Although I did not purchase my 8n new, I actually do know its entire history. The gentleman who lived directly across the street from me purchased it brand new in 1951, along with a 2 bottom, 12" 3-pt plow, a 6 ft, 3-pt disk, and a 6 ft drag. It was lightly worked from 1951, until around 1988 when he passed away, and I bought the whole works from his widow. It actually needed no service of any kind, the entire time he owned it, other than oil changes. He only used it to work a medium sized garden each year. It was my first tractor purchase, and I am certain that contributes to it being my favorite make/model by any manufacturer to this day. It had slightly over 600 hours when I got it. It needed a couple of valves replaced then due to low compression.
I have proceeded to put over 1000 additional hours on it, some of which were hard duty. After I finished digging a 1/4 acre pond with it, it needed a complete valve job. Since then it has needed nothing other than oil changes, and a couple exhaust manifolds (the Chinese just don't make them as well as the USA). The reason I know its entire history is that, we are all pretty close around here, often swapping story's, equipment, pulling each other out of the mud, and such. I remember, that old man bragging to my grandpa, about how his Ford 8n never needed any work, even though it was purchased the same year as gramp's John Deere model M. Gramps would counter with "Maybe so, but you are working about 100 less acres".
I have seen or used several Jubilee, or 600 series tractors, that needed hydraulic service, while none of the n's I have been around needed any. I guess that was the price to be paid for those fancy "live" systems. Our JD "M" did have live hydraulics, and a 2x12 plow, but I was always able to out-plow gramps, or my dad with my "dead-hydraulic" 8n.
