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What tractors paid for themselves?

O

olliekid

Member
There are always lots of good stories on here and I was wondering what tractors that you own or have owned that have earned their keep and paid for themselves over time by being durable, reliable and a workhorse.

For my Dad, it is his John Deere 830 3 cylinder. Only 35hp but he has owned it since it was new and it has never let us down and has had minimal issues. It has certainly earned its keep. Until we got the 2 big tractors, it did everything on the farm.

So lets hear your stories about tractors that have earned their keep like our John Deere has earned its.
 
My Allis B has paid for itself many times over. I use the sickle bar to mow lots in the summer and in the spring I plow Gardens with it. Plus the shear enjoyment of it is priceless.

My dad's D-15 has paid for itself. He bought it new and it has done everything and then some on his farm. Never let him down and is stone reliable.
 
Keeping and tending and feeding a pair or two pair of draft horses cost the equivalent of maybe two tractors. So all of them did pay for themselves. The few that didn't were experimental models and never produced in large enough quantities to count.
There were some that were difficult, but then go feed the horses. Jim
 
I use 3 Farmall Cubs for the flower gardens and a Kubota for snow /loader use. All of them have have earned their keep. The only tractor that did not was a Ford 8N I picked up cheap = That worthless thing went down the road. I guess it paid for itself because I did sell it for more then I paid for it.
 
I don't think any of them haven't. The 4020 and the 2520 just get more valuable by the day!
The one I was the happiest to see go, the Steiger Turbo Tiger II, actually held its' own. For what I paid for it, put into it, and got out of it in the ten years I ran it and then sold it, I couldn't have rented or leased that kind of power, and had it at my disposal at all times.
 
The best candidates I can think of are the John Deere 2 cyl diesels. They, quite literally, "paid for themselves" over their gasoline counterparts, particularly if you still regularly use them. A lot of that is due to the increased cost of fuel over the years but when you compare a 730 gasser vs a 730 diesel, the choice should be a no-brainer for most. You could have, as I stated, literally paid for the cost of the tractor in fuel savings.
 
Ferguson TO-20. Garden work, bush hog, spread manure, ted hay, haul the bale wagons, haul the fire wood, dug post holes, plows snow. Sips gas.
 
Ford 8N. Dad dairied for 14 years, it was the only tractor he ever had. Spread manure, pasture harrowed, scraped the slab, scooped malt out of the pit, mowed, raked and baled hay. He sold it about 30 years after he bought it, I thing he got a few hundred more than he paid.
 
My JD 420W and JD 40C have both earned me more than they cost, therefore I guess they have paid for themselves
 
I have a M.M. Jet star with a loader that I've been using since 5th grade. 12 years later my dad gave it to us for a wedding present. No matter how bad the job is, its better on that tractor.
 
For me it has to be my Massey Ferguson 590.I bought it when I was 15 in 1976, brand new, it is now heading into the third time round the clock and still working with the loader filling silage,bale wrapping, rotavating or whatever!
Paid for long ago!
Sam
 
This is not your typical dollar earner, It was a 1938 Massey Harris 101 Super, It paid for it self winning tractor pulls plus a shelf of trophies. Just thought of another, a 1950 Garden-All walk behind tractor, it cost me $335 when new, in the next 62 years of service the engine valves were ground one time.
 
Uncle of mine bought a new tractor. A few months later the dealer called him and reminded him that he still needed to pay for the tractor.

My uncle said, "What do you mean, I pay for it? When you sold it to me, you told me it would pay for itself!"
 
Super A my dads folks bought new in 1954.Still have it and I plowed little over an acre with it yesterday.Still running like a top with minimal work since new.Paid for itself a long time ago.I love it.
 
I have 2 or 3 that have over time more then payed for them self's #1 is a Ford 841 with loader and it has been on the farm since around 1982 or so and has done every thing from baling hay to snow plowing to moving tree when a tornado went though this area. Th other is the 1935 JD-B my grand father got back in 1940 and it has been used for all sorts o stuff over the years. The one I can not be 100% sure of is my 1955 Oliver S88 that I use to bale hay every year and that is about all it ever does so hard to say
 
My Super M(since '80) and my 706dt(310))since '84).Those two did all of the farming before I bought the '12' in 2000.
 
