[AT] Need advice on 3pt Tractor

[Mike Sloane]

You are probably going to get a LOT of replies to your question. And 
there are a lot of things to consider.

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 
few other tractor hydraulics of that era had. With a 5 speed 
transmission and Torque Amplifier, you can adjust your ground speed for 
conditions. The next step up from the 340 is the 460, which I would say 
is too big for your needs.

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.

With any two wheel drive tractor doing grading, you are going to need 
some kind of weight in the rear tires for traction - either metal 
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. 
Used older blades are around, and they will work as well (or sometimes 
better) than new ones, as long as they are heavy and straight. The best 
arrangement would be a blade with hydraulic tilt and angle, but now you 
are talking Big Bucks. (The 340s usually have auxiliary hydraulics than 
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. 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...

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 am sure that there are perfectly good tractors from JD, A-C, MM, Case, 
and others; I just am not familiar with them. One advantage of sticking 
with IH, JD, and Ford is that you can usually find parts easily and at 
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.

toma wrote:

> 
> I want to get a tractor that I can easily move on a trailer behind a 3/4 
> ton pickup. In our area most of the houses are on 5 acre parcels so most 
> have extensive driveways, the soil is mostly DG. I want to see if I can 
> finance a career change by grading driveways during the wet season.
> 
> What I am thinking about is a '50's or 60's model tractor in the 
> $2000-$3000 range. I know most of you guys are more knowlegeable about 
> tractors like this than I am so I am asking for recommendations as to make 
> and model that would be good for this purpose.

> Thanks,
> 
> Tom
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