Hey I figured if I'm gonna farm I need a tractor.
I can't and don't want to afford new, so I'm looking around for a good used one.
I like Fords. John Deere is good, but they are priced too high used (and new) if you ask me. I know nothing about Mahadra, Case, Massey Ferguson, Kubota, or International Harvester
I have a couple of really old John Deere (A and B) tractors that I thought about fixing up, but I'm afraid time is a factor, and I need something up and running within the next year. In case you think that is plenty of time, well, it isn't. I travel for work about 85% of the time currently, so a fixer-upper isn't something I can fit in my schedule.
Can anyone reading this give some advice on this matter? Specifically I would like for you to speak of equipment you've either owned or currently own. Talk about problems, maintenance, pluses, minuses, equipment options, whatever.
Also does anyone know if the older tractors have a problem with the ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel). The reason I ask is because I had to make some repairs to my old 1996 Ford F250 powerstroke due to the ULSD eating away at the seals that weren't spec'd for it.
Thanks.
Two piers poured
3 hours ago
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12 comments:
The first thing you have to consider is what you are planning to do with your tractor.
One of the tractors I use is a 1982? John Deere 950. It has a 27 hp. 3 cyl diesel engine, a frontend loader, a brushhog, a boxblade, and a post hole digger. I have a 3-pt. Bale spike I built for it that I can “almost” lift and move a round bale with (if I have enough weight in the bucket).
It is useful for a lot of odd jobs like mowing, or building fences (digging holes, pulling posts, grading), and it fits on an equipment trailer. It doesn’t use much fuel (I use it to pull an 8 ft. haybine and can cut about 12 acres of hay with about 3-4 gallons of diesel). And, if I ever happen to ruin a tire while brushhogging by running over a stump or old fencepost, it would be much cheaper to replace than the tire on a larger tractor.
But I don’t know if I would buy one unless I got a deal, it only has about 1200 hrs. on it and it seems like a lot of stuff has broken on it so far (although it has been relatively easy to fix and hasn’t been pampered).
Our other tractors are a pair of IH 1586 tractors that are over 30 years old. They are about 160 hp (when new), one has dual rear tires, and one has a loader.
The one with duals is mainly used to pull an 8-row planter or a grain drill (since we went to no-till, little tillage occurs anymore).
The tractor with the loader is mainly used for baling and feeding hay.
Both tractors are easily adaptable to either type of usage and can be switched around if needed by removing or installing rear tires or swapping the loader around (in case anything mechanical ever happens to one and we need a tractor ‘right now’ to finish planting or baling).
Both tractors needed cosmetic and mechanical work when we first got them, but they were affordable and probably cost less combined (including repairs) than a newer smaller used tractor.
Depending on what angle you look at them, they can be ugly as sin sometimes, but they get the job done and were paid for a long time ago. We could easily sell them for more than we have invested in them and if I ever got ambitious I could easily “pretty” them up with some new paint and interior work. If I wanted to overhaul the engine or transmission, we could keep them running for a long time for much less money than buying another tractor.
We do have somewhere to work on tractors, a little experience (that only comes from jumping in and fixing them though), and enough tools to work on them ourselves, so that is something to consider before you buy an older tractor.
Figure out what you plan to do with your tractors, and then learn how to fix and/or modify them to suit your farm.
Our diesel is stored in storage tanks on the farm and a cetane booster is added to the tank when the fuel is delivered. It is supposed to help a little with the low sulfur problems, but I can’t tell for sure if it helps or not.
We splurged a little and got a gently used massey ferguson from a dealer nearby. We've had it for 2.5 years, no trouble so far. We're glad we got it from a dealer so close to us. Being new farmers, we (okay, I) made mistakes such as turning way too tightly while bush hogging and running over the hydraulic lines! The repair guys came right out. Thanks for putting us on your farm crawl!
I'm with Rich, it depends on what you will do with it.
If all you are doing is brush hogging, you can do it with an older tractor without a loader. If you need live hydraulics for some of your equipment, or live PTO (so you can run a 3-point tiller for example) you won't be able to use a stock Ford 8N, 9N, or Ferguson TO-20 (what I have). If you need/want a front loader, you'll want a tractor with power steering. If you are using diesel vs unleaded, that will impact your choices as well.
