I had a 3pt backhoe about that size. They work very well for putting in frost free hydrants and things of that nature. They may not be a real TLB but they beat the heck out of a shovel. Finally sold the one I had whe5n I bought a JCB TLB. Probably the toughest part about them is getting your technique down for getting the 3pt hooked up with that rigid toplink. I could get it hooked up in pretty short order, but someone who did not understand how to fiddle with the hydraulics just right it could be a challenge.
Good luck with your tractor. A lifetime ago I sold and serviced Long and Belarus tractors. They were decent tractors and I basically sold new tractors for the price of used. The Longs were Romanian made Fiat liscense tractors (the smaller models). Like your tractor, sometimes the machining and castings are not the prettiest, and unless you had a good dealer or were adept at fixing mostly small things (particularly leaks) the tractors in some areas had bad reputations. We had a lot of satisfied customers, but we fixed and took care of the little problems like you are describing before it got to the customer or after the sale. The design was fine, but sometimes the quality control was not the best.
Once you get any little bugs and gremlins out, I bet it will be a good tractor for you. Someone who only would drive it till it dropped without your attention to fixing the minor details probably would not be happy with the tractor.
Edit: just noticed the FEL is self leveling. Not many loaders of that size have that feature. Quick tach, integrated parking stands, compound bucket rollback linkage, bucket teeth.
Last edited by snrub; 03/07/17 05:47 PM.
