Buying Advice Buying A Used Case 885 - Enough HP?

[DBeacham]

Hi guys.

I'm looking at buying a 1988 Case 885 4wd with a loader with 4600 hours on it.
We've agreed to $14,900 for the purchase price.
The tractor is real clean, has been kept inside, and sounds great.

I'm buying it to make hay and move / feed round bales.
I do not own a round baler yet but plan to buy one.

The HP rating at the PTO for this tractor is 72hp.

I'll be baling approximately 40 acres of orchard grass / alfalfa mix and my land is flat.

Any comments / suggestions / advice about this tractor, the price, and whether it has sufficient horsepower to run a round baler would be greatly appreciated.

I have my eye on a New Holland 634 and a New Holland 650 round baler.

I was looking at an IH 1066 but not sure I really want or need a tractor that big.
I've always subscribed to the theory that you can never have too much HP but the IH is only 2WD and will be harder
to maneuver when moving round bales inside my barn.

 

[dieselknudt]

You should have plenty of power with the 885.
If I remember right that was an European model and parts may be not as common.
They also use some electronics for the hi/lo and 4wd. I know that has given one of my neighbors some grief. Although this sounds like it is in a lot nicer shape than his!

 

[RedNeckRacin]

My neighbor has an 885 of that vintage that we used to make thousands of square bales a year with a 9 foot haybine and a square baler. It has very little electronics on it, hi-lo-reverse range selector and 4 speed tranny. The 4wd was great for on hills, but I preferred the 884 2wd tractor for raking or tedding the hay. I think both tractors have around 6k hours on them and no major problems.

 

[Farmer495]

Hi guys.

I'm looking at buying a 1988 Case 885 4wd with a loader with 4600 hours on it.
We've agreed to $14,900 for the purchase price.
The tractor is real clean, has been kept inside, and sounds great.

I'm buying it to make hay and move / feed round bales.
I do not own a round baler yet but plan to buy one.

The HP rating at the PTO for this tractor is 72hp.

I'll be baling approximately 40 acres of orchard grass / alfalfa mix and my land is flat.

Any comments / suggestions / advice about this tractor, the price, and whether it has sufficient horsepower to run a round baler would be greatly appreciated.

I have my eye on a New Holland 634 and a New Holland 650 round baler.

I was looking at an IH 1066 but not sure I really want or need a tractor that big.
I've always subscribed to the theory that you can never have too much HP but the IH is only 2WD and will be harder
to maneuver when moving round bales inside my barn.

An 885 will easily do what you want. You have double the power needed for a 634 baler. (I run a 630 on 42 PTO HP)

Should run any 4x4 or 4x5 baler easy enough. Seems to me a 650 is a 4x6 baler, might be at limit on that, but should bale 40 acres easy.

Solid tractor with no junk on it. Sounds like a good buy from your description.

 

[DBeacham]

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it. I bought the tractor and so far I am happy with it. Now looking at hay equipment.

 

[Farmer495]

Thanks for the info guys. I appreciate it. I bought the tractor and so far I am happy with it. Now looking at hay equipment.

View attachment 440156

Looks in great shape, I think you did really good on it. It's even better that it's got the ALO loader instead of the 2255. At least you can easily use modern loader attachments.

It's the 16F/8R trans so you've got lots of speeds for haying and still have a "shuttle" for loader work. It has nice flat tops (NOT SMASHED!) and extendable links....awesome config.

I am sure you can get a factory ROPS for it if you want one, same ROPS used for many years 84/85/95/4200/C series. Muffler just likely bent, you can straighten it if you are CAREFUL when the engine is hot. They bend on the top of the manifold where the clamp is.

Looks like they redid the paint and decals, if it was me I'd get the factory decals for it and put them on the right direction, but that's only a trivial cosmetic detail.

Congrats on the purchase. You can easily run any hay equipment for 40 acres. I'd be shopping for a 4x5 baler and a 9 foot discbine to go with it.