Something I don't understand about applications of below 40hp tractors

[dh206]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

I've got a Kubota BX2350 with FEL. I have 3 acres. Here's what I use it for, and it's quite enough tractor. Because it's small and light, it doesn't destroy my grass.
1) last-ditch mower (I prefer ZTR for speed, but this will do if it's too mushy and the ZTR would get stuck, which happens in spring over the septic field)
2) moving mulch around, or sand, or topsoil, or firewood (especially firewood)
3) big broken tree branches that fall down from some old swamp maples. I sometimes have branches in excess of 200 lbs. I just drag them into the woods with the BX, no problem.
4) I have a new(used) 36" rototiller attachment - Going to use it to make a garden plot instead of turning all that dirt by hand the first time.
5) I have some forks that go on the 3ph, useful for moving a <= 1000lb pallet on occasion.
6) I have a plow for the front for the driveway. It does a good job in winter.
7) I have a boom lift that I can use to pull old fence posts that need to be replaced, or lift the septic cover off, or lift the rototiller off the trailer when I brought it home a few days ago.
8) I have a 3ph wood chipper/shredder (Goosen, used, but in excellent shape, craigslist) - good for making mulch. I can do branches up to about 5" with it.
9) I have a single-bottom sub-soiler - planning to use to run some irrigation pipe out from the house when the weather cools off a bit
so, I can use this little 23HP tractor for lots of useful stuff. It fits through my gate openings into the back fenced yard, and it fits nicely in the (car) garage or the barn.

 

[greggyy]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Do not tell my 2 40hp tractors what they can and cannot do, you may be surprised.

if with low gearing, even a 2wd old Inter tractor can pull a 7ft chisel in dry ish clay, on a slope mind you with rock in ground too....lol

the limiting factor is weight/traction and lift ability of the hydraulics, you can get a lot done with an old 40hp tractor.

 

[J Wolfe]

I have a 2N and needed to brake a new garden. 1acre hasn't been touched in over 20 years. that little 2N pulled a two bottom then a disc. Ran through wit a modified cultivator and didn't miss a beat. Would bigger newer equipment do it faster? Sure would! I paid $800 for the tractor and around $500 for the implements. I do have a larger tractor, but it's a 70s IH B414 and I was repainting it. Got that one for cutting down a tree. Small tractors can do the job, you just don't need to get in a hurry.

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

It's all based on the need for instant gratification. As a child I lived on a 250 acre mixed farm. We had a Ford 9N, a much older Fordson Major (hand crank to start) and two horses. All the farm work got done, most of it by the little 9N. Plowing, discing, harrowing, cutting, seeding etc etc. If your budget dictates 40hp or less, the job will get done, just slower.

If your budget allows and time is of the essence get a JD Quad and do everything in one pass.

 

[tjandrews]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

At one time or another, my old 1952 Case SC (roughly 25-30 HP) has done just about everything. Plow, drag, plant, cultivate, mow hay, tedd hay, rake hay, bale hay, plow snow, the list goes on and on. And it hasn't quit yet.

 

[rjc1861]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

This is just my experience but what I found I can plough all day long with an old ford 9n or 8n both with about 30 hp. But I can't plough 10 feet with a jd2038r with 40hp. In my case it's because the newer tractors have smaller tires with much lower ground clearance. The jd does everything else but it won't plough. See what kind of arguments you get.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

With the right implement(s) and enough time you can accomplish an incredible amount of work with a small tractor. My ID picture, an old Farmall Cub, was designed to replace a mule--having about the same capability for a day's work. In its day, that was a standard everyone understood.
You've been given a LOT of good information here. A lot of the decision-making process depends on the time you want to invest in the task.

 

[Snezzy]

Yeah, will say there is a difference in pulling power between the two, plus the difference torque wise between a diesel and gas. Biggest problem with the B6000's PTO is that it turns backwards. I had forgot about that.

I had to give up my B6000 because an idiot neighbor who claimed to be a diesel mechanic ruined the engine by taking apart the sump-oil-filter screen and not telling me. Two years of running it with no oil filter! I still have the PTO reverser if anyone would like to buy one, as well as a Kubota mower brush hog that matches the B6000 PTO.

The B6000 has, as you know, no roll bar, and my wife rolled it on a hill and survived with no damage to her or the tractor. I don't know how.

 

[Snezzy]

It's instructive to learn how folks cleared land before we had power equipment. To dig up a tree stump you would poke kernels of corn into the earth underneath the stump. Then put the hogs out so they can hunt for and dig up the corn, lifting the stump as they go. The horses or oxen can pull the dug-up stumps elsewhere. No tractor required. My buddy in South Dakota told me that they didn't get tractors at his farm until after WWII.

 

[brewer1301]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

Just a bunch of stupid people on these post. Dad farmed 150 acre cotton patch in the 50's with a two row 2N ford. So don't say it can't be done.

 

[Luke McGluke]

Growing up, we had four farm tractors, two John Deere's, and two Farmalls, only one of which was over 40 hp. Weight is a big factor in pulling a plow. The two Model A John Deere pulled a 3 bottom plow and the Super M Farmalls pulled 4 bottoms. We added wheel weights and they all worked well.

 

[JWR]

Yeah, will say there is a difference in pulling power between the two, plus the difference torque wise between a diesel and gas. Biggest problem with the B6000's PTO is that it turns backwards. I had forgot about that.

