Multipower Pro/Con?

Would you buy a gas MF50 or MF 65 with Multipower. For use mowing, baling and pulling hay wagons up and down hills.
Is the PTO the same as a regular transmission?
Please tell me the good, and bad, pros and cons? Thanks

I like the multi power. Its nice if you want to speed up or slow down while on the move. Say you want to speed up at the end of a row or kick it in low if you need a little more power. It also gives you twice as many choices in gears. I've got three 65s with the MP and three without. I definitely prefer with. You do have to have the multi power in high when going down hills or you will free wheel.

As Brendon has said you have no engine braking going downhill in MP Low. You must ensure that all drivers are familiar with its operation. You cannot tow a MP tractor to start it.. Potentially there is more in the transmission to go wrong but having said that I would not be averse to buying one for myself. The tractor should not be kept in MP Low for indefinite periods. There have been instances of the spinning MP clutch plates overheating and distorting. The transmission should be shifted to high occasionally to lubricate the plates. If possible always select a gear in the MP High range to maintain engine braking.

DavidP, South Wales

I really wish my 135 had multi-power, having the extra gears is nice. They can be expensive to fix if something goes wrong with it, but as long as you don't abuse it, and keep clean trans/hyd fluid in it, it should last a very long time. The pto works the same as the ones without multi-power. My brother has a 150 with multi-power, and its been trouble free for the last 35 years.

YES! Absolutely..

As others have said here Multipower is a nice feature as long as it's in good working order. But if given a choice on a tractor that old, I would go with the standard transmission tractors and pass on the MP.

AFAIK, most if not all the 35/50/65's had a two stage clutch for hydraulics and PTO; in other words, push the clutch pedal 3/4ths to disengage the transmission. All the way to the running board to disengage the hydraulics and PTO. My '61 MF65 and a neighbors MF50 are like that. I believe it wasn't until the 1xx series (or maybe the late model xx's) that they got fully live hydraulics and IPTO. Others here more knowledgeable than I can share the fine details.

It wasn't until ~1964 when MF stopped using 90W in the transmission/hydraulic system and went to UTF. I read here some years back that MF issued a service bulletin to have dealers change to UTF after any rear case service work for increased compatibility with all other makes of hydraulic ag equipment. An older MF may or may not have been 'updated'. Mine wasn't, but now is.

If you ask google about MultiPower (even limiting it to YesterdaysTractors), you will find no end of posts dealing with problems. Yes, it can be great when it works, but there have been and are a bunch of units out there with MP that hasn't worked in years because it isn't easy or cheap to fix. For what you indicate you will use a tractor for, the standard gear transmission will work just fine, and won't have "one more thing" to go wrong. If you spent a lot of time turning ground or pulling loads on long hills, yeah, it's sweet (when it works). It's also more dangerous if you (or any other operator) aren't careful about going down hills and keeping it in 'direct'. I wouldn't let anyone use one if I didn't know for sure they knew EXACTLY how these worked, and could use it safely 130% of the time. Use by "kids" (of any age, be that 13 or 30) would be absolutely Verboten.

Just my opinion, and worth exactly what you're paying for it. "YMMV"

My Dad was a ferguson dealer for 40+ years. Back in the days of production MP was more complicated but a reasonable fix if something was wrong.
Now the parts are getting hard to get and extremely expensive.
The likelyhood of a MP going bad is twice or more possible than a straight transmission problems.
I have worked on many and would defer on the MP because of availability and cost. But if it works good now. It would depend on how much and hard you would use it.
Good Luck,
Jim

what about just leaving it in mp high all the time, only times i've ever had to use it in low is on flat ground, or shifting gears sometimes whey your on an incline... otherwise cant move gear shift.

I have two mf35s, one standard and one mp, I always use the mp tractor when bush hogging or any pto work. I use the standard for
everyting else. I don't know how mp works but it seems to make pto independent, I ran over a stump when bushogging rough area it locked up the drive line on the standard trans mf, had to manually unhook the bush hog to get to trans unlocked, this would never happen on the mp tractor. I do agree about the maintenance problem, if I only had one tractor it would be the manual trans mf35
not that I have had problems but I know old well used equipment needs fewer things to go bad.

I like many others liked the multipower option - good when functional

Bad, if you plan on kids driving the tractor and you have hills,
Do not remember but in hi or low one, transmission will not hold back the load and could be a run away, brakes have to be in top condition,

I understand some around me that had kids driving the tractors in hay and tobacco fields got rid of the old multipower tractors, just felt they were too dangerous for kids to drive, I know that is another can of worms,

Case-O-Matic was much the same way,

Also if the transmission lays down on you is there someone qualified to fix it, they were made many years ago,

A better choice might be a MF 165 with a 4 speed transmission with h/l, MF development this transmission to take the place of the multipower option, I think I am right on that, this option gave you an 8 speed tractor,

Caseomatic is just a locking torque converter ahead of a standard gear tranny. Darn near bullet proof system. The problems come from idiots that try and make it do something it wasn't intended to. You drive it like an automatic tranny, give it the fuel and then lock the TC when you're up to the speed you want. It's a great system.

I like the MP on my gas 65. Mine is pretty worn, like the rest of the tractor, but it's a good system.