Okay-what about *THIS* tractor?

Yes, take a picture of the gear shift, 1 of the dash and a picture of the front at least....James

James, Just looking at it. The IH plow looks longer than a Dearborn plow. What do you think. IF im right. It might pull a DBP on 3pt
ALSO, She would have to buy a factory 3pt to be able to use 3pt. They likely have the same length of arms nearly as the origionals they copy

The Farmall 140 was made from 57 to 79. They weigh a rabbit over 3000#lbs

Whats a 8N weigh James?

An 8N Ford tractor weighs 2714# dry

I don't really think this is clear enough:





I took a lot of pictures. Didn't want to post them all in the first post.



Still need a picture of the front.

That's all I've got tonight. I'm worn out. Bedtime for me - thanks for the information. I look forward to picking up where I left off tomorrow and searching through 8 pages of videos on how to work this thing!

Although I think theres another number besides 901?, Ill check those numbers out.

Bill, look where the single point hitch is located on the tractor and where it is on the plow, very short coupled.

PP, I was talking of pictures of your Ford....James

I think I would like your Ford better for working, tho I would like this one for restoring into a pretty thing, better. The red one is specialized into doing some tasks well, but not all around so much.

The old tractors before the 1970s were designed to run at low compression on poor gas from the 1940s to 1960s, so they can handle all sorts of so-so gas. E-10 will run just fine in them, has for me on 4 of the old gals. The ethanol in the fuel tends to clean dirt out of the tank and lines, so if you get some plugged screens or filters, its because of the poor gas, not the new ethanol....

All of the old tractors have a fuel shutoff valve typically right under the fuel tank. Just turns off the fuel coming out of the tank. I don't mess with that, but a lot of people do and works for them.

There are many people that work on old Fords, we can assume it is an N of some sort? One of the most popular tractors ever, while they lack a lot of features in today's world, there are many and cheap parts available for them, it will be a well supported tractor compared to anything else you can afford.

This red one is far more rare, tho certainly was popular and you will find parts for it from Case and other sources.

Paul

It looks like the mounting stub for the implements was welded on. Post 45 third picture down. Is this right?
Miss Paisley I suggest you try to get a newer 40 HP- 50 HP tractor with a 3 point hitch, a 540 PTO, and a loader. may I suggest you go to a place like http://www.wengers.com/ and look around to get a feel of what is out there. I think that wingers is high priced but it will give you a feel for what is available.
This tractor isn't going to be easy to keep running and right off it needs a rear tire about Maybe about $300.00 maybe a little less. then it needs to mounted.

The little plows can be attached to the cultivator and can be used as set off plows for seeding and then shift over a little to cultivate the rows for weed control.

A five foot brush hog can be used as a finish mower too. But it doesn't do as well. I use my brush hog for mowing, it does a good enough job. I don't have a golf course and the grass grows just like hair, so a bad haircut grows out in a few days. I have found what works well for me and I set my brush hog to settings that give a fairly good cut. A loader is almost a necessity. If you get plows for a garden you need some disk harrows and a drag harrow to smooth it up for planting. A rototiller works best for a garden. turns and smooth's all at the same time. A rototiller replaces the plow the disk harrow and the drag harrow. For potatoes you need a hiller and if you get the right one you can did up the potatoes with the same plow.

My idea about a tractor is to get something you will use. Not something you will repair a lot. Remember this, that anything that engages the ground will break. the ground is really tough.

I feel like you can do a lot better. A farm auction is a good place to find stuff. A tractor is a big investment and you need to get one as good as you can afford.

What ever you decide good luck and I admire you so much for trying.

I remember her saying before her Ford has the Select-o-matic shift on it.. Not Fords best idea....

__________________
Never let your fear decide your fate!
Kein Mitleid für die Mehrheit

Yes it is a Select-O-Matic. It was used by a large construction company here in Charlotte for laying roads and highways. It has their company sticker (peeling away) on it.

And I have actually offered it to a guy who is willing to finish part of my attic space in exchange for his labor. He totally plans to sell it ... And clearly I'm not attached. But I'll post pics in case y'all really think I should keep it but that gonna be a hard sell.


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This is a great tractor for cultivating, It is big enough to pull a plow and other small attachments but its basically a cultivator tractor. Hooking to implements is not quite as handy as the three point hitch design and they are not as readily available. Since I am not a row crop farmer I would have little use for it. I am a much larger fan of the Ferguson system than anything else. Those tractors were extremely versatile compared to anything else on the market during the forties and fifties and the are still very popular on smaller farms, (100 acres or less) to this day. Next on my list in the older vintage would be the little Fords which are very similar in design. I tend to look more at the practical side of things than appearances. I would much rather have a rough looking Ferguson 35 that runs good than a good looking International 140 with a pretty paint job. Paint looks nice.... but it doesnt get the work done.

