The Unloved

[Jolly]

I was reading elsewhere about a young man wanting to start life on the rural route, but as with most of us, finances were a bit tight. I think he had enough money to buy a bit of land (10 acres or less), create some kind of living structure and then get started on his homestead dream.

Some folks suggested hand tools and wheelbarrows. Some suggested BCS tillers and attachments. Some suggested a used tractor with FEL. That runs the gamut from pretty cheap to pretty expensive.

I've been running through the listings on Tractorhouse. There is one group of tractors that have fallen out of favor, that have many, many years left in them. These are the 25hp-32hp 2WD diesel compacts. Ford 1000 series (1710-1910) or TC series, (made by Shibauru), the John Deere 850, 950 and 790 (made by Yanmar) or L-series Kubota. These tractors should be good for 3000 hours before rebuilding and many of these used tractors have less than 1000 hours, even if they have a little age on them.

No, these 2WD compacts don't pull as well as an old 4000 pound 2WD utility tractor and they don't pull as well as their AWD brethren. They certainly work better if your land is relatively flat.  Put fluid in the tires, add some weight to the front and the little tractors are very capable at towing trailers, plowing gardens, light dirtwork and using a homemade log cradle can even haul a few logs. You can do a lot of work with a 2WD tractor without a FEL...Some examples...

Tires hurt this one, but look at the hours and the asking price:

www.tractorhouse.com/listing/for-sale/224291397/kubota-l2250-less-than-40-hp-tractors

Or if you desire John Deere green...

www.tractorhouse.com/listing/for-sale/196361655/john-deere-850-less-than-40-hp-tractors

[daw]

If the 1510 Ford 4 WD is out of favor it is because nit is the roughest
ride no one wants. That is all I will say.

[Ozarks Tom]

Of course, a person on a tight budget could opt for a $2,000 Ford 8n, with a grading blade, box blade, two bottom plow, and spring harrow. Small horsepower, but will move all those attachments with ease. Can be worked on by an amateur, and parts a still readily available. Heck, a neighbor has one with the FEL attachment, and an auger.

Work the garden, maintain the road, put in large fence posts, pretty much anything a small homestead needs.

[FeralFerret]

One of my friends when I was a kid lived on a farm. His father was in an iron lung, so he and his mother worked the farm. My friend was around ten years old. They were basically subsistence farmers. They had a Ford 8N that they used for everything except combining. I used to help my friend do chores as he was too busy just getting by to have any real "play" time. His father passed away a couple of years later.

I used to help them out with hay harvest every summer. That old 8N was a workhorse. I learned to drive it including backing an old wooden horse trailer with it. I passed the test to be legal to drive a tractor on a farm other than a farm owned by my own family (which we didn't have) using that tractor and trailer. Those skills have served me well over the years, including driving semi-trucks and trailers.

An 8N won't take huge bites in the work, but it will take a lot of small ones. You could do a lot worse.

I saw first hand a lot of the scenarios in the PAW fiction being lived on a daily basis with this family. Most of what they ate, they grew. They even had a dairy cow and a horse that they used to work a small herd of beef cattle. Chickens, ducks, guinea hens, and geese had the run of the place. Their water came from a windmill pumping into an elevated tank. They were ecstatic when they were finally able to put a walking beam pump on that well that would turn on and off as needed to keep the tank full instead of having to monitor and work the brake on the windmill as needed.