Who make the best Telehandler.

[arboriculturist]

Reliability is a key issue, speak to existing users, look on the farming forums. The teleporter is by some way the most used machine around most farms. I have had a couple of hours on one this morning.

 

A

 

In that case - maybe wise to avoid buying one that is ex. Farm!

[onyx landscaping/fencing]

yep! avoid any machine that has ever been on a dairy farm lol

[farmer_ben]

I honestly dont know why everyone raves so highly about the ag spec JCB loaders. Really nothing special imo and definitely not over driver friendly thats for sure. Having driven most brands over

Last 15yrs on farms id say not much between merlo and claas scorpion, and then the newer manitou loaders. Merlo imo is the most user friendly.

[aspenarb]

FDI Sambron takes some beating if you can find one, no electronic lock outs and they punch well past their weight. Ours has been beaten to death but still runs well.

 

 

 

 

 

Bob

[Graham w]

i was offered a sambron years ago with a ford 4000 engine imo it had poor weight distribution for off roading, still far better than a 2wd.

 

newer jcb share loads of parts with manitou, have driven both jcb large and small but never really liked them

[gensetsteve]

I like the jcb 527- 67 big enough but still small enough with 4 wheel steering and drive. looked at a 54 plate 627 manitou a few months ago but needed £3000 spent on ball joints and bushes on arm not keen on the high revving hydrostatic set up seems like alot of noise for not much speed.

[cornish wood burner]

Just spoke to local Ag Engineer - He said brakes on Merlos poor because they use calipers like a car!

 

Advised JCB's very bulky machines but fair apart from that.

 

Manitou's were at the top of his list for all round machine.

 

Are you sure its not that Manitous are paying his morgage, payments on his rolls, new van full of snapon tools and children to go to private school.

We had one some years ago and it was fine for a job in the workshop but anywhere else it was too far to carry our tools. Have ran two JCBs for a total of 14 years and they have spent a quarter of the time in the workshop that our manitou did in two and that probably would include servicing. There are obviously good and bad machines but you might gather I am not a Manitou fan.

[doobin]

Just spoke to local Ag Engineer - He said brakes on Merlos poor because they use calipers like a car!

 

Advised JCB's very bulky machines but fair apart from that.

 

Manitou's were at the top of his list for all round machine.

 

Do you mean the size of a car calipers? Loads of machinery has disc brakes and therefore calipers 'like a car'.

 

They will not need particularly strong brakes as Merlos are hydrostatic drive, so 90% of braking is done via hydraulic retardation.

[arboriculturist]

The more Posts appear, the better picture you get of what is good or bad.

 

It seems many types of equipment get bad reports purely because they have been poorly maintained - with all due respect 'some' Farrmers are not known to put maintenance high on the agenda.

[farmer_ben]

Do you mean the size of a car calipers? Loads of machinery has disc brakes and therefore calipers 'like a car'.

 

They will not need particularly strong brakes as Merlos are hydrostatic drive, so 90% of braking is done via hydraulic retardation.

 

The only problem with the merlo I drove ALOT was the brakes sticking on every once in a while, not a huge problem but only merlos do it apparently. Yes they are hydrostatic but have a different braking system to most other loaders im led to believe