Ford 2N with funk flat 6?

[MDCII]

Hi all

This is my second post since finding this forum. Long story short but will try and explain. I am looking to get the real low down on these tractors. I live in NY and recently bought our first home with 22 acres. I bought a new garden tractor for mowing around the house, but here we have about a 17 acre field wildly overgrown. Long term plans are to build a barn and put some horses out there but for now some maintanance and not so heavy field work. A lot of these tractors are for sale a lot and for a reasonable price. In doing research you here people either love them or hate them. "Under powered " is a big one and then lack of live PTO and no power steering come up frequently. So I found this tractor locally (never heard of these) and saw the added power and what have you. I guess my question would be that all I'm looking to do with it is brush hog, cultivate, and maybe plow some snow. What I love is the readily available parts, and the fact that I'm
Mechanical makes these tractors to me desirable.

What is the overall consensus on these rigs? Worth the time. Like I said price seems good and machine is in wonderul shape.
Thanks a lot for the input.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

The sherman funk six cyl was an industrial or ford truck engine. parts are still around but higher price than 9n/2n/8n parts. Here a shot of my 8n funk when I bought it home.

 

[MDCII]

The sherman funk six cyl was an industrial or ford truck engine. parts are still around but higher price than 9n/2n/8n parts. Here a shot of my 8n View attachment 414561funk when I bought it home.

Thank you for the reply. I guess what else I was hoping to get at is will this tractor work for the work I'm looking to do? Brush clearing , cultivating etc. And also with the more HP is this capable of working larger implements? Or is the PTO the same?
Really appreciate the advice. Very new to tractors and this will be my first large tractor.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

It is 95hp so you can use a brushog(with an ORC) drag some cultivators. It's still a 2n which will just give you 3 speeds unless equipped with a sherman trans and you won't have position control like the 8n and later models.
Here is some info.

Kirk

 

[DJ54]

A local farmer years ago put the Funk 6 cyl. conversion on his 8N. He wanted to move up to a 3 plow tractor, instead of two, and apparently, this was a cheaper option than a new 3 plow tractor. Ended up shearing ring gear bolts/rivets twice, then traded for a new tractor. That tractor, even though repaired to sell on the dealers lot, sat there for probably 10-15 years. Probably so long, it became a collector's item.

I'm thinking the same thing will happen, running 95 hp through a pto shaft designed for 23 hp. Even with a slip clutch on a rotary cutter, and trying to tame a wildly overgrown field, spells disaster for the next weakest link.

I believe I'd spend my money on something a little bigger, with independent pto & power steering, as some day you may realize how handy it is to have a loader on the tractor.

Just my opinion, take it for what it's worth.

 

[MDCII]

I reay appreciate all of the advice. This is what I was looking for. I don't pretend to know a lot about these tractors, in fact this'll be my first large tractor so I don't want to make a decision that I will regret.

 

[Kirk-NJ]

I agree and for want he wants for that funk you could get a better more suitable tractor for your needs like a ford 600/601, 800/801, 2000/4000

Kirk

 

[coss]

A good rule of thumb is that you should have 5 HP at the PTO for every 1 foot of bush hog diameter. Clearly, the Funk engine will drive a bush hog.

However, the tractor will not easily take more than a 5 foot bush hog because the front end will lift up from the weight of larger units. It can be pretty scary to lose control of the tractor while going up hill when the bush hog is spinning.

Another issue is gearing. The Ford Ns are geared pretty high. A field that hasn't been cut in 4-5 years will be thick enough that you may wish you had a slower gear when chewing through the brush, not to mention when ducking under tree branches along the edges of fields.

Conclusion: the Ns are fine for bush hogging in recently-cut fields and with no more than a 5 foot cutter. For your application, you might want a heavier, more powerful tractor.