Yes, and that wrong direction PTO did more to hurt Kubota business than all other factors combined ! You will find biased John Deere dealers to this day still talking about Kubota wrong-way PTOs -- as if they all ran that way. The other thing that has hurt Kubota in serious farming and hilly areas is that the Japanese never seem to get it through their skulls that the USA is not all flat and that many users need to get far wider rear wheel separation than they offer on most models. This has gotten better but is still a Kubota disease. Witness the market for wheel spacers for Kubotas ! You do not find people buying wheel spacers for other brands.

 

[jeff9366]

You could plow with an old 9n Ford which was likely less than 20 hp.

See Post #7.

 

[jeff9366]

So all those farmers in Thailand who plow their field with a single Ox (I read that an average ox develops about .6 hp) aren't really plowing their fields?

 

[California]

...t the Japanese never seem to get it through their skulls that the USA is not all flat and that many users need to get far wider rear wheel separation ...

We think of tractors and we think of dry-land farming. With hills sometimes.

In contrast Japanese designs assume its going to run half-submerged for the life of the tractor and design accordingly. Plenty of hp, light weight, good ground clearance.

Photo I copied off of Yanmar-Japan's corporate website long ago:

One point that may not be obvious in that picture: you don't need 4wd when the rototiller - the main use of Japanese tractors - provides plenty of forward push. Like 32wd drive.

 

[Learning2Tractor]

After talking to y'all and now knowing what to look for and why, I'm glad I didn't run out and buy something. The weight factor is something I had no idea about. Those old farm tractors must weigh a lot.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Vigo327]

How much weight you need just depends on what kind of work you want to do. I have a B6100 and a B8200 with a small hp difference and a large weight difference (the backhoe on the 8200 weighs as much as a bare 6100 tractor) and while the 8200 is an absolute pulling machine by comparison, it gives up so much in maneuverability that I find the 6100 a lot more enjoyable to use for anything that doesn't max out its capabilities.

 

[Martin Roper]

Completely agree with jeff9366 except to add the HST tractors ( tractors with hydraulic drive ) require horsepower along with weight because the engine does not directly drive the wheels. The engine drives a hydraulic pump which then drives the wheels, so the more horsepower you have the bigger the pump can be driven, the greater the drawing or pushing power of the tractor.

Weight is really important because it causes the tires the engage the ground and the better the engagement the more the tractor can do.

The above does not apply to tractors using gears, belts, chains to drive the wheels.

I do not understand how you consider the type of drive eliminates the need for weight on the rear wheels for traction. The whole point of the Ferguson system was to transfer the weight of the plough onto the rear wheels thus giving traction regardless of how the wheels are driven. This allowed much smaller tractors to do the same work as much larger machines that where simply towing.

 

[RalphVa]

I read you don't plough with any tractor under 40hp. At least maybe not on a new unworked field. Don't know if that's right, but it is what I have been reading on more than one site.

If you don't have a front loader or a lawn cutting pull behind implement, what do you use them for? For example, I found a good price on a Kubota B6000e. It is only the tractor. I can only cut the grass with it?

Are all the old tractors over 40hp?

Edit:. I read the Kubota was 10.5 hp. My jd L110 is 17.5, but no pto. I don't know what I'd do with the Kubota.

I plowed my big garden along the creek in 2000 or so with a 12 hp Gravely using a rotary plow.

I'll bet most MCUTs could pull a single bottom plow. Too bad they don't make a rotary plow for any of them. Even a 1500 BX could probably plow with a rotary plow.

A friend's JD M was 18 hp gasoline. He gave me the soil ripper from it, which I converted to 3ph with his help doing the welding, per my design. I plowed the big garden again with it in 2004 using the soil ripper and bought 2 big discs that I put onto the tool bar and removed the cultivator tines. Made raised rows with the 2 big opposed discs using my 18.5 hp JD 4010. The JD with 4wd could do the work of the 2wd M: 4wd vs. weight.

 

[HighTwelve]

Jeff9366 has largely beaten me to the punch about plowing with a 20 HP tractor - the Ford 9N, 2N and 8N. Now, I’m a tractor collector and not a real farmer, but tractor shows often have plowing demonstrations and I always wade in with one of my N tractors. Back in the day Ford farmers used either a 16” one bottom or a 12” or 14” two bottom plow. There are three secrets:

Weight: Farmers loaded the rear tires.

Setup: Plow share bottom is flat on the ground with left rear wheel up on a 4” block, EXCEPT point is tilted slightly downward. If this sounds slightly contradictory it is. You have to make adjustments, especially with a badly worn plow share.

Technique: separate left and right rear wheel brakes are there for a reason. You will probably have more problem with the left wheel spinning than the right. My Kubota L3010 has a differential lock which would do the same thing if I ever tried to plow with it, which I have not. I’m not a real farmer and the gray market (oh no!) Yanmar rototiller on the Kubby tills the garden just fine.

A long time ago a now deceased collector and old time farm boy named Zane Sherman posted on his website the best treatise on plowing that I have ever seen. It was called “Plow A Little Now”. He covered every aspect of setting up the plow. Zane is gone and the website is down but you may find a copy in the data section over on the www.Ntractorclub.com website. I haven’t checked so no guarantee. I’d gladly post my copy if I could figure out how.