How many acres was an 8N designed to farm, when new?

[paulsharvey]

I looked at one of these when they came out.
The most local dealers were gouging on the price and I did hear rumors about mechanical issues.
For the same money I got a lot more tractor with a solid 8x8 mechanical shuttle tranny and a loader.
Whenever I've tried to go New Holland the dealers have always shot themselves in the foot/tire.

The retro New Holland, there is one at the auction today. It actually looks kinda funny with the red loader on it

 

[EdGooding]

I thought these 8N's were neat but I believe there were problems with the CVT.
View attachment 4412865

That is an 8N Boomer sold in 2010-11. We are talking here about the original 1948-52 8N with manual, non-synchronized 4-speed transmission.

 

[John0829]

When I first heard about the 8N Boomer I had high hope for it... they quickly fell flat. IMHO the 8N Boomer was an insult to the memory of the original 8N.

 

[sixdogs]

I thought these 8N's were neat but I believe there were problems with the CVT.
View attachment 4412865

The 8N re-do was a great idea but the CVT took all the wind out of the sails and it just idled into obscurity.

 

[tacticalturnip]

I can't help but love the Boomer 8N, not matter how odd it was.

 

[BossofBBQ]

It was a little bit of an oddball. I think if they had better transmissions, like HST instead of CVT, then they might’ve caught on a bit better. Regardless it was a nice idea to have a re-do, even if it wasn’t successful. I think the Boomer 8N is the only “re-do” of a classic 1940s-1950s tractor.

New Hollands dealerships are…lacking…to say the least, in my area anyways.

 

[D'oh]

Not an 8N, but dad had an old Ford NAA, Jubilee, that he drug many many loads of hardwood time out to the road for grapple trucks back when there were small independent sawmills with grapple straight trucks in WVa. We had 90 acres of mountain woods, and raised sheep, and about an acre of garden and another acre of fruit trees. He did replace the engine at one point. Ive kinda wondered a time or two what happened to the tractor after he died in a roll over. I think mom either gave it away or sold it for next to nothing. It did a Lot of work, but also had a lot of limitations. This would have been late 80s; so very obsolete at the time.

The Local Paper Mill, used an 8N to flood the Ice Road in winter to haul Logs to the Mill by Truck. Smaller trucks than today's 15+ Cords on 3 Axle + Tag trailers. I remember seeing them as a Kid.

It ran an Impellar in a 2'x2' hole in the Road, flowing a steady stream of 4" of water down the road 1/2 mile each way.

Basically what these Bombis are doing

Storeys of how Hole wouuld Blow Sow and Ice 10-15' into the air, 10' off to the side of the road when the Loaded trucks were passing by. By the end of the winter, the Road would be a foot higher than the Ice allowing the snow to blow right off rather than drift between the banks.

 

[masseyrider]

When I was a little fella there were a lot of small farms around here. Mostly mixed fruit and veg. Some were as small as a couple acres and by the time you got to 25 acres you were one of the bigger ones.
Most had the N Fords or Ferguson TO20s. Never really got to see what the max acreage they could take care of was. By the mid 60s farms started to grow and many had upgraded to MF135s and Ford 3000s.
That was like going from a Model A to a Boss Mustang. You had made it.
Now the farms are 100 acres + and even that is small. The local shippers aren't to pleased to see a pickup pull in with a small load. It used to be their bread and butter.
And the tractors have grown too. Hard to find anything under 85+hp.
The implements have gone from 5-6' discs, cultivators, mowers to 12'+ that do a fruit row in one pass or a grape row with a couple implements at one time..

 

[lman]

Yep, it's a different world now. The farmer that farms across the road from me, farms 4,600 acres and we have a 3,500 cow Dairy in this county.

 

[masseyrider]

Yep, it's a different world now. The farmer that farms across the road from me, farms 4,600 acres and we have a 3,500 cow Dairy in this county.

Around here many of the small farms were like a side hustle.
The husbands worked, usually in local factories and the wife and kids took care of much of the farm work.
They built new homes, kids went to University, set themselves up for retirement etc.
The factories are gone and it's a multi-million investment to get into farming.
My parents first place cost them $4000 and then they bought a 24 acre place for $8000.
The first year they didn't have a tractor and Pa pulled the disc with his pickup.
Try that now.