(quoted from post at 08:29:51 06/22/20) I am new here, so apologize in advance. I just moved to a small farm in Eastern NC. Currently our farm land is leased out, but we want to take care of it next year. I am retired Navy, not looking to make money, just something to do.
Anyway, looking to probably grow hay, maybe pasture some cows down the road. We have about 30 acres of cultivated land.
I have been looking at tractors online and based on what I see it seems that a Massey Ferguson is a good value for what I can pay.
Looking to spend $5k or maybe a bit more for our first tractor. I am guessing 50 - 100 hp.
Looking for recommendations, based on some disc harrows I have seen, I am thinking I want/need rear hydraulics. Eventually will have a disc, haybine and baler I guess.
Thanks for any input and discussion.
Hello,
It would be a bit interesting to know a little more about you as a person. I mean, what are your ideas and thought when it comes to owning and using a tractor. Are you the type of person to repair everything yourself, or as much as possible within the tools you have. Or are you the type of person who need help with absolutely everything, even changing a light bulb, or where are you in between those two outer points of it. The reason for asking is not to pry into your personal life, but some tractors are easy to work on, and others are not. Older tractors are less complicated, while the newer they are, the more complicated they are, and demand more and more sophisticated tools.
Then I should probably not go there, but I see it recommended for you to get a Ford. I mean, you post in the Massey Ferguson forum, you clearly mention Massey Ferguson as something you are looking for, and then some come in here and tell you to buy a Ford, or whatever other brand. I just don't get it. I am not against Ford or anything else, but it looks weird to me. It is like going into a Chevy dealership and loudly recommending them to start selling Toyota instead. I mean, you don't do it, right ?
Now, there are many good Massey Ferguson choices. Excellent tractors, and the MF 165 is a good chioce, so is a MF 265 and 565, all of them fairly easy to work on. The 565 has a more permanent cab, which means they are harder to work on because the cab is in the way. On the other hand, it can be nice to have protection against the weather, so it is advantages and disadvantages with all of them. Then you have the newer MF 300 series too. An MF 165 has around 60 hp. The MF 165 has a minus, the steering is prone to having a lot of play, and it is the weak part of a MF 100 series design (except the MF 135). That said, since it is a weak part of the design, it has in addition often not been lubricated as it should. It is one of those parts of the MF 100 series where you can not forget to maintain. All MF has hydraulics, which as the others here say, you need it. In addition you have the MF 65, which is a bit older than the 100 series, but at least the diesel have about 56 hp or so if I am not mistaken. A very good engine, and the same as in the MF 165, but the 165 has a few more hp taken out of it. It just run and run, easy to get parts for, as goes for the entire tractor. So, if you go for any of these tractors, the steering is something to look out for. Open the front cover to see where the play is. Most of it is repairable, and not too expensive either. The next thing is the planetary gears out on the rear wheels. They are easy to see close to the rear wheel rim. The best is to jack up each rear wheel, and wiggle the wheel and rotate it. Listen for grinding noise just inside the rim at the end of the axle, and also for a clunking noise when the wiggle the wheel. If you are not able to jack them up, grab the top of the wheel and pull and push the tractor sideways and listen for a clunk noise. If you hear that it is a bad sign. So bad that the price needs to be dropped a lot, or you just walk away from it. It is also a thing to pay attention to when driving the tractor, if you can hear noise from the outer ends of the rear axle. Other abnormal noises also have to be noticed, like with any other machinery. But the steering and planetary gears on the rear axle are two areas to pay attention to. The steering is sort of an irritating thing, but repairable for a reasonable cost if you can do it yourself. The planetary gears are far more costly, and it is a thing that is not easy to fix either.
A smaller Massey Ferguson, like a 35, or 135 will have less power, less than 50, but still hydraulics, but also far easier to repair when it comes to the steering and the rear axle, and brakes.
A Massey Ferguson is in general fairly easy to repair, and the parts are not too expensive either, except what I mentioned above. One of the strengths of the MF is that it is easy to repair and maintain. The hydraulics works excellent, but if you want to run outer cylinders the internal pumps are a little on the smaller side so like a log splitter would go a bit slow. It would still work, and if you only use the hydraulics as it is on the tractor, the pump has just the right size and it works as it should.
As with any machinery, at some point things gets worn out. My experience with tractors are that the older ones saw less use, has less hours on the meter, while newer tractors often have a lot more hours. So, sometimes a newer tractor are as worn out as an older one, unless you buy a tractor that is so new that it for that reason have less hours. But then you are talking about a very new tractor.
Bill
