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Need advice - best type of tractor for working heavy clay?

1

10kpharo

Member
Hello. I recently purchased a small farmhouse surrounded by 500 acres of hayfields, which belong to the farmer around the corner. He's letting me use a two acre fallow field behind my house, currently covered in overgrown Timothy grass and goldenrod. There is a gradual slope to the plot. My goal is to plant a few rows of lavender and see what happens.

Tonight, I was talking with my farmer neighbor about buying a tractor. I was thinking of a Ford 8N, as I'm familiar with them from my youth on my grandfather's farm. However, my grandfather didn't plow with his 8N. My neighbor said the heavy clay soil would be too much for the 8N. He recommended a row crop tractor such as a Farmall A, H or M.

Could I get some opinions from the folks here? I don't have any particular preference, having never owned a tractor before. But I want to make sure I buy the right tractor to plow, till, disc, etc the heavy clay soil I"ll be dealing with.

Thanks. julian
 
Depends on the size equipment you have, personally I'd go with the M, eats more gas but you'll never overwork it on 2 acres.
 
AN 8 N will not work with a tiller at all. The 1st gear ground speed is way too fast for tilling (which requires full throttle for
a 40 inch tiller in clay.
Jim
 
Farmall A or BN, or C, Super C would be OK.
Better would be a Massey Ferguson 35, 65, 135, 165, or Oliver 55, S55, or 555. are much more friendly, and modern. Jim
 
(quoted from post at 19:14:06 02/24/17) AN 8 N will not work with a tiller at all. The 1st gear ground speed is way too fast for tilling (which requires full throttle for
a 40 inch tiller in clay.
Jim
Click to expand...

Yes, you're right. ...I should know that - I used to have a TO-30!!
 
Pride in doing it yourself is a big deal, but it would be a
lot more practical to hire someone to do that first pass with a plow.
One year my dad decided he needed to plow up an old alfalfa pasture.
The alfalfa had been there a number of years and the ground was hard and
full of alfalfa roots. He probably spent three days with a very healthy
Farmall M pulling a two bottom plow and the field was not that big.
 
There was no model 55 or 555. There were super 55 or 550. Great tractors. I own a 550.
 
Being that they aren't that costly, I'd get an M for plowing, and either an H or a C/SC for cultivating and such.
The M could easily pull a double bottom plow and once its broken up good you could pull that 2 bottom easily in 3rd or 4th from that point forward.
I would personally seek out a towable planter/seeder so it would pull behind that C or H without the need to remove the cultivators. An A series tractor is great for cultivating as well.
I personally would want nothing to do with rototilling 2 acres of land. Plows and disc harrows are the way to go.
 
That 8N will plow whatever is needed as long as you have the right plow for it. If it?s in decent condition, it'll have way more power than a Super A or a Super C, although they will do the job if they are pulling the appropriate equipment as well. In a 2-acre plot, an M won't have enough room to maneuver properly. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)
 
(quoted from post at 00:08:17 02/26/17) That 8N will plow whatever is needed as long as you have the right plow for it. If it?s in decent condition, it'll have way more power than a Super A or a Super C, although they will do the job if they are pulling the appropriate equipment as well. In a 2-acre plot, an M won't have enough room to maneuver properly. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)
Click to expand...

More engine HP yea but the 8N gearing is ridiculously high and even in low gear a Super C will definitely outpull a 8N.
A stock H which still doesn't have the 30HP a 8N does will far outpull an 8N.
And most C's out there have been upgraded to 3 1/8" pistons so they aren't 20hp anymore. And most H's probably have an overbore as well. No telling whats been done to a tractor over the years.
8N's certainly have their place in society, but grunt pulling isn't one of them.
 
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