Tractor Ownership Cycle

[MFRED]

I tend to agree with long term ownership, however I don't believe most tractors sold today will still be working 60 years from now as many old tractors are. Todays tractors are far more complex than the tractors of yesteryear and I think that will shorten their usefull life. That being said I think they have a much longer life span than auto's, I think most will get electrical or electronic problems long befor they wear out. My 1941 Farmall has 5 nessesary wires, 1 to the magneto to ground it out, and 4 to the plugs, all the rest are for convenience, and they are the most aggrevating parts on the tractor.

Depending on what variation of model you get, about the same can be said for a newer one.
If one buys a manual shift,diesel tractor, 1 wire for the fuel shut off, 1 loop for the safety switches & a couple wires to charge, depending on the set-up. All the extra stuff is lights, power shift, power shuttle control, some dummy lights. I've seen compact tractors with 5,000 hours on them with little to no trouble.
The more stuff you put on them, the more potential for problems.
Hour for hour, I would be willing to bet they will last as long.

 

[Thomas]

For me depends care of my land.
Many years I had 2WD tractors each 2 to 4 years,than decided 4WD w/fel plus goodies..had for 15+years,still would have little mule but Mrs. thought I should have
something bigger.

Seems once you get to know tractor many decide to sell/trade..which is another mans treasure.

 

[Egon]

It may all depend on how many hours and how essential it is to have it running for specific jobs.:thumbsup:

 

[Soundguy]

i think you may find this is more of a per person deal vs a trend.

I keep my vehicles till they are past -0- KBB value.. and then some.. then usually sell em for a few hundred bucks to get em off the insurance.

and tractors.. um.. not doing too good! I buy em.. but don't sell em.. just keep adding on to the barn..

so if yer makin' a database.. i'm skewin' yer results..

soundguy

Just wondering, I usually trade my vehicles in every 5-6 years and was wondering about how ownerhip cylces on tractors are. I know some folks have pretty old tractors-not just as collectors items but the still use them.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I think you see a lot of used compact tractors with few hours because some folks get the hankering for a tractor that really dont have a lasting need for one. They complete a task and the tractor sets around for a while with only a few hours on it and they finally figure out that it is costing them money to look at it. You can find the same thing with Motorcycles and boats. Then they decide to sell them and want what they gave for them which is usually why the used price is about the price of new. You have to ignore those sells as just bad judgement calls on the purchaser. High acreage farmers today seem to prefer to lease a tractor and replace them every 2-3 years so there is never any repair cost outside of warranty. This makes good business sense for lots of folks just like leasing a car. None of this ever suited me, so I buy with the idea of holding on till it no longer works or too expensive to maintain. With cars that usually means at least 10 years, tractors, I dont know, still counting. Back when I still worked the farm, that usually meant that it stayed till we outgrew the HP and moved up to bigger tractor. I dont think we ever sold one outright till Dad retired and got rid of everything.

 

[Ford tractor]

Commercial farmers (not us hobby types) will trade off small tractors (50-75hp) when they hit 6-8000 hours. That's 3-5 years for most. If machines start to act up before then, they are deemed "unreliable", traded off and that supplier may be shunned for a buying cycle or two.

Commercial users expect the machine to function all day every day with just the listed maintenance done on schedule. They trade them off before they break because accountants tell them that the cost benefit curve (taking into account lost productivity) goes negative. The cost of lost production may exceed the cost of repair and in extreme cases even the cost of the machine.

The mechanism of failure a commercial user sees isn't necessarily what we will see either. They see breakage, defects and weak designs and get rid of them before wear needs to corrected. Our machines that are very lightly used for 30 years will see more wear out and part degeneration. Hoses getting soft, antifreeze not doing what it's supposed to, rust, leaks, electrical stuff dying, etc.


I've got old machines 40-50 years old and new under 10 years. No real hard data, but I suspect equipment reliability is inversely related to the length of wires they contain.

As far as ownership cycles, some folks do trade off tractors like they were cars. The newest model comes out with better this and that, so they get it. Nothing wrong with that, wish I had the spare change to do it myself...

 

[ShenandoahJoe]

I usually trade my vehicles in every 5-6 years...

I'm another of those "buy it used and run it till it drops" guys. Let me say that I'm glad people like you exist. It takes both kinds to make the world go 'round.

 

[Soundguy]

ditto that. I especially like the guys that buy it.. take excelent care of it.. sell it in 3-6 ys still in awesome condition, perhaps evenupgraded.. eat all the markup for me, and then let me buy it for dimes on the dollar used, and then run it 10+ more years till it is truly worthless

soundguy

 

[deputy11]

Sometimes a person just gets a little older and wants a tractor with a cab to stay warm moving snow so they will trade in (up?) a perfectly fine model. Anyone else ever done that or is it just me getting soft? Well, maybe but 9 degrees like it is now with a 45mph NNW wind sure feels a lot colder than it did 30 years ago.:laughing:

 

[TripleR]

Sometimes a person just gets a little older and wants a tractor with a cab to stay warm moving snow so they will trade in (up?) a perfectly fine model. Anyone else ever done that or is it just me getting soft? Well, maybe but 9 degrees like it is now with a 45mph NNW wind sure feels a lot colder than it did 30 years ago.:laughing:

Well no, but I bought an additional tractor for just that reason, does that count?:laughing: