Four Farmall tractors available

[Myronw]

Hi Guys,

I have a friend who has finally decided to get rid of four old Farmall M tractors that his father used to use on their farms. Three of them have serial numbers and are 48 and 49 vintage, as near as I can tell. The fourth one has the serial number missing, but appears to be older. None of them have been run for a few years, but are complete and the tin is all pretty decent. They are outside and I noticed that n two of them I couldn t get the shifter to move. Two have decent looking tires and two are pretty weather checked.
Is there any value there? Any interest? What should I tell him they might be worth?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Myron

 

[560Dennis]

Like those ms , makes me remember the tractors of my youths. Good luck with the disposal.

 

[Myronw]

(quoted from post at 10:19:23 11/14/22) Like those ms , makes me remember the tractors of my youths. Good luck with the disposal.

I forgot to add that they re located in southeast Idaho.

 

[Janicholson]

Ms are nice, but very common and have few modern features. Not running engine turns, but bad tires 700 on a good day.
Not running engine turns, on fair to good tires 1000 on a good day. engine not turning, reduce by 250. Jim

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Interest? Sure, but it's going to be interest at bottom dollar, like $1000 for all four.

IH made over 300,000 Ms and there are probably still over 100,000 of them still out there running and driving. Running driving M's bring around $900 on average here in Western NY where tractor prices tend to be high.

Stuck shifters generally mean the transmission is full of water and rusted solid, so they're usually total write-offs.

Parts guys are up to their eyeballs in Farmall M and H parts so they even have limited appeal there. That's all you see at the swap meets and tractor shows. IBC totes just piled full of M and H parts. Semi trailers of M and H parts.

If they're loose and everything moves, they are probably an hour or two from running and driving, for not a whole lot of money, but that would greatly increase their value.

 

[NY 986]

Non-running around 400-450 dollars and that is assuming some parts yield such as usable rear tires. More of a premium on used
tractors around here in NY as there are a few farms still around that could use them and guys wanting a tractor such as a M to move
snow but not wanting to spring for a Kubota or a Yanmar made JD in terms of price. As said below a stuck shift lever could mean
serious transmission problems.

 

[grandpa Love]

$400-500 each...... Unfortunately

 

[redforlife]

(A few years) is a fairly loose fitting
term. Would that be 3 or 4 years, or a
couple of decades?

The reason I ask, is if they have not run
in say, 3 years, it's probably worth
someone's time to see if any of them can be
made to run, before just selling as is. But
if they have been sitting for 10 or 15
years outside and untouched, it might be
ones best interest to just sell them the
way they sit. You might not get back your
extra dollars spent to sell a runner
instead of a non-runner. The more dollars
you spend to make it run, the more un-
likely it is to get those dollars back. The
longer it has sat, the more dollars it'll
likely take.

The guy has 4? That'd make me wonder if he
ran one till it wouldn't go anymore, and
then bought another one. And repeated the
same process a couple more times. If so,
it's hard to say what kind of shape 2 or 3
of these things were in when they were
parked. That'd be what I'd question, if I
were the buyer.

For what it's worth, a fairly descent
runner in my area would fetch around 1000
or a little plus. A non-runner would
probably fall in the 400 to 800 range
depending on engine free or stuck, tire
situation, and completeness.

 

[Myronw]

(quoted from post at 21:52:56 11/14/22) (A few years) is a fairly loose fitting
term. Would that be 3 or 4 years, or a
couple of decades?

The reason I ask, is if they have not run
in say, 3 years, it's probably worth
someone's time to see if any of them can be
made to run, before just selling as is. But
if they have been sitting for 10 or 15
years outside and untouched, it might be
ones best interest to just sell them the
way they sit. You might not get back your
extra dollars spent to sell a runner
instead of a non-runner. The more dollars
you spend to make it run, the more un-
likely it is to get those dollars back. The
longer it has sat, the more dollars it'll
likely take.

The guy has 4? That'd make me wonder if he
ran one till it wouldn't go anymore, and
then bought another one. And repeated the
same process a couple more times. If so,
it's hard to say what kind of shape 2 or 3
of these things were in when they were
parked. That'd be what I'd question, if I
were the buyer.

For what it's worth, a fairly descent
runner in my area would fetch around 1000
or a little plus. A non-runner would
probably fall in the 400 to 800 range
depending on engine free or stuck, tire
situation, and completeness.

I appreciate everyone replying. The farmer who owns them used to farm about 5,000 sprinkler irrigated acres. I suspect the old tractors were used by the employees who moved the sprinkler pipes and such. Even fifty years ago when I worked for him he used large, modern John Deere equipment to do the actual tillage work.