Thanks for the reply - can i ask which areas these repairs were in so i have an idea where to check on the tractor for problems. may i also ask on which make this was and should i avoid these?
again any ideas of quality dealers (also cheap) or should i buy privately
thankyou for sharing you knowlege
mithral

"Just be very careful of the amount of work it's done and of the
quality of the maintenance its's had if you're looking for something
really cheap
You can get landed with some very large repair bills. We've just had
one for over £1800 - this is for a well maintained 10 year old machine
that has worked hard and long (about 5000 hours - the engines are said
to be good for 10000 hours) and it has been used carefully. Most of
the cost - over £1100 was labour, that's around 3 days work at £45 per
hour. Some repairs require the machine to be split in two and the
engine to be removed - this was one of them."