[John Sheridan]

I am thinking of buying a Jinma 200LE or 204LE series tractor, for cutting grass in resdenital area. I will be getting a rear mount mower and a bush hog for it.

Have any of you got the LE series?

Does the LE series work will?

Can this tractor handle the weight of a 48" buch hog?

 

[GreenMtnMan]

No personal experience with Jinma tractors, but I do have a Jinma chipper. How mechanically inclined are you? These tractors seem to offer a lot of bang for the buck, but most everyone who owns one has to do at least some work on it and you should be capable and have the tools necessary to do that.

 

[Chris]

<h1>WELCOME JOHN!</h1>

I know a thing or two about some of these smaller Chinese tractors. The Jinma 204LE is 20HP 4WD tractor. It is about 48.5"
inches wide (call it 4') and can certainly handle a 4' BH with no problems. It lift weight capacity at 3pt extension is abut 3100#s.
I would personally recommend moving up to the 28HP Jinma 284LE. I offers tremendous benefits for less than $1K increase in overall expense. Increases your HP and traction force from 20 to 28 (HP) and 4800 to 7650 (Ns) respectively. As well as slightly larger tires, dual stage clutch, better gear ratios and better lifting power --- The 284LE looks like a great option for me if I was in the market for such a tractor. The liquid cooled 3 cylinder diesel engines are bulletproof and a very good match for this tractor.

All-in-all, depending mostly on warranty and availability of current and future parts, I think they are a great investment. Of course if it were me, I would look for a nice Ford 3000-4000 model that has been restored completely for about the same price. But you will miss some of the features, creature comforts and if you are not handy with working on tractors, you might be better off with a newer Chinese model. But on the other hand, you would have one HECK of a tractor that could offer 45+HP and handle a 5-6' BH with no problems. ---- YMMV.

I hope this helps, let me know if you need any more insight or opinions and BTW, Welcome again to TF!

Andy
:tractorsm

 

[Live Oak]

Hi John and welcome to Tractor Forum! :friends: :cheers: Great to have you aboard.

I don't own this particular machine. In general the Jinma line of tractors are good little tractors but you need to understand right up front that they do require a bit more maintenance and up keep as compared to other brands sold in the United Stated. (ie: leaks, head gaskets, adjustments, etc.) It is also a VERY good idea to immediately drain the Chinese factory lubricants and replace them with quality brands sold here in the states. The Chinese factory guys use the cheapest stuff they can and it is of poor quality.

Does this make them a bad machine? Certainly NOT. They are much more value priced and for the dollar spent, provided you can do the majority of the up keep and repairs yourself; they are good little tractors.

For owners who prefer not to "roll their own" with respect to maintenance and prefer a more established support and parts infrastructure; the more established brands may be the way to go.

hat having been said, we all end up working on our machines reguardless of brands at one time or another. Just be sure and make sure the dealer you buy from CAN and WILL provide you great customer and logistical support. I cannot emphasize this enough.

With respect to the choices you mention on tractor model; the 200LE is 2 wheel drive. Not always the best option especially if you are going to work on slopes and in areas that may require good traction. For run of the mill residential mowing on fairly level land, it should do fine.

The 204LE is 4 wheel drive which gives it a tremendous boost in traction and braking ability. This is CRITICAL on slopes and steep hills, not to mention muddy or soft areas. It will also give you a much better pulling ability.

Either model should be able to turn a 48 inch rotary cutter with 20 hp gross. My preference would go to the 204LE and if you can swing the extra cost; I would suggest the 254LE which is among the most popular and widely owned of these tractors as well as 5 extra hp.

I would strongly suggest that you demo all of these models and compare them to other competitive lines of tractors. A fair comparison would be a Jinma 254/284 with a John Deere 790 or a Kubota B7610 for example. Try to get a look at some of these tractors after the owners have put a 100 or so hours on them if possible. This is the best measure of how the tractor will perform and hold up in the long run.

