your thoughts please.

[Jerry/MT]

some is, some isn't. Same can be said of any machinery.,

the landscape co across from my office trades mowers every 3 years.. as they ar eplum wore out.

get a pice of equipment that has been maintained or repaired.. or repair it yourself and it will be fine.

Take an easy to work on antique or classic. just about every part on them is repairable, replaceable or renewable with wear parts. pretty much everything except the bulk of the castings. ( some castings ( forgeings really, I suspect ) available as new. plenty of castings available..used


Maybee in the 80's that was true.. however now? info and parts are a mousestroke away. Last antique I refurbished. I had it home, and looked it over, and -THAT NIGHT - placed 4 orders, 2 online parts houses, 1 email to a guy I know who sells used parts, and another in a seperate email to another guy I know that sells used parts. The next day, on the way home from work, I hit the TSC and grabbed my paint supplies and whatnot.

Parts for these antiques are by and far WAY cheaper than newer models. I replaced a single hyd part on my 2000 NH 7610s that cost more than the entire refurb cost of the last tractor I did.

At work, dealing with cat and JD equipment. It's not uncommon to buy parts that cost MORE than an entire classic tractor, and hve it arrive in a box a ups man can carry

When I rebuilt the hyds on 2 of my fords recently.. it's kind of nice that an 11/16 wrench takes out all the bolts ont he top and bottom hyd cover and pump.. can do a full hyds overhaul on an 8n top cover and pump.. new wear parts for under 300$ and about 7hrs work start to finish... hard to get much easier or cheaper to work on.

pump for my 4600, 5000 or 7610s is =way= more spendy.

soundguy

I could be wrong, but I thought the OP wanted to "work the tractor" not "work on the tractor".

 

[Soundguy]

you can wor or work on any tractor.

my 'new' one a year 2000 model, is down -FAR- more than ANY classic I own.

One of the roughest tractors i own,.. and auction find worker.. I didn't even refurb.

i loded it's tires, welded acrack in the bucket, changed it's oil, adjusted it's brakes, and changed out the worst of it's hoses.. did that all pretty much while it was still on the trailer from where I hauled it home from the auction.

put it to 'work' immediatly after that.

actually one of my cheapest tractors.. have LESS than 3000$ in it for purchase and fluids and hoses, and it's never fialed to start and run. I use it to move large hay rounds.. IE.. 5x5 rolls that are too heavy for my 1-arm loaders.. which are more for 4x5.

as I said before.

get any good, well maintained machine, or fix it yourself and maintain it, and it will be good to go.

I don't find myself having to re fix and refix my classics once i go over them. I get em, fix em, and use em. once fixed.. they tend to stay fix, unless by regualr course of work something brakes or needs maintenance.. and that's gonna happen new or old. a blown tire can happen on a new machine or an old one. same with a shear bolt in a mower.. or any of the lil things you expect to have to wrench on every now and then.

I can buy a barn full of classics for the cost of a new one. or I can buy half a barn full of classics, refurb them all to top shape and use them.. for the price of a new one too.

new does not = never having to work on it. in fact.. I've overwhelmingly found new = needs more work and breaks more often, and with more expensive parts....


soundguy

 

[Farmwithjunk]

The utter simplicity of some older tractors makes them a BETTER candidate for dependability and ease of an "Average Joe" to maintain it properly. Much of the newer tractors require a factory trained technician with a shop full of specialized tools, rather than a shade tree mechanic with a pocket full of hand tools. In many instances, the former isn't in the budget OR in the time allotted.

I have old tractors, not so old tractors, almost new tractors and a couple very new tractors....Without question, the most reliable, easiest to KEEP reliable, and my #1 "go to tractor" is 40+ years old, and 3rd oldest overall that I own. This tractor has been well maintained since new, painted and "spruced up" but has NEVER had any major work done on it. (Still has 40 year old clutch...) 2 oldest are in line to be restored, at which point, they'll be every bit as dependable as any others I own.

Give me tractors from the 60's and 70's....FAR more reliable. FAR less complicated. And FAR less expensive to own and operate.

 

[aebsmithcreek]

I could be wrong, but I thought the OP wanted to "work the tractor" not "work on the tractor(quote)

what i want is a old tractor that has a sound drive train but needs some attention to be up to speed. something to wrench on but not a total rebuild if that makes sense.

earl.

