New to farm/tractors/living in country.

[cbpldc]

In the next month, I will be purchasing an old house on about 3.5 acres of land. I will be moving from a 30k person town on less than .5 acres to a house about 20 minutes from the closest hamlet. I'm quite excited about it, and I grew up kind of in the country, but never as the owner of a property.

It has about half the property is mowable, front yard type grass that could be mowed in a couple of hours with a run-of-the-mill Home Depot special, but back appears to have been used by cattle and the ground is quite uneven and appears to be mowable only with a bush hog.

I currently own the $99 Walmart special push mower but I am fascinated with tractors. I'd love to have a smaller tractor that I could mow with, dig post holes (I think I want to raise goats!), clear brush, haul and spread gravel and push snow around.

I have zero experience with tractors nor do I know the first thing about them. I'm a novice welder, and am experience auto mechanic, though, so I think I could transfer some skills over.

I found an old 1952 Olver Row something (I forgot the name). The owner said it runs very well and I don't know if I could put a belly mower on it, or if it would even do any of the things that I want to do, which is why I'm asking for help. I've seen quite a few Fords that look decent, but again, I really have no idea even where to start, so I look to you good folks on the internet to educate me while I search this fantastic site.

I'd like to keep it around $4 to $5k.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[3RRL]

Welcome to TBN, Chris.
I'm a new tractor owner too. Also mechanically inclined and can weld some. With that in mind, I purchased a brand new Chinese tractor figuring I'd be handy enough to deal with what ever....
At first, like you, I looked at buying a used name brand tractor. But after reading information here on TBN, it made sense for me to buy what I did. I have had no regrets and the darn thing is brand new!
The reason I say that, from your property description and mechanical inclinations, you may find a small CUT...brand new...in your price range.
There are many choices and I'm sure the more experienced members will fill your ears with lot's of other good suggestions.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Chris, I'm an Oliver guy, but I have to tell you that the old Row Crops are not the best mowers, and I am not aware of any that would be good candidates to fit out with a belly mower. I'd love to see someone else get into Olivers, they are great tractors, but on 3.5 acres, a Row Crop is likely just too big of a machine.

If you want to play with old tractors (something that I think is a fun thing to do) then I'd push you to one of the older Farmall Cub tractors. They are smaller and lighter and very commonly used as mowers. Parts are easy to come by for the Farmall Cubs and there are plenty of collectors, and even a great club to help you out.

Older tractors have great character and bring smiles to the faces of everyone who sees them. They offer things that no modern tractor can offer.

 

[IslandTractor]

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Older tractors have great character and bring smiles to the faces of everyone who sees them. They offer things that no modern tractor can offer. )</font>

Bob,

No doubt you are correct but as your nostalgic advice is going to a newbie, I think it is also appropriate to mention that the older style tractors had/have fewer if any safety devices, are generally not as easy to maintain as newer tractors (parts, dealer support etc), and that while there are clearly enthusiasts who can help, that such tractors are most often kept around by families with a great deal of experience with that particular tractor. I don't think I would be going too far to say that that these older tractors are not the ideal starter tractors today. Perhaps you will disagree but it would be useful for Chris to hear the pros and cons. As a counterpoint, given his acknowledged mechanical skills, I would suggest he look at what 3-4K could buy him in a 10-15 year old B series Kubota or perhaps a slightly older Ford or something of that type. These would not have all the features of a new tractor but I think would be better first tractors for a novice than a fifty year old Ag machine.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Fewer safety devices exists on the old iron, that is for sure. You won't find a ROPS and you won't find a PTO shield.

But as for parts, if you buy something like a Farmall Cub, those parts are actully far more common than most people might guess.

And as for repairs and maintainence, it is my experience that those old tractors are much easier to maintain than the newer units. They were built simple back then, a crescent wrench will be the tool used most often and won't be needed very often.

But to your point about buying a 10-15 year old Kubota or perhaps a mid-80's Ford, I think you will find that most of those tractors will not have a PTO shield, most will not have a ROPS, and if Chris happens to buy one that was not in production for a long time, I suspect his parts supply would actually be more limited than the Farmall Cubs.

Honestly I would not recommend the Oliver tractor, and a Super 66 might fit his bill, but not the Row Crop "XX" that he was looking at. Oliver's take a lot more dedication to find parts for than a Farmall Cub. And the Farmall Cub is perfect in size for 3.5 acres. There are many of them floating around that already have good quality Woods Mid-Mount-Mowers installed on them.

Would a modern tractor do the job better? Sure it would. It would also cost more. But would a tractor from 1985 to 1995 be significantly easier to maintain or operate? No, I don't think so. In fact I'd say they might be more complicated, especially the small CUTs from the 90's. JMHO

 

[cbpldc]

Bob and everyone else,
Thank you very much for your input on this subject. I've been eyeballing the Farmall Cub, and what appears to be it's newer relative, the International Cub Cadet. I also saw a nice restored 1946 Ford 2N (it's relatively close to where I live) for $3700 with a mower and blade.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1944-Restored-Antique-Ford-Tractor-8n_W0QQitemZ7574723475QQcategoryZ71367QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It seems like these would be tractors that I could use year-round.

I've also tossed around the idea of a 4 wheeler with a mower attachment, for some playtime fun later. Anyone else ever do this?

Chris

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Seems to me I've read all sorts of posts by folks with 4 wheelers who tried and did not like the idea of using them as mowers.

The Ford 2N/9N/8N tractors are pretty big/heavy for 3.5 acres, while they are useable, I'd go a bit smaller/lighter. If you really like the Fords then I would look for a mid-50's unit, like an NAA. They had improvements the 2N/9N and 8N did not have.

The International Cubs are simply an evolutionary improvement over the Farmall Cubs. I would suggest any of them would be good choices.

The heavier Fords will do a better job with a blade. The lighter more nimble Cubs will do a better job mowing. Keep in mind you likely will spend many more hours mowing than doing blade work.

 

[tjkadar]

Remember, that 10 or 15 years puts you back to 1990 or 1995 model. You'll find that the Kubotas did have ROPS and PTO shields and almost all the same safety devices you'll find on a tractor today. A 15 year old tractor just isn't all that old. Most likely, all the major brands of tracotrs dating back that far will have ROPS and PTO shields. However, you might be a bit more limited in your choice of CUTs or SCUTs.

I would probably look at something from 1990 and up that is suited to your mowing, clearing, and post hole digging. Then, start looking for a good deal on an older tractor that you can work on restoring.

 

[cbpldc]

CUT? You'll have to help me out on the the terminology. I've been trying to figure that out. I did figure FEL out on my own though.

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Chris

 

[rk246]

My neighbor has a cub cadet and uses it for everything, it is a good size for his 5 acres, he feels it is stable on the hills and drives it all over his property... I personally elected to go bigger due to the stability factor....