Massey Ferguson 4255

blonde10

Hi all,
Looking to upgrade the tractor.we have always been case IH but I've came across a Massey Ferguson 4255, it's 2001,with 4K hours,it has a forward and reverse power shuttle,(orange lever on left of steering wheel),any one out there with such tractor,what are they like,does the power shuttle give trouble,also there is a + and - on the gear lever??,I'm not that up on the Massey Ferguson,
Sales guy wasn't around when I called..
Any help would be great..
Cheers

fanmanad

Have a 4360 here. Similar tractor. It has 24x24 power shuttle which has a split gear. They did come with a 12x12 power shuttle but not too many of them. Shuttle never gave any bother at all but a lot has to do with previous drivers!!

blonde10

fanmanad wrote:

Have a 4360 here. Similar tractor. It has 24x24 power shuttle which has a split gear. They did come with a 12x12 power shuttle but not too many of them. Shuttle never gave any bother at all but a lot has to do with previous drivers!!

Cheers for that,going to take for a drive nxt week,seems a nice enough yolk,air seat,slope bonnet,4 new tyres,with a Massey loader,he's asking 28,000 for her..any thoughts on the price??

White Clover

blonde10 wrote: »

Cheers for that,going to take for a drive nxt week,seems a nice enough yolk,air seat,slope bonnet,4 new tyres,with a Massey loader,he's asking 28,000 for her..any thoughts on the price??

The + and - on the gear lever is the range change. Select - to come down a range and select + to go up a range.

Power shuttle is a good job, just don't ride the peddle with your foot. Using medium range for alot of your loader work will help lots too.

Imo it is priced steep enough.

blonde10

Ya I thought it a bit steep,but that was just over the phone,I'm sure if we sat down face to face,we could hammer out a better deal..as I said I just hope it won't break my heart and Il regret buying it...as I'm not well up on Massey Ferguson,but I'm sure it can't be too bad..there are alot of them about so cans all be bad..🀔

tommyled1984

Thinking of getting a new tractor myself but not sure what to go for. We've had mf tractors always but I'm going away from them. My dad bought a new 135 back 40yrs ago and it's still flying it, unfortunately I can't say the same for the others we've had since.
We had a 365 for 12years, gave heaps of trouble
yr on yr.
Then in 2004 we went all out, bought a brand new mf 5455, I think €60,000 with loader and attachments, it was the biggest heap of crap we ever bought, we had mf mechanic out 13times in 18months. In 2006, fed up of the break downs, my dad decided to trade it in for a new one again, this time a 5445, he thought we might have better luck, it was advised to use the main dealer for its first main service after i think 1000hrs, we did and we received a bill of 1300euro, shortly thereafter it started giving grief, mainly niggly problems at the start, fuses blown, fuel pump, starter/ alternator malfunctions, I've spend several days jump starting it with the 135mf. Spent 6500euro in feb getting the 4wd fixed along with a couple of other smaller problems, now the pto isn't working and lift is losing power. We don't do much work with tractor, topping, rolling, bale handling, half the hrs on it are put up on the Rd, no hard work at all.
The tractor was an expensive piece of equipment, too much switches/buttons on it that were never used and when anything goes wrong the likelihood is your will need main dealer mechanic to call out to sort it which isn't cheap.

Any ideas ? I've read on a few other threads you get what you pay for but we certainly didnt 3 times on the trott.

Our silage contractor is advising my dad to go with valtra?

I've read threads where the newer zetor are quiet reliable and cheap by comparison to mf and the likes.

White Clover

I know it's not what you want to hear, but it is widely accepted that pre 2007 5400 series masseys were poor. Remember, it was a complete new tractor from front to back which carried over practically nothing from the 4300 series that it replaced. It took the guts of 3 years from when they started selling them to get them right. But I think they did sort all the issues, the 5600 series tractors seem to have a good reputation, they have now been replaced by the 5700 series.

emaherx

There were issues with the 5400 series but I'm surprised that the 365 gave heaps of trouble we have one here and it was an excellent little workhorse has been reduced to yard scraper tractor in recent years but it is nearly 30 years old.

But if you are concerned about quality of MF's is Valtra the direction you want to take? As they are from the same manufacturer.

f140

blonde10 wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking to upgrade the tractor.we have always been case IH but I've came across a Massey Ferguson 4255, it's 2001,with 4K hours,it has a forward and reverse power shuttle,(orange lever on left of steering wheel),any one out there with such tractor,what are they like,does the power shuttle give trouble,also there is a + and - on the gear lever??,I'm not that up on the Massey Ferguson,
Sales guy wasn't around when I called..
Any help would be great..
Cheers

id say its hard to get a tractor like that now with such low hours. Should be a lot of life left in her yet. Just make sure to check the front axle well for wear on it if it had a loader on it before.

