08/03/07, 03:14 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 2,963
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What's available depoends on your area. Here, I would look for a Massey-Ferguson 50 or 65 (made in the early '60s), preferably diesel but that will cost you a bit more.
4WD is not necessary. I have done tons of ditch work and dirt work with my 50 with no 4WD, and pulled out a lot of cars. In 17 years, I only got it stuck twice.
These tractors have a dual-range gearbox that is nice to have, and plenty of pulling power.
I guess you'd prefer a loader, but a nice stout 6-foot box blade and a good pond scoop can do a whale of a lot of work off the back of a tractor without a loader. I have done a lot of dirt work with those two tools.
As to price, a good clean 50 or 65 here would run $2,500 to $3,500; with loader and real clean maybe up to $4,500. I bought my 50 with no loader for $2,500, picked up a bolt-on MF loader for it a few years later for $1,100. Box blades run around $250 used here for heavy ones, and a used pond scoop runs about $50-75.
Like my FIL used to say, once you get a loader you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
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Jim Steele
Sweetpea Farms
"To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing." -- Robert Gates
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