What?
A tractor that pays for itself?
That's a novel idea.
I thought we bought these old tractors just to whiz all of our excess money on.
 
The only tractor on this farm that has paid for itself is the Deere 630 because it was the loader tractor for 40 years. It hauled a lot of manure and ground a lot of feed for the livestock that was paying for the groceries I was putting on the table. Before that it was the big horse on the farm for fieldwork.

Dollar and cents wise, the field work tractors I have now, have not and will not pay for themselves. I can have someone else do the fieldwork for me cheaper than I can own the machinery, and I did just that for 7 or 8 years. But I'm back to doing it myself just because. Jim
 
A second hand John Deere diesel,narrow frt. It was my # two tractor on 800+ acres of row crops in the 1970 s.It was used for about everything that s done on a crop farm. The toughest job was running a #227 picker with a # 50? sheller in Hi mosture corn. Only time the 70 was in the shop was for a few spring tuneups, Never once let us down in 9 years, even at 10* below zero. clint
 
Guys, OK,,,Bought my 966 in March of 92, for
$6500. Used in in my cattle operation for till mid Summer of 97 (1st of Aug). Them a local ranch sold to an Austin Tx investment group, they were needing help to get the place in shape to resell. I got the contract to mow the place, every acre that was not in coastal fields. @ $1000/week I got 8 solid weeks of shredding out of the deal. So if my 966 never turns another tap for me it has paid for itself an some! That is just one of a hand full if times my tractor has paid for itself in work.
Later,
John A.
 
y brother in law bought a WD 45 with plow and cultivator in 1958 for $1750 used. He farmed with it intil 1973 bought 3 farms and sent two boys to college, one of which went on to medicasl school. He died young and his boys sol the tractor alone for about $2000. The plow and cultivator was sold for scrap.

When he died I made up a card with a picture of a WD 45 and a script reading " The Tractor That Wore Out The Man"
 
1st series, gas wide front, wheel weights, bored over, higher compression, perfect amplitorque, and good paint. My dad is a stickler for maintaining equipment. When he brought us the tractor, he brought the tire chains, all of the oem manuals, a heat houser, and all of the old take off parts that had been replaced.
 
My 1948 Allis B. Dad bought it new, traded a 1939 B and $675 for it with a new mower and plow. It's been overhauled twice and had one clutch. It did all the work on our poultry farm for the first 10 years and still is in perfect condition.
 
1946 AC WC was my great grandpas first and only tractor. Switching from horses I bet it was an improvement. This was the only tractor on the farm for 80 acres. Few head gaskets along the way and a rusty gas tank, but it still chugs along.

Still have the tractor, we move a little snow with it now and then. Someday it will get a little resto and put back to work. Its not worth a lot but its family now.
 

Yes, I imagine it was (if NO Power Steering) as HARD to steer as our JD "B" with a #226 Mounted picker..!!!!!!
I was the young fella that seemed to always get the nod to dive under it and DIG that COLD, COLD mud out from between the front wheels, before it Freezes, when we were shutting it off for the nite..
There were NO Rubber Gloves to help keep the COLD away from your hands...they felt like clubs, while digging that MUD out...!!!
Ron..
 
A little off the question. I have never owned a John Deere 4020. But if you bought a new one and took care of it, you would have a tractor that is close to 40 years old. You could sale it and make more money than you paid for it. I don"t think you will get a profit off of a IH966, case 930, allis 190xt, or oliver 1850.
 
my cousins could of bought a 4020 powershift new for 8k in 1971. They have 10 tractors and they couldve just used it some, and resold it a couple years ago for 20 plus thousand.

But the other tractors they bought new including a 5000, 7000 both sold for more than they bought them after lots of use.
 
