Learn me about tractors

Geico266 said:
I've got a JD 5200 front wheel assist, with a loader & cab, no A/C:(. Tires filled with PC fluid. That thing will do anything including baling hay, big rounds weighing 1,000 pounds and running the JD535 big round bailer. 45HP. :yes:

Buy Green. :yes:

Paid $17K for it, still worth $12-15K.
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I use my Massey 65 to make squares and rounds. Use the skidsteer to pick hem up and stack them.
 
Geico266 said:
I've got a JD F935 with a 6' deck, and a 5' trail mower behind it. It cuts 11' swath! No! I'm not kidding!
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Yeah, that's REAL equipment, like my neighbor who runs cattle. He has both a 16' batwing bush hog and finish mower.

I just have hobby farm stuff, not the REAL stuff! :)
 
Three 2'+ blades, no idea how fast they were turning, never seemed to matter. They were the best at the time and very popular but may have been surpassed.
timwinters said:
It's all about blade tip speed, Wayne. I have my ZTR re-shieved and ramped up about 15%. Maximum allowable tip speed from the factory is 19,000 FPM (IIRC)...maybe 21,000...somewhere in there.

I could always mow "wide open" at 14mph but now I can do it in thicker grass without any skipping at all...as long as I keep the blades sharp.

I'd be willing to bet your 3pt mower is turning in the 14 to 16k range.
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Cmon guys, this isn't a 'who's is bigger?' thread, this is a what do I ask when I go see some elderly iron? I don't need to mow 10 feet at a time, or do the back 40 by lunch. I'm gonna post hole, grade, blade, and put up some iron for a building or two. I gotta dig a few trenches, replace a culvert, do a bit of trenching and mow 2 acres.

I just don't want to get stuck with something that is gonna need 3 gallons of hydro every week and won't lift more than 1200Lbs.
 
Old tractors are like old airplanes, except the owners care even less for them because break downs are certainly not life threatening. I have owned several old tractors, some new, and a couple in between.

Last ~$3500 tractor I bought was a MF 203 Industrial. It needed a PS pump when I bought it. I found a NOS one for $500, installed it, and in the first 5 seconds blew out all the dry rotted PS lines. Had a complete new set fabricated for $500. Installed them and discovered in the first few hours of use I had a clutch problem. Split the tractor, fixed the clutch, put it back together, still had a clutch problem. Split it again, found a bearing issue, fixed it. That was a lot of effort and money. Then I had an old POS tractor that was semi-serviceable, but no pleasure to operate.

IMO: Put that $3500 down on a good machine, something new or new used. Something quality like a JD, Kubota, etc. You will have a reliable machine that you will be able to get something done with on the weekend vs. working on it. They hold their value extremely well if you take care of them.
 
docmirror said:
Cmon guys, this isn't a 'who's is bigger?' thread, this is a what do I ask when I go see some elderly iron? I don't need to mow 10 feet at a time, or do the back 40 by lunch. I'm gonna post hole, grade, blade, and put up some iron for a building or two. I gotta dig a few trenches, replace a culvert, do a bit of trenching and mow 2 acres.

I just don't want to get stuck with something that is gonna need 3 gallons of hydro every week and won't lift more than 1200Lbs.
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So far the machines you have come up with in your budget equipped to do the job are end of life units that will have you scrounging the junk yards for parts every couple of months. Tractors as airplanes or anything else are impossible to qualify from an advertisement, and as with airplanes, for every dollar you save by purchasing an end of life machine you will spend $1.50 in parts and labor in the future. If you have a hard budget of $3500, buy the Massey, since it has a bucket it already has a pump, and hopefully it has a gas engine. Parts are still pretty available for them and aren't unreasonable and they aren't hard to work on until you have to split them.
 
Alexb2000 said:
IMO: Put that $3500 down on a good machine, something new or new used. Something quality like a JD, Kubota, etc. You will have a reliable machine that you will be able to get something done with on the weekend vs. working on it. They hold their value extremely well if you take care of them.
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Good advice there. When I was younger, had our first "farm", and had a bunch of junk equipment, my wife was fond to say "you work on your equipment more than you use it".

I still had lots of fun but many days I didn't get much done.
 
docmirror said:
What's not to like? No road use tax, cleaner burn, easy to find.
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I've never owned one so I don't know for sure but it seems like they'd be a pain to keep "fueled".

