An 8n or 9n works real well on a 5 foot brush hog as long as you use an overrunning coupler. With a $1500 budget, I think they would be the best if not only option for the tasks you describe. I would certainly forget about the loader and the backhoe as these are not a good tractor on either of those implements. For moving dirt and small digging jobs, a pond scoop would be a much better idea. I actually used one on an 8n to make a 50 ft diameter , 8 ft deep pond. It took me a while but was a lot faster and easier than I could have done with a shovel and wheelbarrel. To operate one of these in the "pull" direction (like I dug the pond), an 8n or 9n would work well, but to use them in the "push" direction, a 9n would be better as they have reverse gear equal to 1st, while on an 8n, reverse is equal to third gear. This higher gear makes it difficult to fill the scoop by backing into a pile. Some of the earlier 8n's may have had lower geared reverse, and a Sherman transmission option would give you a high and low speed reverse but these are not nearly as common as the standard models. The higher speed reverse of the 8n is a lot better for pushing snow with a rear blade than the slow crawl of the 9n and I have used mine to move mountains of the white stuff over the years. Anytime you use any implement in reverse on any of these models, you will want to be sure to use stabilizer bars on the lower links to avoid bending them. Finding a 9n in decent condition for under $1500 is relatively easy in most ares of the country, while the newer 8n's usually will cost you around $500 more. There was also a model known as the 2n in between the 9n (1939-1941) and the 8n (1948-1952), but most folks just call them 9n's since they were nearly identical to the 9n. No tractor before or after has better parts availability than the 9n/2n/8n so you will always be able to get what you need to keep them going. The tractors that replaced the 8n's had live hydraulics but the hydraulics were a liitle less durable. Also, they were clumsier and a big step backward in power/weight ratio as well as a little less fuel efficient. The power/weight ratio of the n's were phenominal for their era. These were the first mass-produced tractor with the 3 pt hitch, which negated the need for all the dead weight that the others needed to do well on a plow. Adding a loader to an 8n is a particularly poor idea because it takes away this light weight advantage.
