Ford 3000

[Muley Gil]

I'm looking at a Ford 3000 diesel with a FEL. Any comments pro or con on this tractor?

 

[EdGooding]

If everything works and you think the price is fair, buy it. I moved up from my '52 8N to a '73 gas 3000. They have bulletproof engines and are extremely reliable. The 3000 is also small enough to very nimble and you can get into tight spaces with it. One of my favorite Ford tractors. I can point you to manuals for it if you do buy it.

 

[Muley Gil]

Asking price is $6500. I can probably get it for less. I found several cheaper, but they were in the Midwest, hundreds of miles away from my area.

 

[sd455dan]

Asking price is $6500. I can probably get it for less. I found several cheaper, but they were in the Midwest, hundreds of miles away from my area.

I did a Lot of work with mine, The key was traction, the PO put 14.9 AG R1's on it and filled them with calcium for weight. I bought chains for the winter and always kept a heavy implement on the back. It needs the rear weight to get good ability to push into piles of snow or dig dirt. Although it took time and a lot of space I even was able to dig a grave for an elderly horse that passed away. (Long... ramp down). Leveled the ground for our modular home and also used it to build our horse barn and garage, lifting 30' long trusses to 24' high.

Ours had the Vickers crank driven pump to drive the FEL hydraulics which were almost to fast with a 17 gallon per minute pump. It was a great mowing tractor with independent PTO and the SOS 10 speed.

Today I would not recommend that transmission because the mechanics and parts are almost non existent for them anymore if it were to have problem,. an 8 speed with the 2 stage live clutch would be good. The Ford 3 cylinders are great torquey engines and long lived. make sure it has the power assisted steering! The FEL will be super slow if powered off of the 3 points hydraulic pump- too slow imo, you want the crankshaft driven pump.

Oh and fire it up from cold, My 3000 was not a great cold starter. Definitely needed the inline kats coolant heater in the cold weather.

 

[EdGooding]

The blue and white Fords (Thousand Series) are very popular here in central Virginia as small-acreage farming and utility tractors. Right now, in this area, $6,500 is a tad high for a 3000 unless the tractor is in really good condition with good paint. Diesel models usually bring more money than the gas models. If it is in good working condition and you can get it for a little less, I'd go for it.

I'll second what was said above about the SOS tranny - VERY hard to find parts or someone who knows how to work on them. I would avoid the SOS "jerkomatic" right now. I had the 8-speed with 2-stage clutch live PTO, and it did all that I needed.

Also agree on the traction. I had loaded tires and still had to use chains to move much snow, which thankfully we don't get too much of here in this part of Virginia.