowing in wet heavy clay and only because I didn't pull the plow up fast enough. I was able to unhook the plow and get out pretty easily. With the very wet summer we had most of the hay we mowed was with the 4x4 and its nice to be able to get out of problem easily and not really screw the field up. 
But for brush hogging I just don't see how you'd get stuck often.


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## dznam (Nov 24, 2008)

Dill,
We maintain over 170 acres of fields and mixed woodlands. We use a flail mower on 80 or so acres of fields and bush hog aggressively around the perimeter to keep the woods from encroaching, some of which area can be quite wet. We spend a lot of time on the tractors up here and have run them for 25+ years and get stuck at least once a year in wet clay and marginally boggy areas. Never considered it a sign of precociousness to not get a tractor stuck - if you use them hard where we are it's going to happen. Funny thing, all of our tractor-toting neighbors get stuck now and then... even bushogging! There must be something in the water up here that prevents us from acquiring the level of skill of our NH neighbors  . We use our equipment hard and don't have the choice to stay on the hard/dry where there's no risk of getting stuck.


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