 

[Soundguy]

I could be wrong, but I thought the OP wanted to "work the tractor" not "work on the tractor(quote)

what i want is a old tractor that has a sound drive train but needs some attention to be up to speed. something to wrench on but not a total rebuild if that makes sense.

earl.

that's about what I had in mind.

find one that already starts and runs good, and really.. deos everything it's soposed to do as is, but perhaps needs a hose or 2 replaced. maybee a tube or tire.. or minor things. new switch or headlamp.. some paint addition and rust removal.. etc.. etc. plus a tune up.

plenty of those out there. that auction find ford 850 I have is now 56 ys old. as i said.. I dropped about 200$ in it doing a full fluid and filter service on it's loader, power steering and engine and rear sumps.. that was the bulk of the 200$.. just shear gallons of oil..... maybee 3 hoses and 1 hose fitting adapter.. that's about it.. oh.. and I added some water and rv antifreeze tot he tires, and used a big screwdriver to adjust the brakes, recrimped some wires under the dash.. and added a 2$ indicator lamp to the dash to excite the 3 wire alternator at 400 rpm, vs 1200 rpm as it was wired 1 wire when i got it.

past that.. it's still in original ugley, scratched and faded paint.

hasd lots of welding on the superior utility loader but works great... likes to jump out of 3rd gear when going down hil and you dump the throttle.. but a spring from the dash cowling looped over takes car of that. besides.. moving big hay.. I never use anything but 1or 2 and reverse anyway.. 3 is too fast for a bumpy pasture carrying 1000+ # on a front spear..

tractor was LESS than 3000$.. in fact.. less than 2700$ for a 45 hp machine with decent heavy laoder, good tires, power steering, etc.. no real bad leaks.. just a bit ugly..

soundguy

 

[Jerry/MT]

I could be wrong, but I thought the OP wanted to "work the tractor" not "work on the tractor(quote)

what i want is a old tractor that has a sound drive train but needs some attention to be up to speed. something to wrench on but not a total rebuild if that makes sense.

earl.

I stand corrected.
I didn't say don't buy a used tractor, I said by a second or third generation tractor that has desireable features like live pto, live hydraulics and power steering.
Yes they were available in the mid fifties but the odds on finding "good ones" of that era are slimmer than in finding tractors that were made in the '60's and '80's. That was my point. Sorry if my opinion offended anyone.

 

[Jerry/MT]

The utter simplicity of some older tractors makes them a BETTER candidate for dependability and ease of an "Average Joe" to maintain it properly. Much of the newer tractors require a factory trained technician with a shop full of specialized tools, rather than a shade tree mechanic with a pocket full of hand tools. In many instances, the former isn't in the budget OR in the time allotted.

I have old tractors, not so old tractors, almost new tractors and a couple very new tractors....Without question, the most reliable, easiest to KEEP reliable, and my #1 "go to tractor" is 40+ years old, and 3rd oldest overall that I own. This tractor has been well maintained since new, painted and "spruced up" but has NEVER had any major work done on it. (Still has 40 year old clutch...) 2 oldest are in line to be restored, at which point, they'll be every bit as dependable as any others I own.

Give me tractors from the 60's and 70's....FAR more reliable. FAR less complicated. And FAR less expensive to own and operate.

I think that's what i recommended in my intitial post.

 

[Soundguy]

I think that's what i recommended in my intitial post.

It is.

We are all hitting around the same basic concepts.. just presenting them differently..

IMHO.. the OP is benefitting from our years of BTDT, and all the opinions expressed therin.

soundguy

 

[aebsmithcreek]

I stand corrected.
I didn't say don't buy a used tractor, I said by a second or third generation tractor that has desireable features like live pto, live hydraulics and power steering.
Yes they were available in the mid fifties but the odds on finding "good ones" of that era are slimmer than in finding tractors that were made in the '60's and '80's. That was my point. Sorry if my opinion offended anyone.
09-12-2011 12:18 PM

no offense taken at all Jerry, SoundGuy nailed it, i'm just a green horn trying to learn lessons easily that you guys learned by trial and error. one thing i have found already is i'm gonna have to get versed in tractor nomenclature, alot of the terms are unfamiliar to me. i'm ashamed to admit it but i never heard the term live hydraulics until i read it here and alot of the other terms are greek to me so i'm startin from scratch. all the input is good info for me and very much appreciated as well.

earl.

 

[Soundguy]

live power means that they are available when the engine is running.. ie.. live hyds are available if engine is running.. some older machines had to have pto engaged and no foot on the clutch for hyds.. etc..

live pto can refer to independent or 2 stage clutch setups.. IE.. setups where the drivetrain can be clutched independent or seperate from the pto. example.. mowing and you want to stop forward motion but not the blades.. or bailing hay.. bailer starts to plug up so you need to stop feeding it via moving forward.. but need the pto to keep spinning so it can clear..

soundguy