one for the MF die hards

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
You’d be better off buying the last of the old model, I was once a deluded idiot who was excited to get the first 6150 from our local dealer.
That excitement didn’t last long☹
Recon am pretty good at this then... by the time they have all things sorted with the new models i might look at one..
Farming will be on its #### by then id say so it wont matter
Ive had several of there last editions over the years & on a whole it was the right choice
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Summer hols makes you laugh havnt most Europe wide Factorys been shut for 3months all ready this year
I'll bet if Massey had still been made in the UK they wouldnt stop production in August..
Jonny foreigner has some strange ways of operating.
They dont stop Car factorys in the UK they run 24/7 all year round dont they?
No, they do shut for the Summer in the UK also.
 

Wellytrack

Member
Summer hols makes you laugh havnt most Europe wide Factorys been shut for 3months all ready this year
I'll bet if Massey had still been made in the UK they wouldnt stop production in August..
Jonny foreigner has some strange ways of operating.
They dont stop Car factorys in the UK they run 24/7 all year round dont they?

You haven’t had to try and buy anything or get anything fixed in the buckin’ 12th Fortnight over here in N.I then.
 

Fergieman

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Northumberland
You’d be better off buying the last of the old model, I was once a deluded idiot who was excited to get the first 6150 from our local dealer.
That excitement didn’t last long☹
I did that as well! choice between 3075 or 6150 and went for the 6150.

To be fair it wasn't that bad after we got a lever for forward reverse unlike the 6170.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Apparently the 6100’s were meant to be the tractor that the 6200’s were, but the 6100’s were released early by Agco as they had just bought MF and wanted a new product launch.
They had four main problems, three of which were down to careless design and the fourth down to poor quality control.

1. Poor design of the shuttle pre-select switches and pots.

2. Lack of lubrication oil or cooling to the rear brakes

3. Faulty or weak wet clutch design

4. The most serious was a new hardening process for gears and shafts where these were hung vertically in an induction furnace where gas would be injected to harden surfaces. Unfortunately it was not done evenly with the units hanging towards the outer edges getting hardened properly but the ones in the centre coming out soft as cheese. That's what I remember of it. Could be the other way about, but I believe the principle of the fault is correct. This resulted in random tractors getting one or more soft shafts and gears installed. The fact that so many got through without quality control picking up on it was a management failure of colossal proportions that, along primarily with the shuttle issue, cost the tractors and the brand their reputation for many years and lost massive numbers of sales to rivals. Some had zero internal issues and some had horrendous problems and many were inbetween. Most are still in use and have worked fine since and they do have an actual fan base of users that love them.

Once sorted, which took a long time, these tractors were fine machines, but those bitten were understandably not keen to try another of the brand for years afterwards and the debacle still costs them a good deal of their reputation even today some 25 years later. It was their premium range and one that was chosen by some of the more progressive and demanding farmers and contractors.

The 6200 that replaced them were pretty reliable from the start and continue to be well regarded. The lessons needed were learnt and the quality control checks at the factory was overhauled and improved drastically.
 
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Wellytrack

Member
Pain in the arse. Had to borrow a mower one year cause courier wouldn't deliver a part for my own cause 'nobody was at work to receive it'

No doubt about that. Broke a mower 8 or 9 years ago around that time, scoured the bloody country looking for somewhere open, thought I’ll try the Engineering places and make a part, nope all closed. Finally found one willing to do it, literally 15 minutes on the lathe and 30 seconds drilling a hole into a spud with 4 bolt holes.

I could of cried with happiness and relief.
 

Wombat

Member
BASIS
Location
East yorks
They had four main problems, three of which were down to careless design and the fourth down to poor quality control.

1. Poor design of the shuttle pre-select switches and pots.

2. Lack of lubrication oil or cooling to the rear brakes

3. Faulty or weak wet clutch design

4. The most serious was a new hardening process for gears and shafts where these were hung vertically in an induction furnace where gas would be injected to harden surfaces. Unfortunately it was not done evenly with the units hanging towards the outer edges getting hardened properly but the ones in the centre coming out soft as cheese. That's what I remember of it. Could be the other way about, but I believe the principle of the fault is correct. This resulted in random tractors getting one or more soft shafts and gears installed. The fact that so many got through without quality control picking up on it was a management failure of colossal proportions that, along primarily with the shuttle issue, cost the tractors and the brand their reputation for many years and lost massive numbers of sales to rivals. Some had zero internal issues and some had horrendous problems and many were inbetween. Most are still in use and have worked fine since and they do have an actual fan base of users that love them.

Once sorted, which took a long time, these tractors were fine machines, but those bitten were understandably not keen to try another of the brand for years afterwards and the debacle still costs them a good deal of their reputation even today some 25 years later. It was their premium range and one that was chosen by some of the more progressive and demanding farmers and contractors.

The 6200 that replaced them were pretty reliable from the start and continue to be well regarded. The lessons needed were learnt and the quality control checks at the factory was overhauled and improved drastically.

When they changed the heat treatment late on in the 6100 it resolved all the gearbox issues.

I used to drive a late 6150 and it was a cracking machine
 

daveydiesel1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Co antrim
They had four main problems, three of which were down to careless design and the fourth down to poor quality control.

