Massey Ferguson GC1700 Series - The swiss army knife. 

I bought a GC1723E in March with the FL FEL (Quick Attach) and several rear implements that MF financed at a pretty low rate. I'm super pleased. The 4WD is useful when I'm dragging a landplane or landscape rake and don't want to tear up the grass/gravel but easy to turn off to preserve the machine better. The machine zips around my several acres and is a brute for its size. The position of the loader joystick is great. Like the float for back blading. The rear PTO ran a 48" tiller (sized for subcompacts) without a hiccup. I am not accustomed to tractor operation and it was pretty easy to coordinate all the controls to make it useful and practical. It's a great machine, Japanese made with good build quality so far, and quite capable and fuel efficient. I estimate that I burn about 1/2 US Gallon of diesel every hour. After I hit 50 hours, I'll lower the engine speed (break in) and probably see better fuel efficiency. The only things that bother me are (1) the abruptness/jerkyness of the 3 point lift (this may be typical of many tractors -- I don't have experience with others) for getting rakes or land plane to a precise height and (2) that the headlights are a little low (position-wise) when the FEL is raised a bit. At some point I might add lights to the ROPS. The 540 RPM rear PTO output of the "23" and "25" are nearly identical -- just a bit over 18 HP (18.2 and 18.5 if I recall). I would probably upgrade to a Pat's Easy Change Hitch at some point.

Bought the GC 1723e recently. Delivered to the front door. Thanks Nick. So far dug out two old tree stumps and am now digging a trench to lay some water pipe. A backhoe sure beats a shovel. Great little tractor.

I just bought the 1723.. I'm a huge John Deere fan, and I found a 1025 at a good price.. "BUT".. I'm well aware of the underperformance of the 260 backhoe unit it came with.. after doing some research.. the 1700 Series Massey Fergusons use a 2.5" diameter cylinder compared to the 2" that John Deere or Kabota use.. in return.. giving the Massey over 450 lbs more digging force on the boom and almost 500 lbs more force on the bucket.. it was for that reason and that reason alone that I made this decision.. I still say. That John Deere makes a better quality machine, hence the price difference.. but if you take care of your equipment (like I do).. these little 1700's will last and will do just fine..

I'm looking at trading in my 2018 GC-1720 TLB for the GC-1725M TLB because I want the loader control by the seat and I want to put on a third function on the loader for a grapple. It's a great tractor and I've been extremely happy with it. I outfitted some extra lighting on it and put in LED headlights. I wish there were more youtube channels dedicated to the Massey.

I have question for sum reason none of controllers are working on backhoe from back seat of tractor back cld it be fuses ??

Just bought a GC1723EB waiting to get it delivered. Looked at the different brands over and over and thought this tractor was equal to Kubota's and John Deere and maybe even better in some aspects but lowered priced. John Deere's automatic hookup mower deck? I thought how many things can go wrong with that? Keep it simple equals lower repair costs. Thanks for the video.

On the 4 wheel drive lever on a gc1723e, is the up position 2 wheel drive ? Or 4 wheel drive ? The little diagram is sort of confusing.

Awesome video!! Can the mower for sure be used with the BH2720 still attached? I know you said it in the video, but my (possibly outdated) brochure says no, and Vahrenberg (another youtube channel) just put out a video and mentioned the BH has to come off. I would love to hear that's not the case and that the mower can run with it attached.

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Does it have more ground clearance with the mower deck on and in the up and locked ( I use that term lightly ) because it does absolutely nothing. 5” is nothing considering your wheels on the mowing deck is barley 2” off the ground. If I had concrete roads on my farm that wouldn’t be a problem.