__________________
"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain

PP, what part of NC are you in?
I'm in the Ap foothills in the central part of the state, and it is pretty hilly. Anything west of me is pretty much mountains, and it doesn't get really flat until about Raleigh/east.

At the risk of coming off like the safety-Police, you really should consider something with a roll-over bar ("ROPS") and seatbelt. Without both of those features, a tractor roll-over is often fatal. And, since tractors generally have no suspension, it is way easier than you'd think to roll one over. Even if you're in the relatively flat piedmont, a large rock, or a hole in a field that you don't know is there can roll your tractor over, with you on/under it. My land is certainly not the hilliest in NC, but there is no way I'd get on a tractor without a ROPS and seatbelt.

On a completely different tangent, have you considered a new tractor? I realize that it does not fit every financial situation, but it is probably at least worth considering. Of course, depending on what you need, a new tractor can cost as much or more than a new truck, but a tractor is as integral a part of your farm/homestead as is your house, your barn, or your truck. I share the common goal of avoiding financing whenever possible, but, in my situation, financing a tractor made sense for me. I am making extra payments but, even if I didn't, it would take me 5 years to pay off my tractor. In the grand scheme of building a farm, 5 years is nothing. With a new tractor, you get the modern safety features, instant starting anytime you turn the key and a warranty to fix anything that does go wrong, and a modern Class I 3pt hitch w/ telescoping end links and such to make it MUCH easier to change implements.

You can probably find a decent, reasonably modern tractor w/ ROPS and 3pt for $5-10k, or you could buy a new one, with warranty and 0 hours, for $300 per month over 5 years with 0% financing. I'm not saying that it is necessarily the right approach for you, but may be worth considering.

The wife and I were really apprehensive about pulling the trigger on the new tractor, but every time we weighed it out, we came to the same conclusion - and we haven't regretted it a day since.

From #501 in 1958 to #2011 in 1959. Like I said. I think there are other numbers I couldn't see in the pic.

Did you go to U Tubes and punch in Farmall 140 and look at all the vids??

I too decided to buy a new tractor. for the same reasons, I wanted to be able to use it and not repair it. I got a 75 HP tractor with a loader, a 7 foot brush hog, a rear blade, a two bottom plow, 7 foot pallet forks. All for $37000.00
all bran new. I am now pricing a new pickup truck a 2500HD and it is going to cost more than the new tractor.

That sounds like a nice rig. Mine was a bit less, but is only 40HP and has a backhoe as well as some different implements. A guy that works for me owns an 8N that seems like he barely spends more time working, than working on. I'm sure that there are many who can get reliable service out of the old tractors, but I did not want the hassle. I actually enjoy working on machines very much, but I did not want the tractor itself to become my hobby, but rather as a tool to work my hobby farm.

To mitigate the sticker-shock for PP, a tractor with similar or better capabilities than what she is looking at can be had for around $20k - which would be about $300 a month. Too, the dealer she works with would very likely take the old Ford in trade and bring the price of the new tractor down a little.

IMO a person better have a lot of money or plan on doing a lot of farming to justify the price of a new tractor & implements .

A little farming, over the course of a lifetime, becomes "a lot" of farming.

Again, I aknowledge that it may not be the best approach for all. I just think that it is worth considering, if for no reason other than to rule it out.

When I first starting looking at tractors, I made the assumption that a new tractor was only for the full-time farmer, or wanna be with more dollars than sense. The prices I was finding for used tractors reinforced my assumption. It wasn't until I priced a few new machines that I realized that a new one made sense for me.

Given my land, and the projects I had on my list, I decided that I needed 4WD, an FEL, 30+ HP, and would really like a backhoe. Unfortunately for me, tractors with those specs are in high demand right now and tend to hold their resale value pretty well. When I compared a new one to lightly used (200-2000 hours) model, the savings was never more than about 15%.

Granted, the feature set that PP is looking for is very different than mine, so her search will likely return different results. But, the point that I wanted to make in the first place, was that she really should consider something with ROPS. I think that recommending a tractor without one is akin to recommending a chainsaw w/o a chain brake. I don't normally get spun up on superfluous safety features, but these ones are pretty important and pain-free - other than the price premium over older models without them.

At least look into ROPS and why it exists. In many cases one can be custom fit to an older tractor that came without it.

I hope this does not mean you chew and spit !

I have my Grandfather's Farmall Cub here and it is basically the same tractor but 25% smaller but shares some of the same implements. There is some complexity involved in mounting and adjusting these implements and some mechanical abilities are required. To go from moldboard plow to cultivators to belly mounted mower easily is going to take some practice on your part because mounting is a physical chore requiring some skill.

Maybe you should spend more of your HT time down on the singletree forum