Looked at an early '50's, very clean, Ferguson TO 30 on Saturday.
Rear tires have what look to be minor cracks front tires are new. Rims look clean.
It has a Sherman transmission (I think it's low-mid-high)
There's a minor crack in the sheetmetal low on the grill. It starts up easily, doesn't smoke, no play in the steering, no engine or trans leaks, TPH/PTO work. It was recently painted.
Guy is asking $2500 or BO.
What do you think?
I own a reliable old 1954 Ferguson TO-30 that we use regularly on the ranch. It's a good solid machine designed with 1940's technology. It's easy to work on and it's rugged as all get out. Parts are readily available for these machines.
The weak spots, in my opinion, are the lack of position control on the three point hitch and the lack of live hydraulics and pto. If you are going to use the tractor for the purpose it was designed for primarily tillage (plow, disk, and cultivator), you'll be really happy with it and the Sherman is a big plus. If you want to add a loader, there is no power steering and the hydraulics are inadequate and you'll need a front mounter pump. With any pto driven machinery with high rotational inertia (rototiller, rotary cutter, snowblower) you'll need a over running coupler( ORC) on the pto to prevent the implement inertia from driving the tractor with the clutch pedal depressed. Since the pto shaft also drives the hydraulic pump, lifting a rotary cutter means the cutter blades are turning while you have the cutter in the air.
As far as position control, you can trick the hydraulic controls to control position using a long top link or you can buy an aftermarket external position control linkage for around $100 to give you real position control.
I use mine to plow the driveways with a back blade in winter and it hauls around out irrigation pipe trailer in the summer. It subsoils and disks the wife's garden and that's about the sum total of what I feel I can safely use it for.
if you like old tractors and are used to using them with these limitations then the TO-30 Ferguson might work for you. If this is your first tractor, I'd look for some thing with live pto and live hydraulics.
As far as the price, make sure those rear tire cracks are really minor because a new set of tires are $500+. Otherwise if the tractor is as good as you say and has the hi/low Sherman that works then $2500 is probably a fair price. You might bargain that down depending on the shape of the rear tires.
