1stDeuce
Gold Member
With a property purchase in the works, I've been looking for a large CUT to do the prep work for building a house in the spring. After being unable to get an LS locally for a decent price, I made up my mind to take a 4 hour drive to the nearest Branson dealer and test drive a 4020R. If I liked it as much as the LS 4150 that I drove, it was going to be my new tractor, compete with backhoe, and $330/month payment.
A few days before I was going to head up, I checked CL one last time to see what else may have showed up. Generally, the tractors on CL are very expensive for their condition, and have a mostly unknown past, and I've not found anything that worked for me. However, this day there was an hour-old ad for a 2003 Massey Ferguson 1455v with loader and 480 hours.
Here's the picture off CL:
Not a lot of other details, but $12k price and low hours had me interested... Specs showed it was very comparable in size to the 40hp tractors I was considering. I contacted the seller and got them to send more pictures. Nothing scary in the pictures, but it was obvious that it had been left out in the field it's whole life. The owners used it for a very small (~15 acres) haying operation for their own horses, and that was it. It had a 1040 loader, which was not mounted and had hardly been used.
After some discussion, I decided to head up and check it out, and bring it home if it was acceptable. Since I was the first caller, and they had several more, the price was not negotiable. I feel like I still got a pretty good deal.
It fires right up, and runs excellent. Had service history written in the owners manual. (One oil change and a few grease jobs) Aside from a broken tail light and missing headlight bulbs and wiring, there's no damage. 55hp non-turbo engine with no emissions stuff to worry about. At 2.8L, it's probably not too easy on fuel, but LOTS more power than the MF1533 that I've run, and very good reliability from what I can find on the web.
The bad: Paint is burned off the top side of everything. Seat has some sun damaged areas, but no rips yet. (It was replaced at some point...) Every hose on the loader leaks, except one, which had obviously been replaced in the last few years. Left brake doesn't work, but the right one does. The "v" in the model name is for "value" - it's a cheaper model with less features than the standard 1455... No tilt steering, no extendable 3pt links or crank to tilt, non-folding ROPS, standard shuttle instead of power, no rear remotes. Oh, and no backhoe.
The interesting: It still has the original Yuasa battery, which seems to be holding a charge and more than willing to crank the tractor to life. Owners said they put it on the charger from time to time to make sure it never went dead.
Since I'm a huge fan of not making payments on anything, it works for me. I'll fix it up a little at a time, and I'm sure it'll be a good tractor for my needs.
Oh, I also picked up a 6' box blade on the run, off Craigslist. It's an older Farm Star, and built really heavy. Needs a few welds, and a bit of paint, but not bad for $550.
Plus, I got to see some Bighorn sheep on the drive up 550 from Farmington to Rifle.
A few days before I was going to head up, I checked CL one last time to see what else may have showed up. Generally, the tractors on CL are very expensive for their condition, and have a mostly unknown past, and I've not found anything that worked for me. However, this day there was an hour-old ad for a 2003 Massey Ferguson 1455v with loader and 480 hours.
Here's the picture off CL:
Not a lot of other details, but $12k price and low hours had me interested... Specs showed it was very comparable in size to the 40hp tractors I was considering. I contacted the seller and got them to send more pictures. Nothing scary in the pictures, but it was obvious that it had been left out in the field it's whole life. The owners used it for a very small (~15 acres) haying operation for their own horses, and that was it. It had a 1040 loader, which was not mounted and had hardly been used.
After some discussion, I decided to head up and check it out, and bring it home if it was acceptable. Since I was the first caller, and they had several more, the price was not negotiable. I feel like I still got a pretty good deal.
It fires right up, and runs excellent. Had service history written in the owners manual. (One oil change and a few grease jobs) Aside from a broken tail light and missing headlight bulbs and wiring, there's no damage. 55hp non-turbo engine with no emissions stuff to worry about. At 2.8L, it's probably not too easy on fuel, but LOTS more power than the MF1533 that I've run, and very good reliability from what I can find on the web.
The bad: Paint is burned off the top side of everything. Seat has some sun damaged areas, but no rips yet. (It was replaced at some point...) Every hose on the loader leaks, except one, which had obviously been replaced in the last few years. Left brake doesn't work, but the right one does. The "v" in the model name is for "value" - it's a cheaper model with less features than the standard 1455... No tilt steering, no extendable 3pt links or crank to tilt, non-folding ROPS, standard shuttle instead of power, no rear remotes. Oh, and no backhoe.
The interesting: It still has the original Yuasa battery, which seems to be holding a charge and more than willing to crank the tractor to life. Owners said they put it on the charger from time to time to make sure it never went dead.
Since I'm a huge fan of not making payments on anything, it works for me. I'll fix it up a little at a time, and I'm sure it'll be a good tractor for my needs.
Oh, I also picked up a 6' box blade on the run, off Craigslist. It's an older Farm Star, and built really heavy. Needs a few welds, and a bit of paint, but not bad for $550.
Plus, I got to see some Bighorn sheep on the drive up 550 from Farmington to Rifle.
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