1952 8N. Built 2 large farm ponds when bought new by my uncle. Sold to a man in town and a little while later my dad bought it and used it mowing pasture, custom spraying, pumping water for irrigation, plowing gardens and custom boring thousands of post holes in the late fifties and early sixties for 10 cents each. At Thanksgiving, my dad would mow lanes in 3 foot tall serecia and us boys and two uncles would stand at the end of the lanes with shotguns while daddy drug a long pole through the unmowed serecia while we shot the rabbits running out. Daddy used a 12 guage pump and would shoot from the tractor seat. Then used on 150 acres by two uncles to mow, drag land prepping for planting, dragging logs up to the sawmill, stretching woven wire fences, moving dirt with a scoop pan and a scrape blade. After they retired, it was given to me and gets used every week plowing, brush hogging, dragging logs, working in garden, mowing a couple of acres with the finish mower, pulling the same dirt scoop, pulling scrape blade, mowing hay with a JD #9 mower,hauling firewood up to shop and house and any job on the place something needs pulled around.
Rebuilt the engine 55 years ago for the first time when I was 14. Have rebuilt it 5 more times over the years. Repaired cam and quadrant in hydraulics last year. Plan on doing rear hubs and breaks this year.
I think it has paid for itself a few times.
Richard
 
Great Dad you got, I hate to throw away the old parts myself....never know, even if you may need them for sample, only! -- Just bought one:

http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=mm&th=62745

Have a great Sunday, Akelly!
 
Only thing I ever had that truely "paid for itself" was the first round baler that I had. It was one of the first ones around here and I did a lot of custom work with it. I literally made as much as I paid for it in about a season and a half.
 
A Ford 5600 Blue Power Special bought new. Used that tractor for 16 years and 5000 hours with only 1 oil seal and 1 light switch replacement. Yeah, I did put on a new set of tires and several batteries during that time period. Best tractor I ever owned, traded it for new one that isn't half the tractor. Joe
 
The answer to that question is too obvious, all tractors pay for themselves. A therapist cost around $100/hr. Tractor therapy is much better. So, 1000 hours of tractor therapy at $100/hr is worth $100,000. All my tractors are paid for many times over. Is you have more expensive tractors, you need more tractor therapy.
 
My dad bought a 1955 FORD 640 that had been dealer painted and decaled to look like a 641. It had low hours as it was bought new by a doctor that seldom used it. Dad knew the doctor so the low hours were correct.
Do not recall what he paid for it, but it has paid for itself many times over. It still runs but will be completely restored soon.
It does not have the traction or weight transfer of a simlar John Deere from that era.
 
George you are sooo right.

After a totally aggravating morning with the kids as the Mrs was at work, it was 2:30 in the afternoon when I finally got out to the tractor to move some rocks around. Teenager calls, "Dad, can you pick me up?" Uh, you said you would be right back like 2hrs ago. Where are you? About 1 1/2 away.
WALK, How come when I ask you to do something you blow me off or ignore me and when you call for a ride I am supposed to drop everything I am doing and come get you? WALK, click!
His friends mom dropped him off!

3 hrs. of moving rocks and gravel the driveway looked a lot better, the rock garden had another half dozen glittering rocks in it and I was totally happy.

Pete
 
my ford 8000 deffinitally it was my second tractor and it was my biggest tractor till about 12 yrs ago then it became a case 4690 which i sold about 6yrs ago because it was tired. actaully traded it for my nh tm190 in 06 then went to an auction and bought it back for 2100 and traded it again for a bodco tanker spreader where it sold at the same auction for 5500 or so and then again 2yrs later sold at same auction only beat all to heck when it was in great shape when i owned it and probly all parted out and junked by now. didnt watch it sell the last time. i think that is probly the last auction it will ever go to again. ya bt the 8000 is the only tractor we have that has worked as hard as that one and its been good too me although its getting tired again. someday sheell be full of energy again.
 
You could say that my first little tractor pain for itself and it's bigger replacement. Bought it for a real good price before it hit the antique "I want it" stage, used it 10 years, and sold it for enough for the new one and put 4 new tires on it (the new one)...
 
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