Don't see many of 'em...I always assumed there was a reason.
 
docmirror said:
Cmon guys, this isn't a 'who's is bigger?' thread, this is a what do I ask when I go see some elderly iron? I don't need to mow 10 feet at a time, or do the back 40 by lunch. I'm gonna post hole, grade, blade, and put up some iron for a building or two. I gotta dig a few trenches, replace a culvert, do a bit of trenching and mow 2 acres.

I just don't want to get stuck with something that is gonna need 3 gallons of hydro every week and won't lift more than 1200Lbs.
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Hey, I'm the King of Obsolete. But it's all paid for, and gets the job done.

The weak link on those JD's are the hydraulic pumps, and they aren't cheap. Find somebody with a flow tester before you stroke the check, or get it good and warmed up and lift something very heavy repeatedly.
 
Henning said:
LP is ok, it's a gasoline engine with a LP regulator either blowing through the carb or direct into the induction through a metering valve. It runs nice and clean, but uses more fuel and has less power.
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Right, this is something I'm gonna run on wknds, around the lake plot. If it only puts out 36 of it's 40HP I can live with that. About the only thing I'll need much torque for is the auger, and it's not like I'm in a big hurry.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Hey, I'm the King of Obsolete. But it's all paid for, and gets the job done.

The weak link on those JD's are the hydraulic pumps, and they aren't cheap. Find somebody with a flow tester before you stroke the check, or get it good and warmed up and lift something very heavy repeatedly.
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Sweet. This is what I'm looking for. I'm supposing this one has the weak pump and will negotiate based on that.
 
timwinters said:
I've never owned one so I don't know for sure but it seems like they'd be a pain to keep "fueled".

Don't see many of 'em...I always assumed there was a reason.
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Same guy that comes around to fill your propane tank at home fills it, have to plan ahead a bit is all. My main qualm is you lose a lot of power.
 
Alexb2000 said:
IMO: Put that $3500 down on a good machine, something new or new used. Something quality like a JD, Kubota, etc. You will have a reliable machine that you will be able to get something done with on the weekend vs. working on it. They hold their value extremely well if you take care of them.
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or, buy a $3500 POS tractor, and go through it stem to stern and rebuild it for another $4k. Parts are generally available, and when you're done you'll have a solid machine at a fraction of the cost of new that will last another 50 years if you take care of it, and probably be more trouble free than a new one as well, though not as comfortable.
But there is no cheap way out.
 
docmirror said:
Right, this is something I'm gonna run on wknds, around the lake plot. If it only puts out 36 of it's 40HP I can live with that. About the only thing I'll need much torque for is the auger, and it's not like I'm in a big hurry.
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If you're in TX clay, you won't be in a hurry anyway. I called the electric coop guys out with their post hole truck after I did 2 of the 86 post holes for my fencing, they did the rest in half the time it took me to do the first 2 with a three point auger. I'd still go with the Massey over the Deere though.
 
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docmirror said:
Sweet. This is what I'm looking for. I'm supposing this one has the weak pump and will negotiate based on that.
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Be forewarned. JD parts are very, very spendy. Make friends with a good machinist, he'll be worth his weight in gold. Not sure if he JD has a two stage clutch or not. If you're going to be running a 3 pt auger, you'll want to be sure it's got some life left.
 
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Chip Sylverne said:
Be forewarned. JD parts are very, very spendy. Make friends with a good machinist, he'll be worth his weight in gold.
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Yeah, as I added in the edit, I'd go with the Massey over the Deere. JD is real proud of their parts, and they are also the worst on fuel.
 
I bought a 19 hp Diesel tractor with 48" tiller and now I am having difficulties finding category 0 bush hog.
 
Tony_Scarpelli said:
I bought a 19 hp Diesel tractor with 48" tiller and now I am having difficulties finding category 0 bush hog.
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Yep, that's the problem with all the big garden tractors, it's not really made to run a bush hog, it doesn't have the balls. What you can do is get a mower deck and adapt a PTO drive to it.
 
docmirror said:
Sweet. This is what I'm looking for. I'm supposing this one has the weak pump and will negotiate based on that.
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Sounds like you've made up your mind, so I'll try and be constructive:

I would also check that JD 2010 transmission very carefully. If I recall correctly those have a not real well regarded synchro range transmission. Check the prices on those little clutch disks and transmission parts. Assuming you can split the tractor and do the work yourself there are a lot of $500 parts in there. Who knows if you can even get them if you need them, the machine is ~50 years old.
 
