What's your favorite antique tractor?

[Anonymous Poster]

8Ntractor?

I grew up with Ms and ford 8Ns and I found them very safe.It might be wise for you to cheack out N completes web site for remanufactured Ford tractors. They are better than new and carry a warranty. As far as live hydraulics I find little use other than loader work. If you plan to use a loader very often; like 5 hours a week or more it might be nice. The hydraulics work on non-live when the clutch is released not when the pto lever is moved. the pto or draft lever raise and lower the 3 point hitch. a big advantage of the ford is that you have a much bigger wheel and better torque at operating speeds.

 

[scruffy]

Re: 8Ntractor?

I personally went against the traditional 'American' made antique tractor, and bought an old Kubota L175 which by the way turned out to really be an L1500 gray, but I won't acknowledge that. It was made somewhere in the late 60's to early 70's from what I can ascertain. Parts are available, price was right, and tractor was in very good shape overall w/only 792 hours on the clock. (w/FEL & BOX BLADE).
It gives me a play toy, and something to spend 'hobby' time with, so far without costing a fortune. I have no use for a new tractor, nor really a tractor at this time!

 

[scruffy]

Re: 8Ntractor?

Just to add a little to the idea of an older Kubota, mine has a class 1 3pt hitch, box blade, FEL, PTO, and has cost me less than 1600 bucks so far (purchase and needed repairs)

 

[PaulB]

Re: 8Ntractor?

scruffy - you better take a look at your left front tire, looks a little low in the picture./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gifSeriously, I have no idea where you got a tractor like that at that price - what a deal.

 

[Bird]

Re: 8Ntractor?

Scruffy, you either got one heck of a bargain, or you've done a lot of work on it yourself; maybe both?/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Bird

 

[scruffy]

Re: 8Ntractor?

PaulB, yeah I know on that left front, it was flat when I bought the tractor...both front tires are sadly weather checked.
Bird, the tractor I found down the road, sitting in weeds and some brush. Over the course of a year, it never moved, so I stopped to ask if they were interested in selling it. The upshot was...YES! I made a deal on it for $1100.00 with no working reverse gear, turn signal / work lights missing, seat padding long gone, bakelight covering on steering wheel cooked off by sun, but fired right up and ran like a charm. It had a broken hydraulic hose on the FEL, and I spent 300 bucks for parts to fix the tranny, the rest has been odds and ends (lights, steering wheel pad/cover) toplink, by the way I bought a new one, and never got it on before the old one and pins were found. It even came complete with a full set of filters! Still have to replace a headlight lamp yet.
All in all, not a lot of work, but a nice little tractor!

addon: Other than the above, the only thing I've done is wash and wax it. It was garaged kept for all but two years of its life, and then parked out in the hot sun when reverse went out in the tranny. Can't figure out why it wasn't fixed and used, but hey, people can be strange.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by scruffy on 10/16/00 09:51 PM.</FONT></P>