Good deal on Ford 3600?

[tractorsrule]

Looking at a 1981 Ford 3600 diesel tractor. 1700 hrs, 40HP, live PTO, pwr steering, 6x2 trans, real clean looking. They are asking $5950. Any opinions on this machine for bush-hogging 3-4 acres? Thanks

 

[coss]

That tractor would be a very effective brush hog machine. With a 6 foot cutter, it may take you only about 2 hours to bushhog 3-4 acres.

The price seems a bit high. In my area, there is a 3600 with a front end loader for sale on Craigslist for $1000 less. You might consider doing an internet search for sales prices on multiple sites, and then present the data to the seller as you try to strike a deal.

 

[Soundguy]

Looking at a 1981 Ford 3600 diesel tractor. 1700 hrs, 40HP, live PTO, pwr steering, 6x2 trans, real clean looking. They are asking $5950. Any opinions on this machine for bush-hogging 3-4 acres? Thanks

a bit high for my area too.

4500$ generally buys you a nice 3cyl like that. I bought a 4600 for just a lil mor ethan half that. needed some work. but started and ran fine...

 

[lorandroehl]

I have a very similar tractor. See my avatar photo. I bought this tractor in 2011. 3600 diesel, 1978 year model, 1975 hours at the time of purchase. Tractor was freshly painted so it looked great. Sometimes fresh paint can hide some problems however. That hasn't been the case with this tractor thankfully. It has a FEL, good rubber all around, block heater (very important in MN), and the dealer put in all new fluids and filters. I traded him a 1947 2n with a bad hydraulic pump, old worn out battery, poor tires, and a broken ring gear. Paid $6500 to boot. I looked for a long time for this tractor size and type and am very happy with this tractor. I did pay more than many people on this forum seem to pay, but it really was the best deal I found, all things considered. Maybe just the market in my area, but I have never been able to find the good deals within a reasonable driving distance I read about here. I looked at several others in the same price range and decided to wait the seller out to get a better deal. All tractors sold pretty quickly and my wait and see approach did not work well. This tractor hadn't been used much for quite a while so minor adjustments and a few leaks were necessary to take care of. Not a big deal, but I did put in another $50-$100 over the first year.

I push snow to clean out a 100 yard driveway and yard with rear chains of course. I bush hog about 4 acres at home with a 5' hog which takes about 1 hour. This is pretty clean bush hogging so goes quite well. I also bush hog several food plots and about a mile or so of trail on 60 acres of wooded hunting land. Also blades all those trails with a 6' blade. This FEL hauls firewood, pushes snow, carries tools to the woods, and does more chores than I ever thought I would do again after growing up on a farm. I couldn't do without it now that I have had it for a few years. I love this tractor and it does all I need it to do and could do more. It should easily handle what you have described.

Price may be a little high depending on the market in your area. Maybe showing the seller sales data would be helpful. Depends on how much patience either of you have. Good luck.

 

[lorandroehl]

Forgot to mention. My 3600 transmission has 4 speeds forward and reverse. Also hi/low range making for 8 speeds forward and 2 in reverse. You mention a 6x2 transmission. Not sure what to say about that. I haven't seen that in other 3600s, but there are more experienced people on this forum who can comment on that. Would be worth looking into. Also might be a negotiating chip.

 

[Soundguy]

Forgot to mention. My 3600 transmission has 4 speeds forward and reverse. Also hi/low range making for 8 speeds forward and 2 in reverse. You mention a 6x2 transmission. Not sure what to say about that. I haven't seen that in other 3600s, but there are more experienced people on this forum who can comment on that. Would be worth looking into. Also might be a negotiating chip.

your post is confising. you seem to be describing 2 different trannies?
do you havea 6x4 reverser or?

you mention 2 in reverse.. then 4 in reverse... which is it?

 

[lorandroehl]

Sorry for the confusion.

My transmission has 4 forward speeds and 1 in reverse. There is also a high and low range option.

So I have 8 total forward speeds ( 4 in low range and 4 in high range) and 2 total reverse speeds (1 each in high and low range). The other 3600s I have seen had this transmission also.

There are not a lot of those around here so my experience is limited. That is why I questioned the 6x2 transmission as I have not seen that before. It might be a common transmission which I am not familiar with. After re-reading it, I can see the wording of my post was not very clear.

Again sorry for the confusion. Hope this clears it up.

 

[Soundguy]

i have seen 6spds in 2000's mainly. I also see 6x4 in industrials too.

 

[downslope]

Did the 6-speeds vs 8-speeds generally have different pto's? That is, live or not live, etc? I don't know much about them but so far have only seen 6-speed on 2000's.

 

[Soundguy]

in the 2000 days.. most 6spd were trans pto.. but you could get live. later 6spds were IMHO.. more commonly live.