Alexb2000 said:
Sounds like you've made up your mind, so I'll try and be constructive:
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Oh no, not even close. I have a fair amount of work to do, and I'm not stuck on anything by a long shot. Still learning. I'm leaning toward a Massy, a Fergie(early MF, without Massey), or a Deere just because they are still making parts. My neighbor has a Yanmar and he's pretty happy with it. It's newer of course, and it does what he needs but it's kinda smallish. I'm thinking about the buy cheap and fix up like I usually do. I'm not interested in putting in a clutch my first month with the machine so I'm gonna check that out real careful.
 
I'd suggest you go into a local implement dealer and talk to the PARTS guy, not a salesman. More than likely he'll give you the straight dope on an old tractor that won't bend you over too bad. He might even have one on the lot, but you don't have to buy it.

Just go in when they're slow, like in the winter. He'll talk to you, and point you in the right direction.

Keep in mind, some tractors are "regional," like the propane tractor you are looking at. There are even some that run on LNG. If the fuel was cheap in the target market, some of the tractor companies made then to sell there. You might not live in an area where you could run an "alternate" fuel as cheaply as gas or diesel.

Another thing you might look at are some of the "orphan" makes, like Oliver or Minneapolis-Moline. You might be surprised at the parts support for a company that has been out of business for 40 years.

Oliver is "green" as well, for all the folks that have been telling you to buy a green one.
 
Okay now this is something I know about as I own a produce ranch. Look for a MF165 or even a Ford Powermaster 861. I work about fourteen acres and those two tractors are all I used for a long time.
 
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We're pretty happy with our two little Kubotas. They are pushing 30 years old, but they get the job done and have been fairly hassle free.

Both are B7100's and both have f/e loaders. One has a back hoe on the back the other gets swapped out with a 5' snow blade or the gas powered mower or the tank sprayer or a snow thrower or a rake or the tiller thingie.

The multi use one lives full time with chains on the wheels. Its too much of a PITA to install them when the snow starts falling, and it helps with traction in the orchard (its on a hillside).
 
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DeeG said:
We're pretty happy with our two little Kubotas. They are pushing 20 years old, but they get the job done and have been fairly hassle free.

Both are B7100's and both have f/e loaders. One has a back hoe on the back the other gets swapped out with a 5' snow blade or the gas powered mower or the tank sprayer or a snow thrower or a rake or the tiller thingie.

The multi use one lives full time with chains on the wheels. Its too much of a PITA to install them when the snow starts falling, and it helps with traction in the orchard (its on a hillside).
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Doubt one is in the $3500 budget, but yeah, I like the Kubotas as well.
 
Henning said:
Doubt one is in the $3500 budget, but yeah, I like the Kubotas as well.
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No, they're closer to $9,000. Impressive that they've held that kind of value, I think Pete paid $12,000 for the backhoe and 10,000 for the other one about 16 years ago.
 
docmirror said:
How about the 135?

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=7734703

Nice tires in back, and a weird loader.
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That would make a fine machine too. However there are plenty of 165's out there for decent prices and they can handle the heavy and light work no problem. I suggest going diesel if you're going with Massey Ferguson. Now, the Ford 861 is typically gas powered and is a little hot rod tractor when tuned just right. Easy to work on and very cheap to fix.
 
KRyan said:
I'd suggest you go into a local implement dealer and talk to the PARTS guy, not a salesman. More than likely he'll give you the straight dope on an old tractor that won't bend you over too bad. He might even have one on the lot, but you don't have to buy it.
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Yeah, I'm gonna go talk with a tractor guy I know. He does leasing and sales but mostly big, big stuff. Maybe he's got a POS around the lot or knows of one, and he'll steer me right.
 
Wow man the more I look at those prices the more I like the 135 you linked me. Honestly man take it from a guy with plenty of time working in the fields. Stick with Massey Ferguson or Ford, watch out for any noises coming from the hydraulic pumps or bouncing lift arms on the older Fords. That bounce means the pump is leaking and losing pressure and thought not super costly will mean specific skills for repair. I love the diesels for the low end torque and fuel efficiency. But if you have a smaller plot or aren't doing super heavy work the gas will be just up your alley. As you can tell I LOVE tractors.
 
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