Tractors-Manuals for old Fords and equipment

[hunter63]

Don't know how many of y'all use tractors for your gardens/farm,
Came across this listing of manuals for old Ford 2n-9n and 8n tractors as well as manuals for a lots of pull behind equipment.

Around here a lot of people were driving prices of the old Ford up as they are small enough and were cheap enough for most small farm work.

That seems to have settles down as the Fords do have a few draw-backs as well as being 50-60 years old.

http://www.ntractorclub.com/forums/manuals/manuals_index.htm

[Pal334]

Thanks for that link. I am a big fan of the "n"s. Hard to get stuff about them. It is a tough little runt :)

[Pal334]

I'm reluctant to say that I've become quite fond of Kubota diesel mid-sized tractors. Don't own one, but have been maintaining one for my friend. We are considering adding a generator to run off the power take-off for some serious emergency electricity.

Although it is foreign made (generally a death call for me)Kubota is a great tractor. If or when I can't find the old "N" series fords, I probably would look at them. That PTO driven generator is a good idea, I think I will look into it.

[hunter63]

About 4 tears ago, I was really hot to get my hands on an old Ford for mowing, bucket stuff, and generally have a tractor for "The Place".
Seemed that every other cabin had one, and you kinda get into the "better get one before they gone", thing.

Seems that everybody was in the same frame of mind, as the prices were really going up and up.

Almost bought a couple off eBay.
One was in Indiana, came with all sorts of equipment, but when the price started to go in the last hour, from $2100(my bid) to over $4500, I just backed off.

Another one was along side the road, on one of my routes to "The Place".
I looked at it for the whole summer, then it showed up on eBay, recognized the farm house in the background.
When I was driving by, ir was pretty rusty, then all of a sudden it was Red and Gray again?
Looking close at the pic's, you could see that it had just been painted with a brush, over the rust. That one went for around $3200 with a mower.

It was that one that I did receive the scam, 2nd chance e-mails, " We're giving you a second chance, just send us the $3200, and you just got screwed". ( I reported them, never heard anything back)

As the summer wore on, all I was finding was high priced junk (needed lots of work), till happened to stop at a little "show", in a hardware store parking lot.
The old framers were showing off all their tractors, (it's addicting, I guess).
Got to talking with an old guy that had about 7 tractors there, all Fords, most all in good shape.

Had a 1952 8n w/Ferguson 2 speed Road gear tyranny.
He said he would sell it to me for like $3000 grand.
As we were talking, he asked what it wanted it for, so I told him, mowing, bucket work, dragging etc.
He let me know that he used a Kubota for these tasks and just "played" with the Fords.
His advice
"If you want to do some work and get something done, especially on week ends/vacations, you don't want to be working on them all the time, save your money and buy a new tractor.
Then when that taken care of, get one of these to play with."

So ended up buying a Mahindra, 30hp Diesel W/ goodies at a local John Deer dealer.
Price, dealer support (they make house calls, only need one in 4 years) and parts availability was what swayed my decision.

Couple of the other guys on or road are looking to sell their old Fords, seem there is some things that make them hard to use for some things.

Problem is that they bought the first one they saw, paid a lot of money for them, and more to fix them up, so I just waiting them out.
So still looking for a good deal, but can mow, plow, and generally find new uses for the Mahindra every time I use it.

[rebel]

I gotta go along your line of thinking hunter63. I like the older tractors but, my Japanese tractor (MF) will out live me. They are great on fuel and reliability.

[hunter63]

Although it is foreign made (generally a death call for me)Kubota is a great tractor. If or when I can't find the old "N" series fords, I probably would look at them. That PTO driven generator is a good idea, I think I will look into it.

I guess some things just aren't made here any more.
I don't know of any of the "compact tractors" that are.

My Mahindra and the small JD share 60% of the parts, which is why the JD dealers around here handle the Mahindra.

Even the big tractors CNH (one factory just north of here) uses parts from all over the world. And is owned by Fiat.
Sad.

I still wanting an old Ford, and I thought the the manual list is a treasure if your working on one (I one of those that RTFM) when working on stuff.

[Rick]

Well, look at it this way, if they were still made here they would be about double what the are in terms of cost. Being made overseas doesn't mean low quality any more than being made here means high quality. Just depends on the product and the company. And the money you spend on that foreign tractor gives them money to buy things from us like raw materials.

[hunter63]

I do try hard to buy Made in USA, but getting harder.
Worked in an industry that go crowded out, by just about everybody over seas.

Gotta tell ya, that a lot of American name brands are owned for foreign corporations, but I can still try.