What was the most economical 100 h.p. plus or minus tractor you owned?

[Soundguy]

Ford 5000 you know what they say there's a ford in everyone's life Thank God there was only one,and it sucked down some fuel. .

Was your 5000 a gasser or diesel? I hear the gassers were extra thirsty.


If yuo want fuel efficiency.. get a deutz

soundguy

 

[kenstrac]

Ford 5000 w/256 diesel in the winter you could hear the dogs bark (Thermo-start ) real hard starting in cold weather there was always something wrong with this tractor Fix Or Repair Daily. When I got rid of the tractor it had about 1100 hrs on it.

 

[DanD78]

Dan, you couldn't have compared that to many other tractors for the fuel. Local's here often joke about needing a fuel trailer behind those. It is one of the best that jd has built for relaibilty.

I must retract the good on fuel part. I do recall that when we ran the 4020 and 4320 hard pulling plows you had to fuel at lunch time. I think they only held just a little over 30 gallons to start with. We now use a 4020D with a woods mower and run an auger. Both are pretty light duty compaired to a mowbord plow. They do better with fuel at the lighter loads. We never have had problems with shifting, stearing, fuel in oil. They had a diesel smell that was all their own. I was a teenager when the 4020 was brought to the farm and have only been exposed to Deere products for production work.

Dan

 

[Kfbeal]

I grew up on Allis-Chalmers and the D-17 was probably the most fuel efficient. We used it for square baling. The next was probably our 8030 (130hp) that would run 2 days while handling a 6-row row-disc (hipper) or Leihman (sp) plow.

Our A/C 180 was fairly good also.

I own a JD 5103 (50hp) now and can run for weeks/months on what I do with it. I've cut and raked 20 acres of hay and burned a little over a 1/4 tank of diesel. It's much easier on the pocketbook putting 14 gallons or so in it compared to 50-60 on the big HP tractors.

 

[Soundguy]

Ford 5000 w/256 diesel in the winter you could hear the dogs bark (Thermo-start ) real hard starting in cold weather there was always something wrong with this tractor Fix Or Repair Daily. When I got rid of the tractor it had about 1100 hrs on it.

As with any mechanical device.. you get an abused or poorly maintained one.. and it will cause you grief. My well used.. but halfway decently maintained 5000 has about 6k hours on it... if the battery is charged.. she starts. no thermostart. she's a late 75 common sump model like the 5600, and has the 256 diesel.. etc.

soundguy

 

[mudking]

This doesn't just mean fuel costs but operating costs also. I'm interested in tractors that were out of warranty that didn't break the bank.

Case International 5140.

 

[Thumper & Buttercup]

Ours has been our IH1066 but we have only had her 14 years, nothing major done, but we got her with a major overhaul having only 125 hours on her.

 

[kenstrac]

As with any mechanical device.. you get an abused or poorly maintained one.. and it will cause you grief. My well used.. but halfway decently maintained 5000 has about 6k hours on it... if the battery is charged.. she starts. no thermostart. she's a late 75 common sump model like the 5600, and has the 256 diesel.. etc.

soundguy

I bought the Ford 5000 tractor at a state auction clock showed under 300 hrs on it ,the tractor was and appeared to be in excellent condition.no one at auction could give me any info on it .One day about 2-3 weeks later a mechanic that works for the state was driving by and saw it parked next to my shop and stopped and said so your the one who bought that nightmare. yes indeed it had under 300hrs on it they had the dealer out here many times while it was under warranty and after the year was up the state was working on it and they had enough ,and got rid of it.as far as abused and not maintained that does not apply furthermore I hope you are not implying that i don't take care of my equipment .all my equipment is well taken care of all services were done on time and oil and filter changes as well as the UTO were changed at least once a year .Mower knives in all thee M/C were changed every spring, Balers were at the beginning of season and at the end ,all equipment surfaces were sprayed with old oil. I could not afford a breakdown in haying season ,and as far as your tractor starting with a fully charged battery I should hope so since your located in Fla.

BTW this tractor started after sitting for 4 mos.after I cleaned it off and the thermostart never worked Long 445

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I bought the Ford 5000 tractor at a state auction clock showed under 300 hrs on it ,the tractor was and appeared to be in excellent condition.no one at auction could give me any info on it .One day about 2-3 weeks later a mechanic that works for the state was driving by and saw it parked next to my shop and stopped and said so your the one who bought that nightmare. yes indeed it had under 300hrs on it they had the dealer out here many times while it was under warranty and after the year was up the state was working on it and they had enough ,and got rid of it.as far as abused and not maintained that does not apply furthermore I hope you are not implying that i don't take care of my equipment .all my equipment is well taken care of all services were done on time and oil and filter changes as well as the UTO were changed at least once a year .Mower knives in all thee M/C were changed every spring, Balers were at the beginning of season and at the end ,all equipment surfaces were sprayed with old oil. I could not afford a breakdown in haying season ,and as far as your tractor starting with a fully charged battery I should hope so since your located in Fla.

BTW this tractor started after sitting for 4 mos.after I cleaned it off and the thermostart never worked Long 445

I bought a NEW Ford 5000 diesel in 1974. It was one of the late model versions. I had previously bought a new 3000 gasser. The 3000 proved to be a decent tractor, although, it was the most cold natured tractor I've ever been around. The 5000 started off as a decent tractor. I got a couple seasons of uninterupted use out of it. Then the issues started piling up. Power steering leaks. Seat suspension collapsed. REar axle seals started leaking. Radiator leaks, balky hydraulics.... All "small problems", but problems none the less. I THOUGHT I needed more power, so I installed an M&W turbo kit and cranked the fuel screw out. She went from 67 hp to 105! That lasted about a year. While plowing, the rear flange snapped off the crankshaft. While that problem wasn't of Fords doings, the other issues were. 5000's were among the best tractors Ford ever built, UNLESS.......you happened to get a dud.

During the late 60's/early 70's, Ford was pushing out a LOT of mid sized tractors. Their quality control level slipped a notch. There were plenty of really good tractors sold, but enough "mistakes" slipped through to discourage a lot of small farmers from continuing to buy from Ford. Their quality wasn't poor, but it WAS inconsistant. If you got one of the "good" 5000's, you were happy. If you got one of the lemons, your NEXT tractor wasn't blue. Ford had a HUGE share of the market in this area during the 50's and 60's. During the 70's and 80's, it took a nose dive. They've battled back on the shoulders of a couple really strong dealers in this area. Due to the nature of farming in this area, 40 to 75 hp tractors have always been big sellers. (Tobacco farming/beef cattle production/relatively small farm size) That was a big market for Ford in this area at that point in time. Simular problems have effected just about every brand at one time or another.

I sold the 5000 and bought a John Deere as a replacement, That Deere is still with me today.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have to say that of the old 1960-70s the IH 806 was probably the most dependable and fuel efficient tractor of the day. I was just the driver and not the owner at the time, but we worked those tractors literally day and nightshift only shutting down for fuel. Oil consumption was about 1-2 quarts per day under heavy load which was about par for all tractors back then. THe owner never changed the oil, just the filter and kept them rolling 12 hours on a tank of fuel (I seem to remember this being about 40 gallons) and running wide open all day and night with only a stop for a 20 minute lunch. They were never in the shop at all in the 4 years that I worked after school and summers. Being that they were my BIL's family I knew how they held up and what kind of poor maintenance they go, but they were just like the Timex, they took their licking and kept on ticking. They were farming over 4000 acres in rowcrop with 2 806's, 2 706's and a G1000 Minneapolis Moline (what a diesel gussler that thing was) so they were rolling all the time.