New Holland Workmaster Compact Tractors

Neil from Messick's here today to cover New Holland's Workmaster compact tractors. New Holland splits their compact product line up into two different categories, the deluxe feature, rich Boomer series machines, and the more value-oriented Workmasters. This could be a tricky product line to cover because for New Holland to go through and cover this whole spectrum of compact tractors that these two divergent product lines, there are a little bit of some funny gaps in stuff in this series. We're going to go through today and talk about each of these tractors and how they fit into that value compact tractor product offering.
Here at Messick's, we would call this family of equipment price fighters. If you're looking for something that's on the less expensive end of the spectrum, or you're shopping for used equipment and trying to see if you could afford the jump into new, this is the family of equipment that we're going to go to.
This is going to be the machines that are going to offer a decent value. They're going to have some of the necessities that you need as far as the features go, but they're not going to be overbuilt in a way that starts to cause their prices to rise.
Now in this Workmaster family, in the compact tractors, there are actually only four models. The Workmaster 25S is New Holland's line of subcompacts. We have covered these in full detail, end-to-end, in a series of videos before including their version that comes with a factory cab, which is very cool.
To me, these stand upon their own because there's not a power star or boomer version of the subcompact. The Workmaster is their only offering. These two, though, are both a little different. This is the Workmaster 25 behind me, and the Workmaster 35 to your right. This tractor is going to be offered in either a 35 or a 40-horsepower model. You have these three tractors here potentially that overlap a little bit with the deluxe Boomer series.
Now, so we don't get our numbers too mixed up, we're going to talk about the Workmaster 25 here in front of me. Now remember the subcompact is a Workmaster 25S. That S makes all the difference in the world. That one letter is a completely different machine.
If you try to find where this machine fits here, the point is value for your money. How much tractor can I get? How much capacity can I get? How much grunt for my dollar? Your dollar here is going to go really far.
If we compare this to say our green friends on the other side of the highway down here, you're talking almost subcompact tractor pricing for a machine that's very obviously quite a lot larger than that. There's going to be several models in other product ranges between the subcompact and this machine that you're going to jump over top of before you get to something that is this size. New Holland is offering a fantastic value here for the money.
Now, that doesn't mean that this machine has no options on it. When we look at the loader, you're going to see it still has a skid steer coupler on it. It could have shaved some more pennies off of here by removing that coupler, but having that there allows you to swap out for pallet forks or grapples or other attachments out on front of the machine. At Messick's here, we treat those couplers as standard equipment because you are silly not to have one. New Holland is including it on this loader.
Being all about cost savings, you're going to see a lot of things here in this loader valve that are done on the cheap side. That is the point here. As you take this loader valve, you can go your front, back, left, right in order to operate your loader. You can push the whole way forward in the float, but this valve lacks the corner positions that allow you to do smooth multifunction capability.
You're also going to notice here that the valve body itself is literally just hanging off the side of the loader here. They have some screws here that allow you to swing this thing around to adjust exactly where it sits to get it into a comfortable position. I don't see any of those positions being as comfortable as the more deluxe machines that are going to position a loader valve back here by your hips, so getting the job done, but again, driving towards that price point, which is what this tractor is all about.
While I've pounded cheap and value into your head by this point, there's a lot of places on this tractor that you should also be impressed at the same time. It's what you're getting for your money.
This tractor is offered in a hydrostatic transmission. This is the gear drive version though, and I'm surprised for a tractor being at this price point, just how good the gear drive is. You have a shuttle up here on the dash to go between forward and reverse, three ranges over on the side for your operating ranges, and a four-speed gear selector over here by your hip. The controls are all laid out well. They shift well. They have a good clicky feel to them as they drop in and out.
In terms of ranges, you've got a 12-speed gear drive transmission with a shuttle on it and a price point that you're going to see some other manufacturers offering unsynchronized 8-speed transmissions. There's a lot to be impressed with here in the gear drive in this model.
50% of what you need to know about a tractor could be learned at the back of the machine. You can really get what that machine is about by just looking at some of the features and the way the rear end is put together. There are no extendable link arms back here like would be found in a deluxe Boomer series tractor. There are, however, those sway bars back here instead of the older turnbuckle style.
There is some nice adjustments here to your leveling and stuff on the hitch. I would probably look at this machine and install a three-point quick hitch here on the rear because these are not adjustable ends. I think that would be a nice and inexpensive addition to this tractor.
The PTO being right down here at the bottom has a little shield here that you can open up to give yourself a lot of space, getting your hands back in here to slide a shaft onto the PTO. There is a lot more room than what I'm used to seeing on this size tracker. The PTO engagement on this machine is electro-hydraulic. You've got a knob up on the dash to engage it. That is significant because typically in this class of tractor, you would find transmission-driven or clutched PTOs. That's a nice way to engage a PTO on a tractor in this family.
You're going to see a rear remote here on the back. That rear remote does come through as standard equipment. It is the- call it the least expensive way to implement a rear remote on a tractor. It is a selection between flowing one valve or the other. It's not self-canceling it. It does not float. If you need that more deluxe, rear remote, there's another outlet over here beside it where a second one can be added that you're going to have a little bit of selection in the style of valve that you're going to want to have in that other outlet.
Good for operating simple cylinders or maybe powering a log splitter if you want a little bit of a constant flow off the back, but might have some limitations when it comes to things like transport wheels or an implement that might need a float.