Mine is a 1948 TO-20. On the plus side, there are parts readily available for most everything, it is small enough to be convenient but big enough to get a lot of work done with it, and doesn't burn too awful much in gas. It has a 3-point lift, which will hook right up to the vast majority of smallish farm implements made in the past 50+ years. Also, if you upgrade the tractor at a future time, all those 3-point implements can be used on the next one. So, as Rich said, it really boils down to figuring out what you will be frequently using it for. For the rare needs, you could consider rental equipment, too (i.e., skidsteer).
All,
Well I think I mainly just need a good utility tractor for starters. Something with hydraulics. A live PTO would be almost a necessity.
The front-end loader, hay fork, bushhog attachments would all come in handy too.
I think I'll be needing something with around 30 hp, maybe a little more.
Thanks for the ideas and comments!
Kelly,
I read that you guys rented a seed drill from your county to plant some of your cover crops. What is the HP of your tractor? I understand that the seed drills HP requirements can be high.
From here:
Pull-type no-till drills usually require about 5 to 7 horsepower per foot of drill capacity. ... No-till drills pull slightly harder than conventional drills, but the rolling resistance of a tractor operating on firm soil is much less than on tilled soil.
When you are trying to figure out how much horsepower it is going to take to pull different types of equipment, it is much better to err on the side of too much horsepower.
If the spec sheets say that you need 5-7 hp, figure on 7-10 hp. You will have much less wear and tear on your tractor, use less fuel, and less wear on tear on you when you are using the tractor (you wouldn't believe how exhausted you can get when you are pushing equipment to its limits).
Sometimes the best deals for a farm tractor can be the mid-sized tractor that is too big for acreage users and not big enough for large farms. When I say mid-sized, I'm talking about something around 60-75 hp (or on up to 100+ hp). As a plus, used equipment (disc, plow, chisel plow, box blade) to go with a mid-size tractor can sometimes sell for less than smaller equipment and will last much longer because it is heavier duty.
OK well it sounds like I might want to investigate getting a larger tractor at some point in order to accomplish everything I would like to accomplish.
In the meantime I can probably get by with a smaller utility tractor for general farm chores, and once things get ramped up a bit move on to something with more "oomph".
Steven,
I believe our tractor has 70 hp, and the seed drill we rented from the county needs a tractor with at least 60.
New to your blog and I thought this would be good comment to introduce myself.
I have used a 1979 Case David Brown 995 since I was a toddler. Absolutely love that tractor. It is 45hp (ish) with a 3-point class 3(maybe) rear hydraulic system, external hydraulics, front end loader, and 59hp PTO. It has all the bells and whistles (but no cab). It is a diesel and an absolute monster but extremely efficient.
I would definitely recommend one if you find one. Being diesel they can be a major pain to start in the winter if you dont start once a week.
Since working with this tractor (26 yrs) I have only had to replace the FEL hydraulic seals (1 hr job) and had to have the injectors and fuel pump rebuilt after trying biodiesel.
A word of caution, if you plan to ever use biodiesel, you must clean your fuel system on an old tractor first. The biodiesel is so good at cleaning out your fuel system and depositing all the junk in your fuel pump it can get costly quick.
As for the low sulfur diesel We use what ever comes out of the pump and have had no problems with the engine.
Good luck with the tractor hunting. I also have heard good things about the Massie-Ferguson tractors.
If you do get up this way this Fall you'll get a chance to see our Tractor. It's a 1971 Ford (54HP) I think. It had been well looked after by a mechanic & although old, works well. It does have a PTO on the back & we have the auger & brush hog attachments. Next item to buy is the hay spike so we can life round bales rather than just lugging square bales everywhere! We paid $4500 for ours which was a great deal - or so we thought.
Thought of you when I heard this talk - very cool concept called Open-source Ecology designed by Marcin Jakubowski.
He is working on creating do-it-yourself designs for
50 essential machines for civilization, called the Global Village Construction set.
Check it out:
http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski.html
Http://opensourceecology.org
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