The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Fife crofter on July 12, 2012, 09:33:57 am

Title: TAFE Tractors
Post by: Fife crofter on July 12, 2012, 09:33:57 am
I am thinking of purchasing a TAFE tractor (35DI Classic) after having seen it reviewed in the NFU Countryside magazine (May 2012). Its main use with be to top / maintain my c20 acres of grassland as well as a few other tasks (eg powering a log splitter, winch, etc)..

Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) of the TAFE make?

Many Thanks.
Title: Re: TAFE Tractors
Post by: Small Farmer on July 13, 2012, 10:19:07 pm
Well it's just my opinion but if you want an MF35 get an original for which bits are easily available.  My local MF dealer says that not all the MF bits fit the Tafe, but he's going to say that isn't he?


I can't quite see why a modern Indian version of a British classic is interesting.




Title: Re: TAFE Tractors
Post by: landroverroy on July 14, 2012, 09:42:10 am
I imagine it is of interest because, if you're not particularly into old tractors, then for the price ot a 50 year old well used one, you can have a brand new one, which is MEANT to be more or less the same.
I'm assuming stuff from India is better quality now than it used to be. After all they now manufacture Landrovers. (Though I shan't be buying one!)
Title: Re: TAFE Tractors
Post by: Small Farmer on July 15, 2012, 10:55:15 pm
When I looked a couple of years ago the Tafe wasn't exactly cheap at somewhere north of £8k, so a lot more than the Chinese tractors but with the same questions over support. 


I'd have thought that £8k got you a completely rebuilt vintage MF plus a skip full of spares but I'm no expert.  However to spend that money on something which isn't what it's based on to me feels like buying a new Morris Minor but built out of someone else's parts bin 5,000 miles away.


I'd be looking at a s/h Kubota or Iseki for that money. 
Title: Re: TAFE Tractors
Post by: Odin on July 19, 2012, 09:35:03 pm
I would like to see a Taffe Tractor and am genuinely interested in how it would perform. Got a lot of time for the the way Indians do things. Have been there a couple of times and want to go again. Plenty of Indian business around these parts have family farms back in India and I natter them about visiting one, unfortnately they do not take me seriously.
The main thing that struck me about India, and what I liked was that they still operate the old British administration system that our lot chucked out when we joined Europe in the 1970s' as the Common Market. I bet they can build old Masseys every bit as good as Coventry and France ever did, can Corus (Indian) supply the quality steel required ?
India has a lot going for it, unfortunately we still send aid when there is as much need for it here .
Title: Re: TAFE Tractors
Post by: Simple Simon on July 20, 2012, 12:03:16 am
A country of stark contrasts.  You're right about the administration system but what they've retained is the stifling bureaucracy which employs a vast number of people across whose desks your piece of paper has to travel in the correct sequence.  The system is more important than the function it is supposed to provide.


My muted enthusiasm for the country was completely finished by that terrorist attack.  Security in the hotel was completely notional anyway - they had metal detectors and x-ray scanners but they weren't used.