Anyway, hope this was not "TMI" and was helpful in aiding you towards a tractor buying decision which is a VERY big step. Good luck and please feel free to post any other question that you may have that come to mind.

Here is a good link to give you some comparision and specification info. between the various Jinma models

Jinma Tractors

We also have a dealer that is a member here who posts from time to time. I am sure Chip will see this and provide a great reply.

 

[John Sheridan]

John Sheridan

Thank all of you for you help.

 

[Durwood]

Here is a link to his website. Chip has a good reputation.
http://www.artrac.com/Kamatractors.html

 

[luckycharms]

John, You from Boothville, LA? I think that Admin (Andy) is from Hammond, LA along with Jodyand (Baton Rouge) and few other cajuns. Good luck with your decision on your type of tractor. What made you look at Jinma and what other tractors are you looking at?

-LC

 

[John Sheridan]

I have look a all the name brands, and they just cost to much. I got a northern tool catalog and there were some nortac tractor in there. I did a search and find out that they were Jinma tractors, so I did a search on Jinma tractor, and found a company that has the Le models. They move the battery to a better location. They brake in the engine, and change the oil, and filter. The 284Le(4WD) go for $6999.00. I think this is the best dill on the net.

 

[ARTRAC]

Hi all & welcome to John,

Hadn't been around here in a while hope all are doing well. We have had a busy season.

I don't have a lot to add to what has been said. in the 20HP class the Jinma is a very viable tractor. The LE is simply a group of options and a special hood only available to one import broker including different headlight, better seat, combined instrument cluster.
The base model is more widely available and can be had for less money, the basic tractor is the same.

We have been a Farm Pro (also Jinma) dealer for a year and never hear a word from most of our customers, unless they need another implement or ask a question about what oil to use when changing. It has been our experience that most of the problems you will have with a Chinese tractor (if any) will occur soon after you begin to put it to use and sorted out the tractor performs pretty well. Nevertheless, access to dealer support, or the willingness to tackle problems yourself is a requirement of ownership IMHO.

I honestly feel our KAMA TS254C compares favorably to the 25/28HP Jinmas, ( I guess that would be expected since I am a KAMA dealer) the KAMA has a larger chassis, bigger gears, and most of the features of the LE series Jinma are standard on the KAMA with the added convieneince of an 8x8 shuttle shift, It uses the proven Y385 engine, same as the JInma. (other benefits are steering cyl in better location, better ground clearance due to outboard mounted bullgears and even little things like a clutch with separate fingers to operate the Main disk from the PTO disk, minimizing stress and simplifying adjustment...sorry don't mean to sell here.

Durwood, I can why you might prefer the gray market stuff, I'll agree that fit and finish are better but I have seen many without two stage clutches or ROPS, plus they usually have those rice paddy tires. On top of that most of the factories are doing everything they can to discourage their import and trying hard to block part supply lines. These are the main reasons we have gone Chinese instead of Gray. I can sell a new tractor, have factory support for parts, and all the nice goodies for about the same money as a used or reconditioned Japanese tractor AND provide a warranty to my customer)

John th 4' hog is fine in fact if you are only doing light duty brush hogging, you could get away with a 5' unit on the 20HP, this is because the Chinese engines tend to run at lower rpm so they must develop more torque to produce a givenHP than an engine that runs at higher rpm. (HP is a mathematical function of work (torque) and time (rpm), something like the energy to lift one pound one foot per minute, which is where we get the ft-lb measure for torque, but I digress...my point is we sell 20HP jinma with 1400cc engine and 20HP KIOTI with 927cc engine, the Jinma makes it HP at about 2200rpm the Kioti at 2800 rpm, Japanese engines are similar size/output. Like Chief says, this may be too much info...is there anything specific you want to know?

 

[Live Oak]

It has been some time since we have seen you around these parts Chip. Welcome back and thank you very much for your reply and dealer view point. Glad to hear businesss is doing well. Hope we will see more of you in the future. :thumbsup:

 

[Chris]

Welcome back ARTRAC!

Good to see ya. Great info! :ditto: