$10k budget-12 acres mixed use...first tractor.

[Millhouse]

Pics of the Nortrac...

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[Granthol]

Doing the work yourself is fine IF you can find the parts to do the repairs.

 

[Okiearcher]

I’m kind of in the same boat, we’re closing on 10 acres this week. I found an 86 ford 1710 4x4 with fel, came with a 5 ft brush hog, 5ft angle blade, box blade and a John Deere finish mower on Craigslist for $8500. Plenty of tractor for our land and I absolutely love it. Keep looking and something will come along, good luck on your new property!

 

[sd455dan]

Just got word, 579 hours...it's a tractor from 1996.

What's the consensus on Chinese tractors?



I like my 1993 Rhino (Shanghai) 55hp tractor seen 4 go for between $4500 and $7500
about a 7000 lb 4x4 tractor with american Koyker FEL mounted.

imo tougher than my Ford 3000 with FEL

 

[Millhouse]

I’m kind of in the same boat, we’re closing on 10 acres this week. I found an 86 ford 1710 4x4 with fel, came with a 5 ft brush hog, 5ft angle blade, box blade and a John Deere finish mower on Craigslist for $8500. Plenty of tractor for our land and I absolutely love it. Keep looking and something will come along, good luck on your new property!

I've seen a few 1710's for decent prices. My concerns with them is they typically don't seem to have rollover protection and they are very lightweight. We'll be using the tractor in HARD southern clay.

What's the consensus on Chinese tractors?



I like my 1993 Rhino (Shanghai) 55hp tractor seen 4 go for between $4500 and $7500
about a 7000 lb 4x4 tractor with american Koyker FEL mounted.

imo tougher than my Ford 3000 with FEL

That's a heck of a price for that size of a tractor. How has it been on the fuel?

 

[Turbys_1700]

The older heavier and bigger tractors will use more fuel due to being heavier and bigger. Nothing special about it. My little 1720 New Holland at 28 HP would barely use a gallon and hour. My 4610 SU Ford at 60 HP would use 2 to 3 gallons per hour. It would do 2 to 3 times the work also. It's all relative. For 12 acres that little 1720 IMHO would be perfect. The older Fords have great parts support. Some of the Shibaura built units in the 00 or 10 series may be a little more dicey. As stated nothing wrong with a Chinese tractor if you have parts support.

 

[gladehound]

If you are worried about roll over protection (a valid concern), you can always have a roll bar or even a full cage fabricated for an older tractor. The cage on my tractor isn't factory and is better built than the factory roll bar. Or if you weld, you can do it yourself.

I have no experience with Chinese tractors and will leave that one for others.

Old iron tends to be built better and is simpler to fix than today's tractors. So you can't really compare apples to apples. 40 hp in a modern tractor is not nearly the same as a 40 hp tractor from the 80's or earlier. The older tractor is likely to weigh twice as much and will be much harder to stop for ground engagement. Also the hp ratings on older tractors were much more conservative. They were often rated at the PTO and testing often showed they were under rated. Today's tractors are typically rated at the engine crank and not conservatively, so comparing hp is deceiving. If you don't mind operating a clutch, and have some real pulling to do, the older tractors are very attractive.

 

[Millhouse]

The older heavier and bigger tractors will use more fuel due to being heavier and bigger. Nothing special about it. My little 1720 New Holland at 28 HP would barely use a gallon and hour. My 4610 SU Ford at 60 HP would use 2 to 3 gallons per hour. It would do 2 to 3 times the work also. It's all relative. For 12 acres that little 1720 IMHO would be perfect. The older Fords have great parts support. Some of the Shibaura built units in the 00 or 10 series may be a little more dicey. As stated nothing wrong with a Chinese tractor if you have parts support.

Is that 1720 going to pull a 6' brush hog ok and be sufficient for 1-2 acres of plowing? What is the 1720 going to do that the Chinese unit isn't...and maybe vice versa.

Just trying to come up with pros-cons.

If you are worried about roll over protection (a valid concern), you can always have a roll bar or even a full cage fabricated for an older tractor. The cage on my tractor isn't factory and is better built than the factory roll bar. Or if you weld, you can do it yourself.

I have no experience with Chinese tractors and will leave that one for others.

Old iron tends to be built better and is simpler to fix than today's tractors. So you can't really compare apples to apples. 40 hp in a modern tractor is not nearly the same as a 40 hp tractor from the 80's or earlier. The older tractor is likely to weigh twice as much and will be much harder to stop for ground engagement. Also the hp ratings on older tractors were much more conservative. They were often rated at the PTO and testing often showed they were under rated. Today's tractors are typically rated at the engine crank and not conservatively, so comparing hp is deceiving. If you don't mind operating a clutch, and have some real pulling to do, the older tractors are very attractive.

I most definitely am not qualified enough to weld a roll cage setup. As with everyone else, I'm trying to make the best decision the first time.

 

[Turbys_1700]

It would handle a light 6 foot cutter but not a heavy 6 footer. I hooked up my 1100# Brown to it and the weight was too much for a 65" wheel base tractor with a 3300# weight with loaded tires. My 4610 SU was a perfect match for the Brown. I only sold it to get into a cab tractor. Actually I traded the 1720 in on a WM 50 prior to getting the T4.75. If you want to pull a heavy 6' (3pt) cutter look for a 5K pound tractor with a 75 inch wheel base. JMHO.

 

[rScotty]

A 2wd Yanmar is not the same beast as a 2wd farm tractor. I agree that if you are talking about a CUT, then 4wd is a must. If you are talking about a farm tractor from the 60s or 70s, 2wd will provide sufficient traction (just watch them work in the fields).

That bears repeating. A CUT really benefits from 4WD because the tractor itself is not very heavy, and the weight distribution is set up for 4WD. The more modern ones are definitely designed with the expectation that they will have a front end loader on them.

Farm tractor's are designed differently. Especially those from the 60s and 70s when farm tractor design really reached a high point. Farm tractors tend to be heavy machines and balanced for maximum 2WD traction when pulling with the draw bar or their really sophisticated 3 point hitch. Some - not all - can be fitted with a Front End Loader. Farm tractors with loaders so have a rather awkward and unwieldy feel compared with a CUT & its loader. Part of that is the Farm Tractor's wide turning radius & steering ratio. They just weren't designed to be nifty in tight places. But pure power they have..... in bucketloads. Lots of hydraulics too. And they are big and comfortable. Need to pull a car out of a ditch?? No problem.....

Farm tractors of that era offer exceptional engineering and the kind of lifetime reliability you get from a heavily built piece of equipment that is understressed. They were designed with the expectation that routine maintenance and repairs would be easily accessed & done by the owner. Parts for popular makes are readily accessible. All of this for a really nice used price, and because many were built, mosts are still around. Still, they not particularly popular or resaleable compared with compacts and unlikely to be financiable. Also, with a farm tractor unless you are really lucky you will be stuck with either farm style lugged tires or face the price of wheels and tires both.

I guess that's enough said. We had farm tractors for years & then discovered CUT = Compact Utility Tractors. Now we have both.
rScotty