Driver’s view: Richard and Matthew Thomas’s Zetor Proxima CL80

Since Zetor tractors first arrived in the UK, they’ve been the tool of choice for Welsh hill farmers Richard and Matthew Thomas.

The initial attraction to the Czech brand was its keen pricing, but over time they’ve come to value its simplicity and reliability, and the backup from dealer Smithfield Tractors in nearby Builth Wells.

Some 50 years after the first Zetor arrived, the father-and-son duo are running two of the firm’s Proxima models: a 2010 Proxima 90 and a 2021 CL80 fitted with a Quicke loader.

The older machine does the bulk of the field work, running the fertiliser spinner and topper, while the CL80 does most of the materials handling and yard work.

In the winter months it is kept busy carting straw and haylage to their 1,000 pedigree Beulah Speckled and Epynt Hardy Speckled ewes.

We caught up with them to see how the CL80 has performed during its first year on the farm.

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What made you choose a Proxima CL80?

As we’re stock farmers, we spend a lot more time on quad bikes than tractors. For this reason, we only need a simple, reliable tractor that will always start in the morning.

Price was one of the biggest reasons we went to Zetor in the first place, but it was also the fact that we’re so close to Smithfield Tractors in Builth Wells, who look after us really well.

All the Zetors we’ve had have been reliable, but we’ve always had the reassurance that our dealer will get us going or lend us a tractor if it breaks down badly.

If anything does need fixing on them, it can generally be done with a spanner, rather than having to plug in a computer.

In the early days, you could tell that they were cheap tractors and the design was pretty basic.

But each generation has got better, to the point that they look as good as any other small loader tractor. We think this latest one is particularly smart.

We chose the Proxima CL80 as it was the simplest model we could get with enough power and weight to handle a decent sized loader.

There’s no AdBlue to worry about and no computers, so there’s very little to go wrong. Even the rear linkage control is fully manual.

It’s the same story with the Quicke Q3 loader, which is good quality but doesn’t have an auto-levelling system.

This makes the loader cheaper, simpler and lighter as there’s no additional framework to make the headstock move as the height alters.

How has it performed?

The CL80 is only 76hp, but that’s plenty for what we need, and it handles the Q3 loader well.

We sometimes put a counterweight on the rear to take some of the pressure off the front axle, but it doesn’t really need it for most of the jobs we do.

As it’s primarily a yard tractor, it’s clocked less than 100 hours in the first year with us.

It’s obviously not a lot of work, but we haven’t had any of the teething problems you can get with some more complex tractors.

© James Andrews

Our 2010 Proxima is also a good tractor, but this latest model is better designed and nicer to drive. You notice this in the cab as the visibility is far superior and the controls fall easier to hand.

We particularly like the roof window that means we can see the loader headstock when it’s lifted.

It’s also more compact and has a tighter turning circle, which makes a big difference when shunting around the yard and driving in and out of buildings. You need a field to turn the old Proxima in.

The gearbox is still a simple mechanical affair with 12 forward and 12 reverse gears, plus a manual shuttle lever.

It means we need to use the clutch for all direction changes, but this is light and the shifts are smooth compared with the old model.

© James Andrews

One Zetor feature we particularly like is the on-board compressor. This is handy for inflating tyres and means we don’t need to have a separate air line on the farm.

What could be improved?

The tractor cost us £44,000 brand new – a good £15,000 less than an equivalent John Deere – so we don’t have particularly high expectations.

Even so, for the price and spec level, there’s nothing we can think of that needs improving.

With a simple tractor, there are always more features you can add to make it nicer tor drive. However, as soon as you start doing this, you add more cost and introduce more things to go wrong.

Therefore, we resist the urge to add things like air conditioning and a more sophisticated transmission.

Would you have another?

Yes, we’re very likely to have another Zetor next time we come to change. We always like to have two tractors – one with a loader and one without – and we buy a new one every 10 years or so.

This keeps them reliable and means they’re still worth reasonable money when we come to trade them in.

The only reason we wouldn’t have another is if they suddenly became expensive or Smithfield Tractors stopped selling them.