Need a cheap 25hp old tractor

[jacspath]

OK, who doesn't want one of these, but I guess I got to ask since I have been looking for a long time and my L185DT is on its last wheels. It is leaking fluids from absolutely everywhere and the clutch is just barely hold on as long as I don't try to use it in 4High [well also 3H unless on level road]. I'm down to running my 6 Bhog in 4L and that can't last much longer.
I have been advise to NEVER try to loosen any bolts as they are likely to break [from rust damage].
Now for the really rough part. I'm OLD and while I can fix most things [if they are fixable] and happy to spend time with my wrenches and oxy welder I don't have the $$$'s to put into anything even close to new [retired on SS and a small pension but my 9Acs are paid for that God].
If anyone knows of a reasonably priced [OK, I can maybe pull $5k] tractor with a FEL [I have the mower and a 3pt backhoe and a snow plow and a york rake which is all the implements I need] and 3pt with rubber that will last me till I kick off in the NE US please let me know. I just need to mow my 3Ac meadow, snow plow my reasonably flat 1400' lane and then rake it back into shape every spring and pull the odd tree fall out of the woods occasionally for firewood. I generally am leary of HST but, hey, why not if that what is available.

 

[bmaverick]

Bummer your up in the NE part of the US. Very hard to get any machine, even used that isn't abused. My Bro-in-law had to fight his way to land a machine in the 35Hp range. He had to drive about 250-miles one way across NYS to go fetch it. And yes, it had a FEL with is one big reason why he went that far to get it.

On this forum and the GT forum, people are taking the SCUT machines or big lawn tractors and doing DIY FEL additions because machines just are not out there to be had.

My machine I bought 5 years back, a 1981 fully restored to like 'new', jumped $3K in price. Things are getting very unobtainable.

 

[rScotty]

I don't know what to say, except that I now understand the East Coast rust problem. I'm a rural westerner who has been to the East Coast area now every winter for 3 years and am I'm just amazed by how things rust solid out there.
I've got friends who only lease instead of buy because their equipment is trash after a few years.

That's not the case here in the arid west. Most places don't salt the roads and humidity is low. Old paint may fade & rubber hardens, but they don't rust. If we don't want to use an implement/tractor/truck for 20years we just park it by a fence row and it is pretty much the same a few decades later. Obviously it will need attention, but then is usable.

You might want to look for an excuse for a road trip.

 

[sheamus]

Lol. When I moved out there, I remember leaving tools outside overnight so could finish a project in the morning
I swear to god my pliars and hammer hand traces of rust on them overnight. It is crazy.

In the prairies, you could find a 50 year old pair of pliars in the dirt in a pasture and still use them.