Does Anyone Buy Used Tractors?

[CloverKnollFarms]

We went through a large variety of silage blowing tractors depending on what was available and what silos we were using.
When using the old wood stave silos and the Papec chopper blower or the table blower it was the WD Chalmers and a flat belt drive.
When we went up to the early self unloading wagons and the first table blower the Farmall 400 had been replaced by the Farmall 560
so the 400 went on the blower.
That was also about the time the first concrete stave silo went up on the farm an 18? x 70 footer by that time we also had a Ford 5000, and an IH 656 hydro.
Then the Ford 8000 hit the yard and the 656 was the blower tractor and a couple of more 70 ft concrete stave silos and a 1066 IH to the fleet
with the Ford 8000 on the blower.
Then the fist IH Magnums came in a 7110, then a 7230 and a 7120, and a green one slid in a hopped up 4430, and a 1286
Then another new Deere I don't recall the model it was a troublesome thing it had an intermediate drive shaft between the engine and the transmission that couldn't be lubricated, it was repaired under warranty a few times and then upgraded to the new series that could be lubricated.
Didn't keep it much longer and the PUMA 125 came in then a NH 6050, and a few used Deeres 4020, another 4430. And a couple of Ih 10 series
for road hauling, ex hot farm pulling tractors that can haul fast on the roads.

We would blow into an 80’ Harvestore silo with the 574

 

[oosik]

I would have considered it. If there were any used tractors under 250 hp in this neck of the woods. Same for used implements also.

 

[Tractorable]

I choose one of two paths. Either pay cash for old used equipment that I can wrench on myself or finance new and hold. In recent years I’ve moved more towards buy new and hold.

Tractors are expensive and most folks don’t have the cash laying around to purchase out right, or it’s wiser to keep your cash invested in a liquid account working for you rather than in a depreciating asset. Doesn’t make sense to borrow at high interest rates for used equipment that costs nearly as much as new.

Also, depends on what phase of life you’re in. If you have a full time job and young children, there’s no time for wrenching on equipment, you need something that starts and runs every time. If you’re retired you can be choosy about how and when you do things.

 

[Jimbo16720]

Anything can break no matter what the age. I've seen new break and old break. If I can find what I'm looking for at a decent price, I'm not worried about the age, I can fix it myself. Some young kids can't even change a flat tire anymore. I learned by doing it and am glad I did.

 

[mo1]

You’re looking at heavy, high power farm tractors in your dissertation, not scut, cut, and utility sized tractors that most in this forum have. A farm tractor may get 2000 hours or more in a year, while these smaller tractors never accumulate that many hours in the owner’s lifetime.

The smaller tractors don’t have replaceable sleeves, nor do any medium duty trucks, except at the highest level of the class. Wet sleeve engines are pretty much limited to class 8 trucks, or at least class 7 abov 40000 lb gvwr.

I was specifically discussing utility sized and larger tractors as that is often the smallest tractor where the manufacturer actually makes the entire tractor including the engine. All of Deere's current utility tractors have either the 3029 or 4045 engine, both of which are wet-sleeve engines. Kubota's and CNH/FPT's websites have fairly little information, from elsewhere it looks like the FPT four-cylinders are dry sleeve (F34, N45) as well as Kubota's V3800 and larger engines used in their utility tractors appear to be dry sleeve engines. I can't find anything on the 3 cylinder FPT R22 in the NH Workmaster 50/60/70 and CaseIH Farmall 50A/60A/70A. With older tractors, most New Generation and later Deeres are sleeved, so were tractors using Perkins and Continental engines, many Internationals, and some Cases were sleeved too. Anything with a B or C Cummins and many Fords were parent bore.

Regarding trucks, the International/Navistar DT/HT (such as the DT466) and the later MaxxForce DT/9/10 were all wet sleeve engines and were widely used in medium-duty trucks.

2000 hours is a huge number of hours per year, that's 8 hours a day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. 200 hours per year is more typical of a utility tractor. Rarely do you see more than 500 hours per year on a tractor.

 

[finn1]

2000 hours or more? Doubt that.

Central Valley in California is where I saw that when I worked in Engineering for the Red Tractor company in the seventies and eighties.

Not common for small operations, but seen sometimes with the big guys.

