farmall 400 gas

thinking of buying a 400 need to know pros and cons any input will help.thanks

A 400 gas and its younger brother, the 450 gas really like fuel. They are both well built tractors and will give you many years of thirsty service. (My $0.02 worth. jal-SD)

A feller from across the fence wanted to borrow the 450 and an eleven foot chisel. When asked how he liked it he said it got 11' to the gallon.

steveormary

The 400 is a tough old tractor. One in good shape will do lots of work for many years. The money you would save over a new tractor that will do what a 400 will do will pay for a lot of gas. I sold my 400 but still run an M with a C-264 engine here on the farm. If pulling it very hard with a 3 X 14 plow it will burn 30-35 gallon a day(10 hours). About the same as the 2940 JD diesel I had pulling a 3 X 16 plow.

Had a SMTA built up to about 62 HP (had to to run new 717 New Holland chopper) Never missed lunch with it. Dry by noon. ED

The 400 is probably my favorite tractor. I learned to drive the one on our farm when I was 9 years old. It seemed like nothing was too much of a load for it when I was a kid. The neighbor kid and me had a plowing contest one day with me on our 400 and him on his dad"s 560 gas, both with 3 bottom 16 inch plows. Even with less horsepower, I beat him on every pass because he had more wheel spin than I did, and both tractors were weighted equally and had loaded rear tires. I think the balance of weight to power is just about as good as you can get. Another thing I remember is that whenever the neighbors got there Oliver 1850 or 1950 stuck, they always came over to borrow the 400 to pull them out and it always did. The thing just had perfect power to weight ratio. My Dad recently gave it to me and I will never part with it if I can help it. I totally rebuilt it in college in the mid eighties and it is still in great shape. As with any old tractor, you may have to spend a considerable amount of time and money bringing one back up to snuff depending on what shape it is in. In my humble opinion, it would make you a nice tractor for you if the price is right.

If I remember correctly, it had 6-volt electrical system. With everything working well, the electricals were o.k. but that big an engine turned over slowly in the winter. Otherwise a good tractor.

The only con to the tractor is that it's around 54 years old. As with any old tractor there will be lots of wear and tear on it and things will need fixing. These were very robust and well-built tractors; no one thing ever stood out as a "problem area," but by now you can expect pretty much anything to go wrong with it.