Posted by eric anderson on March 22, 1998 at 09:28:33:
In Reply to: Re: best tractor? posted by Dave on March 19, 1998 at 06:51:12:
I see your getting a lot of advice on makes and modeles. I've owned many makes and ages of tractor's. My advice is buy somthing you can get parts and service for many older tractor's don't have power stering or good hydralic's your going to have to buy somthing from at list the mid to late 50's to get the 2 things i mentoined. A wide front is also a must those little ford's you heard about are to lite for loader work.
unless you get into the newer ones I owned a 4000&5000 ford's they are excellent good brakes and fuel econo. many older tractor's also have poor brakes.
the worst loader a ever ran was on a jd g hand cluth no power sterring poor hdy's narrow front it did
narrow front had a simalar deal with a farmall m of witch i still own a jd a and a farmall m for pulling but for all around use. Ther is usually a dealer around for some of newer ones. You will also want3 point hitch good luck Eric:
: : We just bought a little 4+acre in Western Washington. We need to a tractor to prep and mow/maintain the property. I have 2 horses to do most of the "mowing". But, I need a tractor. My father is an old farmer/construction man (who loves JD's) but says a Ford is best for our needs. Its about a 2% grade with a bit of aswell to it. I want a front-loader (for snow and poop) with a disk and maybe a box scraper. I've been looking around, but I'm not sure what to look/ask for. I don't want to get taken advantage of (I'm female). What's the best older tractor and can I expect to pay more than 4k for one (my budget is tight)? Any advice about where to look and how much to pay?
: You've already gotten a lot of good advice on tractor features (ditto on the loader advice!). Here's one more consideration--what kind of dealers/parts stores are nearby? If you are going to use the tractor for real work, it nice to have parts availability within a short drive. You especially appreciate this when you've got limited time to work a field, clean the barn, etc. and the water pump, generator, starter, etc. goes out and you can't wait a week to finish. This is another plus for Ford, JD, IH, and MF, and often a negative for brands that no longer exist.