Cavanjack

tommyled1984 wrote: »

Thinking of getting a new tractor myself but not sure what to go for. We've had mf tractors always but I'm going away from them. My dad bought a new 135 back 40yrs ago and it's still flying it, unfortunately I can't say the same for the others we've had since.
We had a 365 for 12years, gave heaps of trouble
yr on yr.
Then in 2004 we went all out, bought a brand new mf 5455, I think €60,000 with loader and attachments, it was the biggest heap of crap we ever bought, we had mf mechanic out 13times in 18months. In 2006, fed up of the break downs, my dad decided to trade it in for a new one again, this time a 5445, he thought we might have better luck, it was advised to use the main dealer for its first main service after i think 1000hrs, we did and we received a bill of 1300euro, shortly thereafter it started giving grief, mainly niggly problems at the start, fuses blown, fuel pump, starter/ alternator malfunctions, I've spend several days jump starting it with the 135mf. Spent 6500euro in feb getting the 4wd fixed along with a couple of other smaller problems, now the pto isn't working and lift is losing power. We don't do much work with tractor, topping, rolling, bale handling, half the hrs on it are put up on the Rd, no hard work at all.
The tractor was an expensive piece of equipment, too much switches/buttons on it that were never used and when anything goes wrong the likelihood is your will need main dealer mechanic to call out to sort it which isn't cheap.

Any ideas ? I've read on a few other threads you get what you pay for but we certainly didnt 3 times on the trott.

Our silage contractor is advising my dad to go with valtra?

I've read threads where the newer zetor are quiet reliable and cheap by comparison to mf and the likes.

You hardly need a €60,000 tractor for the work you are doing?

tomwaterford

tommyled1984 wrote: »

Thinking of getting a new tractor myself but not sure what to go for. We've had mf tractors always but I'm going away from them. My dad bought a new 135 back 40yrs ago and it's still flying it, unfortunately I can't say the same for the others we've had since.
We had a 365 for 12years, gave heaps of trouble
yr on yr.
Then in 2004 we went all out, bought a brand new mf 5455, I think €60,000 with loader and attachments, it was the biggest heap of crap we ever bought, we had mf mechanic out 13times in 18months. In 2006, fed up of the break downs, my dad decided to trade it in for a new one again, this time a 5445, he thought we might have better luck, it was advised to use the main dealer for its first main service after i think 1000hrs, we did and we received a bill of 1300euro, shortly thereafter it started giving grief, mainly niggly problems at the start, fuses blown, fuel pump, starter/ alternator malfunctions, I've spend several days jump starting it with the 135mf. Spent 6500euro in feb getting the 4wd fixed along with a couple of other smaller problems, now the pto isn't working and lift is losing power. We don't do much work with tractor, topping, rolling, bale handling, half the hrs on it are put up on the Rd, no hard work at all.
The tractor was an expensive piece of equipment, too much switches/buttons on it that were never used and when anything goes wrong the likelihood is your will need main dealer mechanic to call out to sort it which isn't cheap.

Any ideas ? I've read on a few other threads you get what you pay for but we certainly didnt 3 times on the trott.

Our silage contractor is advising my dad to go with valtra?

I've read threads where the newer zetor are quiet reliable and cheap by comparison to mf and the likes.

A relatively basic new holland would be hard beaten imo

No need even to go too mad on the specs

White Clover

tomwaterford wrote: »

A relatively basic new holland would be hard beaten imo

No need even to go too mad on the specs

What about the engines in the T5 New Holland'?
Are they not prone to going wollop?

GERMAN ROCKS

blonde10 wrote: »

Hi all,
Looking to upgrade the tractor.we have always been case IH but I've came across a Massey Ferguson 4255, it's 2001,with 4K hours,it has a forward and reverse power shuttle,(orange lever on left of steering wheel),any one out there with such tractor,what are they like,does the power shuttle give trouble,also there is a + and - on the gear lever??,I'm not that up on the Massey Ferguson,
Sales guy wasn't around when I called..
Any help would be great..
Cheers

Drove one for a neighbour two winters ago putting in silage to his cattle as he was laid up. Lovely machine for the job. Fierce comfort in it. His had 8.8k up in it and he said all he ever did to it was the clutch once at around 5 or 6 and a new exhaust

bogman_bass

Do a bit of relief work for a lad that has one.
Couple of downsides :
The backend is light. They are basically the backend from a 188.
No external lift controls which is a pain

However it has good visibility
It has a leaver that you can divert all the hydraulic oil to the loader to spreed it up
It's comfortable

twin_beacon

we have a 00 reg 4245 4wd loader and "snoopy" bonnet. it also has the 12x12 power shuttle. We bought it second hand in 2004 with just over 2k hours on the clock, roughly 4.5k hours on it now. Main jobs are stacking and feeding around 350 bales a year, topping, fert spreading, cattle trailer, and the occasional post driver. We have never taken the loader off it, as we use it most of the time, its a quicke loader, painted in massey colours.

It has given very little trouble apart from the usual wear and tear.
We did have to replace a component in the power shuttle a few years ago, that being said, I'd never go back to a manual shuttle when using a loader.

Im assuming the 4255 comes with a loader? The price of 28k seems very expensive to me, we paid only a fraction more for our 4245 in 2004 with half the hours on the clock.
There us a 02 reg 4255 with loader, power shuttle and 3k hours on donedeal for 24k