Ed S.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Middle Tennessee
Short version: I bought a tractor!
Long version: Several more tractors had shown up by the day of the sale, including a "ridden hard and put up wet" 4000 with a loader:
I gave it a close look and decided it was too beat up to mess with.
There were two other Fords in the lineup, but neither had a loader or the required HP:
I had decided before I went that I didn't have to drive out with anything, and would just observe and see what prices were like.
When a JD 4010 (LP) sold for $3200, I perked up a bit, as that's quite a bit lower than I would have thought for that size class, and in green, no less.
The AC 185 I mentioned sold in the mid $3000 range as well, and while walking down a row, I noticed another very clean AC 190 that I had missed in my earlier-morning wanderings. It was remarkably straight, and had been repainted, but not that recently, and had about 3600 hours on the meter. The more I looked, the more I liked, and when the bidding stopped at $4600, it was mine.
It took a bit over three hours to road it home, including a stop at Farm King to buy a SMV and battery operated flasher so I would be legal. I found out pretty quickly that it burns oil, and had noticed one of the loader lift arm cylinder seals leaks, so it's basically a tired, but nice-looking tractor. As I won't run a lot of hours on it, I'll just keep adding oil for now.
I already put it to work today, taking out two of four aged peach trees that the wife wanted removed (we planted new ones last year). The 8N got in on the work, too, filling in the holes with the back blade.
Given that I got a bigger tractor than what I thought I could afford, for less than I planned to spend, I'm pretty happy so far.
I also bid on the M-F haybine, but didn't win that one. Haybines were going pretty cheap - beat-up off brand ones were selling at $375-450 (the MF went for $850), and a nice NH 489 went for $2100.
I kind of kicked myself for not bidding higher on the MF, but when I got home, my wife told me she had mentioned I was looking at haybines to our elderly neighbor, and he said since he's no longer doing hay, he'd sell me his Hesston self-propelled haybine very cheap (I used it a couple years ago and it ran fine then). So maybe that will work out well, too.
Thanks again for everyone's input.
es
Long version: Several more tractors had shown up by the day of the sale, including a "ridden hard and put up wet" 4000 with a loader:
I gave it a close look and decided it was too beat up to mess with.
There were two other Fords in the lineup, but neither had a loader or the required HP:
I had decided before I went that I didn't have to drive out with anything, and would just observe and see what prices were like.
When a JD 4010 (LP) sold for $3200, I perked up a bit, as that's quite a bit lower than I would have thought for that size class, and in green, no less.
The AC 185 I mentioned sold in the mid $3000 range as well, and while walking down a row, I noticed another very clean AC 190 that I had missed in my earlier-morning wanderings. It was remarkably straight, and had been repainted, but not that recently, and had about 3600 hours on the meter. The more I looked, the more I liked, and when the bidding stopped at $4600, it was mine.
It took a bit over three hours to road it home, including a stop at Farm King to buy a SMV and battery operated flasher so I would be legal. I found out pretty quickly that it burns oil, and had noticed one of the loader lift arm cylinder seals leaks, so it's basically a tired, but nice-looking tractor. As I won't run a lot of hours on it, I'll just keep adding oil for now.
I already put it to work today, taking out two of four aged peach trees that the wife wanted removed (we planted new ones last year). The 8N got in on the work, too, filling in the holes with the back blade.
Given that I got a bigger tractor than what I thought I could afford, for less than I planned to spend, I'm pretty happy so far.
I also bid on the M-F haybine, but didn't win that one. Haybines were going pretty cheap - beat-up off brand ones were selling at $375-450 (the MF went for $850), and a nice NH 489 went for $2100.
I kind of kicked myself for not bidding higher on the MF, but when I got home, my wife told me she had mentioned I was looking at haybines to our elderly neighbor, and he said since he's no longer doing hay, he'd sell me his Hesston self-propelled haybine very cheap (I used it a couple years ago and it ran fine then). So maybe that will work out well, too.
Thanks again for everyone's input.
es
