Tractor help

[Knocker of rocks]

Nice photo

[Fishstiq]

Get a tractor with calcium in the tires, makes a huge difference if you are used to a farm tractor.  We have a 24 horse, would have liked a bigger one but not practical for tight squeezes.  I had a bit of adjusting to do after growing up on a farm and driving the "real thing" then going to a "garden" tractor.  We use ours a lot and it is enough for the most part.

How so?   

[Knocker of rocks]

Some nice old tractors in Snohomish.  A restored Deere 420 crawler, a poorly maintained and modified Windolph and a Taylor.

Windolph's were a small dozer built in Oregon in the fourties and fifties.  It was powered by a Briggs.  Struck Magnadozer's are similar and still being built in Wisconsin.

The Taylor was designed in America and built in China in the late 70's or early 80's.  Taylor was apparently  the direct precursor of the small Rino-Tytan-Montana-Nortac-Yuchai inexpensive sub-forty HP dozers still being imported into America.

[Skillet]

Grey market machines aren't all bad.  You just better know what you're getting into before you buy one.  I learned the hard way with a little Kubota B6000.  Awesome machine, but it is one of three total imported models that has the PTO that spins counter clockwise... I got a factory tiller with it and that's the job I bought it for, though, so it's all good.

The second, larger grey market tractor I bought I researched the daylights out of and made sure it was as "standard" as possible and that parts are available.  It is a Yanmar YM2020D.  20 PTO HP and the PowerShift trans (3 shuttle shift gear ranges and a 4 speed gear box).
 



Had a front loader installed, and it does a great job pulling a 4 ft brushhog, as 6' back blade, a 52" wide rototiller, a 14" single bottom 3pt plow, etc., etc.  It was a very common model and I have parts sources (as noted above, not your local Yanmar dealer!) for nearly everything I need to fix on it if it ever comes to that.

If you got that route, one thing to be cautious of is an older Yanmar with a shiny new paint job and ridiculously low hours on the meter.  That is likely a Viet Nam refurbished unit.  Run, don't walk, away from those machines.

[PolarBear]

I have a 1952 Ford 8n with a heavy duty loader and I can do more with it than my uncle with his brand new Deere of similar size plus the metal on my 8n is twice as thick and durable compared to the Deere.  There is no telling how many thousands of yards of dirt, rocks, stumps, whatever that I have moved with that thing.  The best part is that you can basically rebuild the damn thing yourself in the field!  It is as simple as it gets and a dream to work on.  Save yourself a bunch of $$ and find an old tractor but whatever you do make sure it has a good hydraulic loader.  IMO, a tractor without a loader is useless unless all you plan to do is plow.  Stay as far away from rice patty tractors.  The orange and green tractors have really gone down hill in quality over the past few years.  My neighbor has 3 newer Kubotas but hates them all and is looking at a Massey.

[Skillet]

Tend to agree with Polarbear with one exception.  I am an old iron fan myself and came a hair's breadth from buying an 8N.  BUT, if you plan on doing any rototilling, the 8N's ground speed is just too fast relative to the PTO speed, even with an aftermarket Sherman 12 speed (Hi-Low) gear box.  Howard made a gearbox for the 8N that allowed the PTO speed to stay up while the ground speed was reduced, but they weren't the most durable gear box and are very expensive, even if you can find one.  I also like a shuttle shift gear trans for front loader work over a straight manual trans.

For most everything else other than , though, the 8N is a great route to go.  Burns a little more fuel per HP hour, but unless you're doing full production work on a farm and running it hard and often, I don't think the difference between diesel and gas is too much to worry about.

[PolarBear]

 

[Skillet]

Get a tractor with calcium in the tires, makes a huge difference if you are used to a farm tractor.  We have a 24 horse, would have liked a bigger one but not practical for tight squeezes.  I had a bit of adjusting to do after growing up on a farm and driving the "real thing" then going to a "garden" tractor.  We use ours a lot and it is enough for the most part.

How so?   

Increases traction significantly.  Also acts as a counterbalance if you're doing front loader work.  Hell on the grass, though...

[Knocker of rocks]

  

Can also make it less tippy on a side slope.  A three point ballast box is also good.

[PolarBear]

Yeah, that's another must have, especially with a loader!  They sure give you a lot more diggin' power!

[Knocker of rocks]

Two wheel drives can have dangerous braking if the rear gets light going down hill, because only the rear has brakes.  Four wheel drives have mechanical braking on all wheels when in four wheel drive.

But I can run my 950 all day long in 2WD and only touch the brakes when I park it.

A ROPS is nice if you have hills

[Knocker of rocks]

the 8N's ground speed is just too fast relative to the PTO speed, even with an aftermarket Sherman 12 speed (Hi-Low) gear box. 

I looked up those old Ford's on tractordata.  Boy, they were fast (relatively) in first-low.  I do all my brush hogging at less than 2 mph, I wonder how that would work with a 8N?

[Skillet]

the 8N's ground speed is just too fast relative to the PTO speed, even with an aftermarket Sherman 12 speed (Hi-Low) gear box. 

I looked up those old Ford's on tractordata.  Boy, they were fast (relatively) in first-low.  I do all my brush hogging at less than 2 mph, I wonder how that would work with a 8N?

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/2/223-ford-8n-transmission.html

Great info on the 8N's there.  I've seen plenty of 8n's pulling brush hogs, so it can be done - but at a much faster pace than your preferred 2mph. 

[Knocker of rocks]

but at a much faster pace than your preferred 2mph.

 

[PolarBear]

I run a 5' brush hog behind my 8-N and do fine with it.  It does go a little fast but not bad.  I use it for mowing pastures so speed isn't a real factor.