Urbandale Ia, (but originally from SE IA) | I've had a 5200 for 10 years, bought it new, 2500 hrs. now. Its been a remarkable little monster, but it has MFWD, it can outdo a (2wd) tractor twice it's size. If you're serious at all about loader work, MFWD is a must. $32,000 sounds a little high for a 5300 2wd.....yeah, I know you said $16,000, but you're only getting 1/2 a tractor in my opinion. You won't have to spend that much more to find one with mfwd.
I know a dairy farmer that gets along fine with 2wd, but all he does is scrape his concrete feedlot daily. Regardless of your situation, once you've had mfwd, I'd bet you'd never do without.
We've fed hay & silage in the winter in mud so deep that slop was actually rolling over the top of the front axle. The little booger just keeps clawing along.
On the downside, we have the TSS transmission and it has a tendency to shift hard. Have broken the roll pin on the shift linkage a couple of times because of that. Not really a big deal, other than you have to take a lot of the shift console apart to get to it.
Other than that, no problems that I can think of. My father-in-law has a similair Kubota. Have driven it a few times and didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I definitely prefer my JD. He told me last week he's going to trade for a 5325.
Edited by greenswede 7/2/2006 00:23
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Deere 5300--- good or bad?
