Something I don't understand about applications of below 40hp tractors

[ROUSTABOUT]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

My grandaddy plowed a 40 with an 8N, bought a 1900 diesel in 1980. It was 33 HP. We still use it to garden and it still runs great. Put two water pumps on it, radiator, and an o-ring on the lift, that is it. I actually rebuilt the water pump twice. Two pumps in over 40 years ain't bad. Tremendous amount of rough bush hogging with it too. Just bought new tires for the rear this year. Replaced originals. Still had good tread but were badly cracked. We even run a LONG brand 8' tiller with it.

 

[MHarryE]

First tractor I learned to plow with was once most popular farm tractor, Farmall H. 24 PTO HP, 3800 pounds. Pulled 2 14’s in our most common soil types with difficulty. Move forward 45 years, retirement and back to a part of that same farm. Now tractor is a Kubota L3710 hydro, 3400 pounds with loader, 30 PTO HP, pulls 2 14’s a little bit better than the H because hydro vs 5 speed transmission - can match power and load.

 

[California]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

The first Kubotas imported here had a non-standard PTO that rotated opposite to the universal standard. I think the spline was different too. Severely limiting, only a specialized mower, tiller, etc could be used. You don't want that for your first real tractor.

I use two small, old, Yanmars, see my sig photo below. The 18hp one is my primary tractor, the 24 hp one is semi-retired to backhoe use only, because the little one is so much more maneuverable in this orchard. I contract the orchard tilling, spraying, harvest to a contractor who trucks in much larger equipment but I dig out stumps, maintain the lane, mow and rototill the non-orchard part of the property using the pictured small tractors.

For only an acre I agree with what most have said: hire the first cleanup done including ripping out those roots and stumps. Don't buy a big tractor for that once in a lifetime project! It would be too big, clumsy, for everything you will do subsequently. After the ground is cleared, about 18 engine hp, maybe 15, or better, with a front loader, will do fine for your mowing, tilling, trailer pulling, whatever. For implements I would start with a tiller then maybe a simple land plane. Sounds like your garden tractor would be sufficient for mowing. You will find that having the front loader is essential, miles better than a shovel and wheelbarrow. I often use a simple platform on rear forks. You might find forks useful.

I bought a 5 ft box blade for my first project, laying down a new coat of gravel in the lane, and I've never used it again in 20 years. The smaller tractor came (used) with its own 4 ft box blade and I use that rarely. I wouldn't buy a box blade immediately before you are certain you need it.

 

[California]

The fundamental importance of TRACTOR WEIGHT eludes many tractor shoppers. Tractor capability is more closely correlated to tractor weight than any other single (1) specification.
...

Ford 9N​

1939 - 1942

N Series

Utility tractor

Ford 9N Power
Drawbar (claimed):	12.68 hp 9.5 kW
Belt (claimed):	20.29 hp 15.1 kW
Plows:	2 (14-inch)
Drawbar (tested):	16.31 hp 12.2 kW
Engine (net):	23.56 hp 17.6 kW

Ford 9N Weight
Shipping:	2140 lbs 970 kg
Operating:	2900 lbs 1315 kg
Ballasted:	3375 lbs 1530 kg

Mechanical
Chassis:	2WD
Steering:	manual
Cab:	Open operator station
Transmission:	3-speed

Yeah. Weight determines everything, for plowing.

My Yanmar YM240 is rated in all the specs to match that 9N nearly exactly. But its a far lighter tractor with its horsepower designed for rototilling a rice paddy. Its about half the 9N's weight, before adding all the ridiculous non-standard ballast that was used for its Nebraska Tractor Test rating that makes it look equal to the 9N. For pulling a plow that heavier 9N would out-pull it by a considerable margin.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

When people plowed with one horse, like what was happening at my house when I came into the world, it was a whole lot less than 40 horsepower. Not being brand specific, but most all tractors were 8N size machines. They tamed the world.

 

[LD1]

Horsepower doesnt define what a tractor can and cannot do. It simply defines how fast it can do it. (with appropriately sized implements).

Weight (which translates to traction) defines what a tractor CAN or CANNOT do.

You think all those old dearborn 2-12 plows were pulled with 40+HP?

A 25hp tractor can plow a 30 acre field. So can a 130hp tractor. The difference is the 25hp tractor is gonna do it with a 2-bottom plow at about 1 acre/hour. The 130hp tractor is probably gonna pull a 5-18 and push 4 acres/hr

They can BOTH do the same work (plowing a field). More HP just means you can do it faster. Whereas you can have a 25hp "garden" tractor that doesnt weigh enough to have traction to even pull a single bottom plow.

 

[oldballs]

Here's one...........

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Jchonline]

I would say they are wrong. Who would say something like that. On this place, there are several plowshares from an 1880s Oliver walking plow, and they all look pretty worn to me. And if the land was virgin prairie, back in the day there were only a few around here who had breaking plows to get land opened up. If the unworked field is that rough, or bound with sod, get someone in to work it first.

How is 10 garden tractors doing the work of 1 field tractor showing the benefits of a garden tractor in a field?

 

[jeff9366]

The guy on that B7000 machine doubles the weight. It bottoms out in the rut because it doesn't have the ground clearance. It is also 4WD which makes big difference. Not only that, but that's not a field he is plowing...its a garden.

The two bottom plow the operator is using is either 2 X 8" or 2 X 10". The right wheels are not in a furrow, so the left wheels have enhanced traction.
As the b7000 is "plowing" already prepared ground, how does this video instruct us?