[AT] Need advice on 3pt Tractor

[toma]

On Wed, 15 Aug 2007, Mike Sloane wrote:

> I will throw out a couple of points: in the price range you are working
> with, you are going to be a little limited. I am more familiar with IH
> and Ford tractors than the others. If you can find an International 340
> Utility with a three point hitch, it should be able to handle a 7'
> grader blade, and be light enough to tow behind your truck. Just make
> sure that your trailer is wide enough for the wheels and blade. The
> advantage of the 340 is that the hitch has down pressure, something that

Excellent points. I didn't even know 3pt's had downpressure. I don't think 
the ones I ran did. Great recommendations from you and Farmer on the 3XX 
series IH tractors. I am only familiar with the letter series, are these 
newer versions of the H by any chance.

We do have a B on the ranch. My son restored one a while back and put a 
Cub belly mower on it. I think there are some pictures on the Red Power 
board along with our 55W baler.

> There are several similar Ford tractors in the 2000/4000 series (or even
> the earlier 600/800 series) that are a little more powerful than the 340
> but don't have down pressure on the hitch. They usually came with 4 or 5
> speed transmissions and hi-lo ranges. Absolutely avoid any tractor with
> Ford's Select-O-Shift ("SOS"). It isn't a bad transmission when it
> works, but when they have problems repairs are extremely difficult and
> expensive.

My neighbor picked up one of these a while back. I know he had to rebuild 
the transmission. I think it is 2 fordamatics one behind the other. He is 
exactly my age and is a retired operator, he also has a D8 K I doubt he 
ever ran any stick shift equipment in his career. I take a stick any day

> weights bolted to the wheels or liquid ballast in the tires, or both.
> This is going to add to your gross weight on the trailer, but probably
> not enough to matter if you have a trailer rated for 7000 lbs.
>
> Don't try to save money on a blade - for grading driveways, you are
> going to need something quite heavy and with a replaceable cutting edge
> - grading gravel and dirt wears out the edge in a surprisingly short
> time (but replacements aren't all that expensive). Don't even think
> about wasting money on a blade that weighs less than about 500 pounds.

Good point. I do want to get a trailer that can handle 10,000 lbs because 
I would eventually like to set up with a D2 dozer. Another oportunity in 
the Mariposa area would be brushing around homesites. CDF or CalFire I 
think they are now increased the clearance around houses from 30 ft to 100 
ft..I have the makins of a D2 Dozer but it is going to take time to put it 
together. I have bigger Cats but they all require having them moved and 
there are already people in the area dooing that kind of work

> can handle two remote cylinders.) Obviously, without hydraulic tilt, you
> are going to have to spend some time adjusting the tilt manually to get
> your crown just right. Make sure you can reach the adjustment crank from
> the seat, or you will be spending a lot of time getting on and off the
> tractor to make adjustments.

That old Massey I ran had hydraulic tilt, it was great and it was mor of a 
heavier tractor like everyone is taking about.

That was the problem with that Ford I rented,  The tilt was froze up. They 
usually rent it with a gannon box but the guy did have an angle blade out 
back that he put on for me. Later I saw the other tractor he had there had 
a nice crank type adjuster. I never did get the crown just right on that 
job.

  The advantage of a "utility" tractor over a
> "row crop" tractor is simply that there is less effort to get on and off
> a utility tractor. This gets more and more important as the day
> progresses...
>
I didn't even know that.

> If you can find a diesel version of any tractor, you will be ahead of
> the game, but, in the price and age range you are looking, you are
> mostly going to find gasoline engines. One advantage of diesel is that
> you don't have to pay highway tax on "off-road" fuel, so it works out a
> LOT cheaper than gas, especially in CA. (Just make sure you don't put
> the off-road fuel into your truck's tanks.)
>

I would like to have diesel, but I figure maybe I can move up to one 
later. We can get the road tax refunded so that is not too big a deal.

> somewhat reasonable prices. Frankly, I think you will have a hard time
> finding a suitable tractor in ready-to-work condition for under $3500,
> but you could get lucky.

That is still in the ballpark.

Thanks,

Tom