Moving up to the next bigger tractor in the Workmaster family is the Workmaster 35 and 40. Those two engine options at 35 and 40 horsepower are going to sit on exactly the same chassis. The frame here, the loader, everything we're going to describe about these two models is the same just the difference of which engine is sitting under the hood.
You need to understand as we're moving through this, and part of what makes the Workmaster family a little hard to follow sometimes, is that these models are so radically different from one to the next. We're going from a subcompact to a very price-oriented 25-horse tractor jumping almost 50% in price to a 35-horse machine, now that's only marginally bigger but much more feature-rich. This is a significantly more expensive tractor than what the Workmaster 25 is.
You can visually see that very quickly just by looking at the profile of this tractor. The loader arms that are on here, and the loader that's being used here by New Holland is a much more deluxe loader. These sweeping arms are a lot more expensive to manufacture. There's a lot of benefits and feature related to them. For that purpose, you're going to come along with a higher price point.
While we're staying in the Workmaster family here, understand that we're moving now to a tractor that is positioned very differently. It's got a lot more features on it, even though it exists in this value family.
The loader that's used on these machines is the New Holland 140TL loader. This is a New Holland-built loader. It does not come through from another company. The one thing that's always been unique about New Holland's loaders are these long sweeping arms. They go back generations in New Holland's product line.
The benefit of these arms is visibility. It gives you really nice sight lines off the seat and also gives you a little bit more lift height. When you look at this loader, you're going to see how far out in front of the tractor this bucket sits. When you go lift that bucket up if you are in an agricultural application, you're going to stack things higher. You're going to push a round bale up to the next level up because you have these sweeping arms in this additional height. Reflects who New Holland's core customer tends to be.
Now, there's some disadvantage to that. By having that loader far out in front of the tractor, you may not lift quite as much. There's a little bit of trade-off here. We're giving up potentially a little bit of lift capacity for nice sight lines, good visibility because the bucket is far out in front of you, and that additional height to get up to that next layer up when you're dumping into the mixer wagon or going up to that next level of round bales, so catering towards that typical New Holland customer.
When looking at a tractor, it's always good to flip the hood up, take a look down there and gauge the serviceability of a machine. Over the lifetime of owning a tractor, you know you're going to be down here at a time. You're going to need a new battery to clean your air cleaner to make sure your radiator is running cool. All of those things are in the front portion of the tractor here. The battery, in particular, is really easy to get to.
Now, because we're crossing over that 26-horsepower magic number, we need to have a little more emissions equipment on this horsepower tractor compared to our Workmaster 25. You're going to see that. The engine compartment down here is a little fuller.
Where this Workmaster family really starts to get me is this tractor. I sat up here thinking that this was supposed to be a value-economy series family. You look around this machine, and it seems to lack nothing. You see a lot of the things you tend to find on those nicer, say, Boomer tractors.
Going around the tractor here, you're still going to have a three-range transmission. You've got gear driver hydrostatic modules. You have a mid-PTO here if we're going to run implements that use it. You have the same standard rear remote. Your loader valve importantly is the hip-mounted style loader valve up here, that's close to the operator, and has the corner functions and stuff to multifunction a little bit. My PTO is again an electrohydraulic PTO, so I don't have to use a clutch to turn my PTO on and off.
The Boomer family is going to offer more. There's a little bit more there in terms of comfort, but it tends to come in terms of things like maybe seat quality, and rubber floor mats, and some shielding around your feet and stuff around the bottom.
The two tractors seem to share a lot of parts. I believe the dash is shared between the two. The Workmaster machine here is really going to offer you a lot of deluxe tractor features but at maybe a little more economy-oriented price point.
While you can see a lot of differences in the front half of this tractor compared to the Workmaster 25, looking around the rear here, all I see is commonalities. In the three-point hitch hardware, in these rear remotes, in the top link, the way you get into the PTO. The rear end seems to be basically the same as what we've already covered in the Workmaster 25.
Now, I shouldn't talk about the term Workmaster without also throwing in the class of Workmaster utility tractors, where we get up into those more farm-oriented machines. The family of equipment here looks completely different. We have the compacts or this collection of three almost odd ball models. When you're moving up here into this class, you're getting a family of tractors that covers a much larger product range with a totally different feature set. While we're covering that name Workmaster here today, the utility class of machines are a totally different animal.
Workmaster Compacts, this is hard, and a little bit confusing to me. As a family of products the diversity that's here is a little odd. You've got a subcompact tractor. You've got a wicked-priced awesome little 25-horse machine. You have a surprisingly deluxe compact down here on the end, and that's not even layering in the Boomer Compacts onto of these yet. This family is a little confusing, but if you're shopping for a tractor here, there's probably some standout machines here that you might want to consider.
New Holland's line of subcompacts all exist inside of this Workmaster family, including that cool one with the cab that we've covered in videos before. If you're shopping for a little utility chore tractor, you're in that five to eight-acre range. Maybe you've got some horses, you need something to help them move some bales around, but you're not going to be out mowing and stuff with it, my gosh, this thing is an awesome price point for the amount of machine that it offers.
Or if you're really looking for value, you've got a value tractor over here too that comes along with a lot of those more deluxe features but keeps a price point at a pretty reasonable spot. Kind of hard to lump all of these under one umbrella. You think of the term here, Workmaster, a family of equipment. it's not really a family. It's really three diverse models that offer a lot of things for somebody who might be shopping for a piece of equipment.
If that's you, if you're shopping for a piece of machinery, or you've got part needs for equipment you've already got, there's a great group of people here at Messick's that are glad to help. We're available at 800-222-3373, or online at messicks.com.