Vintage tractor for small homestead

[rScotty]

Hi Mike,

My budget is somewhere in the 6-10k range. If I recall correctly, those stump grinders require 30-50hp @ PTO and it needs to be live.

It "seems" like there is a HP gap in the older tractors I'm looking at. What I mean is that I see older tractors in the 20HP range and I see stuff in the 40+ HP range but not much in the 30's. I know some of the smaller Fords were in that range but they seem to be hard to find where I'm located. I'm willing to drive 3-4hours to get something but I don't want to go halfway across the US. But yeah that's why I'm leaning towards a little too big than a little small. Valid point though.

thanks,

Drew

The nice thing about those older tractors is that they were made to work forever. Most are surprisingly easy to fix and parts are available for thr motr popular models.
Don't be afraid of gasoline power. Those old industrial gasoline tractors were as good as the diesels and even easier to keep going.

You really limit yourself if you look for one with a loader already mounted. Plus it is likely to be in rough condition. OTOH, you will find very nice older ag tractors in the utility size all day long. Look for 2WD, with power steering (a necessity for a loader), a standard transmission with as many gears as possible, and a beefy 3pt hitch. If you plan to add a loader, make sure that the tractor already has auxillary hydraulic outputs. They can be a pain to add later. If the 3pt is a category II hitch it can also use smaller cat I implements but not vice versa. Look carefully at the PTO output shaft for signs of abuse. Lots of those old ag tractors used their PTO more or less constantly running implements.

I think you will end up with a better tractor if you look for a nice tractor that you like then add a universal loader to be mounted on it. The tractor will be nicer and it will probably cost less all total too. A tractor that already has a loader is often priced rather high, but adding one is simple.

I did what I am advising. We had a small budget so I bought an older JD530 ag tractor (30hp). It had a cat II 3pt, power steering, and aux hydraulics. Price was $2000. The farmer that had it was using it as a stationary engine with the PTO driving a water pump to irrigate corn... It had a zillion hours on it, but parts for older JDs are very reasonable and available. We added a wide front from a tractor junkyard ($1000) which bolted right up in a single afternoon. Then the next year found an old loader for that very tractor. Cost was about $2500 for that.

We've used it for just about everything for 20 years. It never broke down. Still have it. It runs & works fine.
rScotty

 

[nards444]

Have to asks yourself what tasks you plan on doing and duration. Like the stump grinding. If its just initial clearing of the property probably cheaper to just rent one, and if not cheaper will at least let you buy something you need for the long run, not force you into a corner to buy something for that one task that last a few times. Even if you buy the tractor to suit a stump grinder, your going to have to purchase stump grinder or rent one anyways. Last time I rented a stump grinder think it was about 80 bucks for the day and I was able to knock 20 trees or so.

You just see a lot of guys trying to fit the machine around a task they will do once or once a year.