1. Poor design of the shuttle pre-select switches and pots.

2. Lack of lubrication oil or cooling to the rear brakes

3. Faulty or weak wet clutch design

4. The most serious was a new hardening process for gears and shafts where these were hung vertically in an induction furnace where gas would be injected to harden surfaces. Unfortunately it was not done evenly with the units hanging towards the outer edges getting hardened properly but the ones in the centre coming out soft as cheese. That's what I remember of it. Could be the other way about, but I believe the principle of the fault is correct. This resulted in random tractors getting one or more soft shafts and gears installed. The fact that so many got through without quality control picking up on it was a management failure of colossal proportions that, along primarily with the shuttle issue, cost the tractors and the brand their reputation for many years and lost massive numbers of sales to rivals. Some had zero internal issues and some had horrendous problems and many were inbetween. Most are still in use and have worked fine since and they do have an actual fan base of users that love them.

Once sorted, which took a long time, these tractors were fine machines, but those bitten were understandably not keen to try another of the brand for years afterwards and the debacle still costs them a good deal of their reputation even today some 25 years later. It was their premium range and one that was chosen by some of the more progressive and demanding farmers and contractors.

The 6200 that replaced them were pretty reliable from the start and continue to be well regarded. The lessons needed were learnt and the quality control checks at the factory was overhauled and improved drastically.
Same happened in america with the 2805 and other models in that range. Ruined mfs reputation and it never fully recovered from that. Mf have a habbit of makin a good tractor then the next range will be mediocre/bad then theyl get it sorted. Once its sorted theyl start to mess about redesignin it for the next range and itl be shite again. The 77 is lot betr than the 76 so id be feared of this new range bein bad if historys anythin to go by
 

Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
They had four main problems, three of which were down to careless design and the fourth down to poor quality control.

1. Poor design of the shuttle pre-select switches and pots.

2. Lack of lubrication oil or cooling to the rear brakes

3. Faulty or weak wet clutch design

4. The most serious was a new hardening process for gears and shafts where these were hung vertically in an induction furnace where gas would be injected to harden surfaces. Unfortunately it was not done evenly with the units hanging towards the outer edges getting hardened properly but the ones in the centre coming out soft as cheese. That's what I remember of it. Could be the other way about, but I believe the principle of the fault is correct. This resulted in random tractors getting one or more soft shafts and gears installed. The fact that so many got through without quality control picking up on it was a management failure of colossal proportions that, along primarily with the shuttle issue, cost the tractors and the brand their reputation for many years and lost massive numbers of sales to rivals. Some had zero internal issues and some had horrendous problems and many were inbetween. Most are still in use and have worked fine since and they do have an actual fan base of users that love them.

Once sorted, which took a long time, these tractors were fine machines, but those bitten were understandably not keen to try another of the brand for years afterwards and the debacle still costs them a good deal of their reputation even today some 25 years later. It was their premium range and one that was chosen by some of the more progressive and demanding farmers and contractors.

The 6200 that replaced them were pretty reliable from the start and continue to be well regarded. The lessons needed were learnt and the quality control checks at the factory was overhauled and improved drastically.

I could have written a book verse by verse with what you said as my 1996 6180 had both of the 1st two faults just like you said.

Dealer was brill tho & replaced the complete pre-select electrics on the Trans housing to Bosch parts & what a difference it made.

Also the rear brakes had holes drilled into the trumpets at the dealers & hoses fitted with oil supply to offer extra cooling.

I never had any gear or other shaft issues tho, clocked over 5000hrs withe little trouble overall apart from a very annoying Turbo seizing for no reason whatsoever @ 1936hrs it was 3yr old
Dealer kindly let us have parts at cost i think the whole job was about £1k & they dyno'd it after too see if all was in spec & it gave us 139hp i'll never forget that.
Pump never touched all as it left the factory.
 
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Farma Parma

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Northumberlandia
You had a choice?
I didn’t although being young I was pretty excited to be getting the new model, that didn’t last long once it was delivered.?
Try going back to that Manual right handed shuttle lever now esp after using Masseys Power control left hand lever under steering wheel & its a real struggle
trust me Ive tried it & you only then realize how much of a jump that has proved too be all these years later & still in use today.
 
Try going back to that Manual right handed shuttle lever now esp after using Masseys Power control left hand lever under steering wheel & its a real struggle
trust me Ive tried it & you only then realize how much of a jump that has proved too be all these years later & still in use today.
MF power shuttle is the best on the market in my opinion, however it wasn’t available on the 61’s,
MF dealer had numerous attempts to sort the shuttle on our 6150’s , first one went at end of warranty but never completely successful, in the end we paid to have it converted to a gear stick and it was bloody fantastic to what had gone before although I was a bit pee'd of when I later found out that many had been converted to manual shuttle under warranty considering the hassle we’d had.
 
Try going back to that Manual right handed shuttle lever now esp after using Masseys Power control left hand lever under steering wheel & its a real struggle
trust me Ive tried it & you only then realize how much of a jump that has proved too be all these years later & still in use today.
MF power shuttle is the best on the market in my opinion, however it wasn’t available on the 61’s,
MF dealer had numerous attempts to sort the shuttle on our 6150’s , first one went at end of warranty but never completely successful, in the end we paid to have it converted to a gear stick and it was bloody fantastic to what had gone before although I was a bit pee'd of when I later found out that many had been converted to manual shuttle under warranty considering the hassle we’d had.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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