I don't understand something.

[Jstpssng]

have a very old 89 hp 10,000 lb. tractor that I bought for sentimental reasons, but it is still a brute that builds adrenaline in your veins when the power is called for.

If you tried to sell it you probably wouldn't get much. Yet as you say, it's there when you need it. My father had a 1975 (?) Ford 4400 gas tractor like that. It was only a few years old when he bought it and got a lot of use for the first 10 years or so... not so much once he retired but it was always there. He thought about selling it a couple of years before he died but the first potential buyer gave him such a lowball offer that he parked it back in the barn and never moved again. After he passed away that was the first thing my brother wanted to sell, but I resisted. He kept showing me similar tractors on Tractor House and other sites thinking that $4000 was a good price. It was in the barn and had set for so long that I didn't want to mess with it inside for fear of fire, so had to wait for him to help me drag it out. It hadn't been in the daylight 5 minutes when somebody offered me a low price for it... I wasn't 100% sure that I could get it running so told him I'd think about it. Then my brother got involved so I had to agree to sell it... then found out it had to be running first. It took me a day to get it started, then it went down the road for a pittance... $3000 or some stupid amount like that.

 

[4570Man]

Is your dog house fully ready with indoor plumbing? You are going to need it.

I think pretty high of my dog. I don’t think living in his house would be that insulting.

 

[Black Dog 2]

Some people have more than one machine. My father's 2008 L2800 has >400 hours on it. I put that many on in two years. Yet when he bought it he also had 2 8Ns, a John Deere L, and his Ford 4400. He sold the L and one of the 8s, gave me the other because it needed quite a bit of work. Then he bought a nice running TO35 which he used for mowing and other chores.

Other people want a tractor but only use it for dedicated reasons. One person in town has an LS which he only uses for his garden. He's very frugal and intends to keep it for the rest of his life.

125 hours per year is quite a bit for a homeowner.

I have a Kubota L6060 with a bucket, grapple, box blade and more. I used it less than 100 hours last year, but it can do more work in a day that I could do in a month by myself.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
Does he let you sit on his couch, or do you have to use the floor?

 

[55RRR]

Value is not always measured in number of hours.

Motto and mindset of us semi-retired types.

 

[Tony H]

OK, I don't understand a lot of things, but that's another thread.


My little squirt is approaching 4 years old (wow, has it really been that long?) and it approaching 500 hours, or around 125 hours a year.. I don't use it very much. It sits for weeks sometime between tasks if I don't have to mow.

But I keep seeing threads and posts about 20, 30, 40 year old tractors with hour readings that work out to 20 hours a year or less. Is it that they have more than one machine and each gets lesser use than if they only had one? How do you spend $20,000 or so on something you use so little?

People spent 1/4 million on a boat they use, sometimes 4 months a year. Hours a year is deceiving. Some folks let their machine idle as they getting and do something before hopping back in. Others shut them off for a quick Pee break.
I have 100k miles on my motorcycle, friends have Bikes that are older then mine, 4k miles.

 

[charles todd]

OK, I don't understand a lot of things, but that's another thread.


My little squirt is approaching 4 years old (wow, has it really been that long?) and it approaching 500 hours, or around 125 hours a year.. I don't use it very much. It sits for weeks sometime between tasks if I don't have to mow.

But I keep seeing threads and posts about 20, 30, 40 year old tractors with hour readings that work out to 20 hours a year or less. Is it that they have more than one machine and each gets lesser use than if they only had one? How do you spend $20,000 or so on something you use so little?

I have 800 hrs in 8 years on a 72hp cab tractor. Mainly mowing 50 acres and road maintenance.

CT

 

[charles todd]

I also just enjoy bushhogging in the open air (no cab), even if it takes longer.

That's cute. 100 degrees, dust and bees. No thank you.

CT

 

[ArlyA]

And we sold our 2014, Polaris 6x6 which about 100 hours on it. (do wish we HAD a compact tractor)

 

[Mudfarmer]

I had a Ford 1700 that I bought in 1980 until I traded it on my Deere 3005 in 2009. It was my only tractor for all those years, and I used it a lot. But it only had about a thousand hours on it when traded. Retirement clearly has done something about my hours of tractor use. The 2009 Deere has 800+ hours on it, my Kubota B2650 bought new in 2019 has 300+ hours, and my Kubota B2710 bought used in 2011 has 1000+ hours, six-hundred of which are mine. Go figure.