Farmall 450 good or not so good

Not really familiar with Farmall tractors but need to know value and how good is a Farmall 450? This particular tractor has live hydraulics, Swartz front end, basically new rear tires, and bucket.
Know the tractor is in good running condition. Any and all advice is appreciated.

other than the torque amplifier they are as good as any other model prior. i still will take a 560 over the 450. your call. prices are all
over the place, but in reality they are 2k tractor new tires and loader adds to the price.

Dad traded a REALLY nice Super M-TA for a 1957 450 gas and a dealer's delivery truck full of Fast Hitch
equipment. It was our big tractor. It was about as reliable as a blacksmith's anvil, Was a real good 4-
bottom tractor, the load of equipment included an IH #411 fast hitch fully mounted plow. Dad built a frt
weight bracket to keep the frt wheels on the ground, 450# was about right. We switched to a Case trailer
plow, 4-14's with a Midwest plow harrow. Ran 3rd gear in old corn ground, 2nd gear in old sod. Pulled our
12 ft disk everywhere in plowed ground in 3rd gear, disking corn stalks could run 4th gear in our leveler
fields. We used the TA a lot in our rolling clay hills, never had a problem with it, Dad would adjust it
by the manual once a year. The PTO was totally bullet proof. Dad had it repainted, the shop sand blasted
it, knocked the little breather vent off the hyd reservoir up under the hood, took 1-2 trips to town to
get that fixed, NOT a problem of the tractor, was the paint shops fault.
The gas tractor would burn a lot of gas when plowing, 4 to 5 gal/hr and 21 gal tank, light jobs like
cultivating I could run 2 days on a tank.
The same bearing problem everyone condems the 560 for was also present a bit in the 450, we could tell
the differential support bearings were getting loose by how the brakes felt. We replace the one side one
year, other side the next year, just had to pull the brakes.
We ran axle mount duals for any and all tillage with the 450. I can't really remember EVER adding a
quart of oil to the tractor. I did a couple oil changes.
Our 450 had the Behlen power steering, I could turn on headlands with an IH #461 frt mounted
cultivator at an idle with one hand on the spinner, other hand on hyd levers. We ran a pto powered Deere
#30 combine over 40 acres of oats every year with the 450. Could almost squeeze 2 days of combining out
of a tank of gas. Also got an IH #25 fully mounted stalk chopper with the tractor, only 5 ft cut but
built like a battleship, chopped corn stalks in 4th gear, 6-1/2 mph, could do 20 acres in 4 hours.
If the tractor doesn't want to come out of gear into nuetral, adjust the TA, pulling and tugging on
that long gearshift lever could get the shift lever out of the slots in the shift rails where it belongs.
If it won't shift to nuetral, pull the TA lever back.
We replaced our 450 with a 1963 4010 Deere diesel, started using the Deere spring of '69. Was ALWAYS
something wrong with the Deere, the 450 was always ready to do something.

They are just as Dr. Evil indicates. The TA is best kept being used. They like it. Treat the TA handle as a switch either pulled
back sharply, or near snapped forward. It is not to be feathered ever. Jim

You say you are not familiar with Farmalls, most everyone
knows of the Model T Ford and how dependable it was.
Secondly, most know that the Model A Ford was basically
an upgraded Model T and dependable as well. Well the
Farmall M is like the Model T in IH terms and the 450
would be like the upgraded Model A and just as
dependable. For upgrades from the M it has live hydraulics,
a live PTO and a TA. They also had great options available
like power steering and the Fast Hitch. Do not be scared
away from one because of the TA, shifting it rather quickly
and keeping it in proper adjustment will help it last a long
time. Especially since you will likely not be doing major
heavy field work with it 8 months of the year. A 450 being
described as ..solid as an anvil.. is a fair statement. If you
do not mind answering, are you buying or is the request for
some other reason?

Thanks for the replies.
Reason for the Farmall questions is that a morning coffee friend lost her husband to a bat bite last January. I had helped her husband with a fuel issues last fall and know the tractor is in good running condition. She had mentioned thoughts of selling the tractor so I offered to look up values associated with options available on said tractor. The info offered on this forum has been very helpful. She has a possible buyer in mind but have not heard anything since. I may consider buying it as it would be a definite upgrade from my '48 8N Ford. Trouble is I have '41 R2 Caterpillar, '65 HD3 Allis crawler, '65 Pettibone Skidder and the 8N. My wife is very forgiving to a point!!! Will keep you posted.