What was the most economical 100 h.p. plus or minus tractor you owned?

[intel]

My dads 58 Fordson dexta with 3 cylinder perkins diesel was great on fuel and for 25 years over 8000 hours only a fan belt and lower radiator hose and a clutch and tires.

 

[Soundguy]

I bought the Ford 5000 tractor at a state auction clock showed under 300 hrs on it ,the tractor was and appeared to be in excellent condition.no one at auction could give me any info on it .One day about 2-3 weeks later a mechanic that works for the state was driving by and saw it parked next to my shop and stopped and said so your the one who bought that nightmare. yes indeed it had under 300hrs on it they had the dealer out here many times while it was under warranty and after the year was up the state was working on it and they had enough ,and got rid of it

Sounds like it was a lemon and should have been returned by the original purchaser. That can happen with any machine.. car or tractor or otherwise.

.as far as abused and not maintained that does not apply furthermore I hope you are not implying that i don't take care of my equipment .

If you would have read my message you would have seen that I was not implying abuse by you. I said when you 'get' a tractor that has been abused or maintained... etc... If I wanted to imply that you caused the problems I would have said so.

,and as far as your tractor starting with a fully charged battery I should hope so since your located in Fla.

Think out of the box.. there are about a bazillion other reasons for a tractor not to start just other than cold weather. My point was that if the starter turns the engine over.. she cranks up fine. .. IE.. a good running machine.

I think If I saw a mid 70's tractor with 300 hours on her.. I'd be wary of why ONLY 300 hours?..

soundguy

 

[Egon]

300 hours? really not much different than five or six hundred hours is it?

 

[Baranx4]

I saw that there's a int 1066 on ebay, for a really good price, till I started reading the listing a little closer. Modified for pulling with dt466 engine. Over 150hp. I bet you need to pull a fuel tanker with something like that just run the line right past the fuel tank.

 

[marksalloon]

the most ecinomical tracter i ever and still have is a MF 398 turbo i have an 880dt 5 a jd6030 and the massy is easly the most frugal and super reliable had it for 15 years now

 

[jenkinsph]

The most economical tractors we owned were 3020D and 4020D models very few problems over about 15 years of use and sold them for quite a bit more than we paid for them. My dad had an IH 806 which was the best IH any of us have every owned that was a great tractor, by comparison we had a smaller 460, worst tractor we ever owned

My dad being older at the time bought a new 1971 or 1972 4020D with powershift, and I bought a used 4020 syncro range 1968 in about 1975. We kept these until 1985 when we all sold out and moved to New Mexico. In that time we had very few problems with the Deere tractors.

 

[sixdogs]

I had a Kubota M8950DT turbo back in the 1990's at nearly 90 HP and it was the lowest cost and most fuel efficient tractor I had ever owned. Other than oil and filters, the only thing I bought for a part was a fuel sending unit because I thought the unit was bad. Turns out it used so little fuel I was just confused. It came from a bankruptcy sale with 300 hard hours on it and when I sold it with 1700 hours nothing went wrong. It would bale all day long in a very narrow rpm range and didn't use enough fuel to be concerned. Even tillage was great with fuel. The experience sold me on Kubota and I wish I never sold that tractor.

 

[pjbci]

The most economical tractors we ever owned would have to be a tie here on my farm. It would be between a IH blackstripe 966 with TA and a IH 1486 direct drive (no TA). We got better than 12000 hrs outta both these machines with very little downtime.

 

[MHarryE]

Lots of discussion 4020 vs 806. I remembered that the 806 was a bit better in the old days with its transmission vs. the JD. The Nebraska Tractor Tests show that for max drawbar power, the IH is 13.2 hp-hr/gal while the JD is 11.6 hp-hr/gal. That fits with my memory - my dad and uncle were partners and demoed each plowing in the same field for a couple days and went with the IH solely based on fuel economy although I am not sure why that was such a big factor back in those days of diesel fuel less than 20 cents per gallon. Pretty sad numbers alongside our JD 7720 now that does 15.9 hp-hr/gal. The numbers say that if we still had to use a 4020 to do our work our fuel bill would be 30% higher, but we would also need 2 tractors, drivers, etc., to do the same work.

 

[rdbigfarmboy]

Deutz D9006

 

[D7E]

I think of all the numerous tractors of that size over the years 2 spring to mind that were particularly trouble free... ford 8100 and MF 698T

Ones we were scared to start every day included case 1694 and JD 3130

 

[D7E]

the most ecinomical tracter i ever and still have is a MF 398 turbo i have an 880dt 5 a jd6030 and the massy is easly the most frugal and super reliable had it for 15 years now

300 series are fantastic little tractors had many 390T's !

 

[Dead Horse]

I have a Hesston 100 90 DT and I have worked it hard. It was built in '89 and has near 3,000 hours on it.

I have put a water pump on it and rebuilt the alternator.

Great, brawny beast........ been a very loyal and reliable worker!

 

[oldnslo]

'58 520 JD Dad bought it new and it was our main tractor until 68. Never had a valve cover off of it when we sold it 72. If the fan blade would move it would start even in the coldest weather. Pulled 3-14 plow, 2 row gehl or papec choppers. It worked for a living and never complained. When I went back to MN in 06, guy that bought was still using it as his daily chore tractor and still had never removed the valve covers.

 

[D7E]

I have a Hesston 100 90 DT and I have worked it hard. It was built in '89 and has near 3,000 hours on it.

I have put a water pump on it and rebuilt the alternator.

Great, brawny beast........ been a very loyal and reliable worker!

and theres another one . fantastic motors not the best gear box in the world but up there with any of them reliability wise . Drove a 110/90 turbo with 4m power harrow drill on the back and 4m pres on front 3pt with 9000 hrs on it for 2 seasons ...fantastic tractor