 

[finn1]

I was specifically discussing utility sized and larger tractors as that is often the smallest tractor where the manufacturer actually makes the entire tractor including the engine. All of Deere's current utility tractors have either the 3029 or 4045 engine, both of which are wet-sleeve engines. Kubota's and CNH/FPT's websites have fairly little information, from elsewhere it looks like the FPT four-cylinders are dry sleeve (F34, N45) as well as Kubota's V3800 and larger engines used in their utility tractors appear to be dry sleeve engines. I can't find anything on the 3 cylinder FPT R22 in the NH Workmaster 50/60/70 and CaseIH Farmall 50A/60A/70A. With older tractors, most New Generation and later Deeres are sleeved, so were tractors using Perkins and Continental engines, many Internationals, and some Cases were sleeved too. Anything with a B or C Cummins and many Fords were parent bore.

Regarding trucks, the International/Navistar DT/HT (such as the DT466) and the later MaxxForce DT/9/10 were all wet sleeve engines and were widely used in medium-duty trucks.

2000 hours is a huge number of hours per year, that's 8 hours a day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. 200 hours per year is more typical of a utility tractor. Rarely do you see more than 500 hours per year on a tractor.

You’re talking about tractors that have been out of production for thirty or forty years. International for one hasn’t made a small or medium sI e wet sleeve tractor engine since the mid eighties, and nobody that I know of makes a dry sleeve Diesel anymore. Perkins was probably the last. They’re all parent bore engines that have to be pulled and over bored now.

The 466 was discontinued almost ten years ago, as was the 530 and 570. Volume was pretty low the last few years.

Larger, class 8 Cummins, Detroit, and the more recent European Derived engines are Wet sleeves.

The Deere three cylinder is a relic from the late sixties or early seventies. Good engine, but not very cost effective, which is w it’s not used anymore in their smaller equipment. I had one in my skid steer, but they switched to lower cost parent bore engines shortly after mine was made. That would be over ten years ago.

That’s why the DT466 engine was discontinued. Customers liked the wet sleeves, but simply wouldn’t pay the premium in a medium truck. Navistar uses Cummins B series purchased engines to cover that market now.

 

[tradosaurus]

I agree, new tractors are very expensive now, but it is better to spend more money on a new one than to buy a tractor and spend money on repairing parts

Buy once, cry once.

It's like buying side by sides. Ad says never mudded, never sunk. Yeah, right.

 

[stumblinhorse]

I like to buy vehicles, houses and tractors with just enough use to prove they work. Don’t have a dealer very close for anything. So manufacturer makes no difference. Just had to pay $40 shipping to get $20 of hydraulic fluid shipped to me. So if it has some use it proves it works and the dealer kinks are out. That is what I look for, nationwide.

 

[Hay Dude]

I was specifically discussing utility sized and larger tractors as that is often the smallest tractor where the manufacturer actually makes the entire tractor including the engine. All of Deere's current utility tractors have either the 3029 or 4045 engine, both of which are wet-sleeve engines. Kubota's and CNH/FPT's websites have fairly little information, from elsewhere it looks like the FPT four-cylinders are dry sleeve (F34, N45) as well as Kubota's V3800 and larger engines used in their utility tractors appear to be dry sleeve engines. I can't find anything on the 3 cylinder FPT R22 in the NH Workmaster 50/60/70 and CaseIH Farmall 50A/60A/70A. With older tractors, most New Generation and later Deeres are sleeved, so were tractors using Perkins and Continental engines, many Internationals, and some Cases were sleeved too. Anything with a B or C Cummins and many Fords were parent bore.

Regarding trucks, the International/Navistar DT/HT (such as the DT466) and the later MaxxForce DT/9/10 were all wet sleeve engines and were widely used in medium-duty trucks.

2000 hours is a huge number of hours per year, that's 8 hours a day, 5 days per week, 50 weeks per year. 200 hours per year is more typical of a utility tractor. Rarely do you see more than 500 hours per year on a tractor.

I’d guess 1 in every 100,000 tractors gets 2000 hours a year on it. Thats an insane number of hours. Even 750 hours a year is considered a lot

In-framing a DT is so common, they have the rebuild kits complete with sleeves, pistons, etc.