In reply to The0retical :
As far as your grade situation is concerned I'm not going to comment, because that is steep and I don't know enough and don't want to give you bad info. But always be careful when dealing with that kind of grade. Keep your load low and add counter weight where necessary. You should definitely have a seatbelt and roll bar.
My 350 handled those jobs nicely on flat ground with power to spare, so I would think 30-something horsepower should do just fine. Remember, you can always take a lower gear, you can always take a smaller bite with the blade and make an extra pass or two.
In reply to gearheadmb :
Thanks for the feedback. I'll look for something in that range with a ROPS.
There's a Ford 1700 near me I've been eyeing.
In reply to The0retical :
If you buy them right and do the normal maintenance it is pretty easy to use them for several years then sell them for the same price you paid for it. So you basically get free use of a tractor.
I mentioned earlier that I swapped my good rear tires from the 350 on to the new to me 424. Of the two going to the 350 one was pretty new, the other looked real E36 M3ty and would go flat in a couple hours. So I bought a new tube and sent the bad one along with my cousin who teaches at the tech school. I figured that would be a good job for the kids in the ag diesel program. He calls and says the tire is really bad. I said I know, I just need it to hold air so I can sell it. Go ahead and put it together. So they do and on Sunday I put the tire on the tractor and drove it outside and took some glamour shots for the for sale ad.
As I was driving down the driveway I hear a loud pop, I look over and the tire has blown completely off the bead. I get it back in the barn as quick as I can, just before the new tube also blows.
I said the hell with it, lowered my advertised price by $400 and posted the tractor for sale on CL and FB marketplace, wondering if anybody is going to want to mess with it with the flat tire. But it turns out they did. 24 hours after posting I had a deposit in hand. Maybe I priced it too low. I don't know. Whatever.
Damnit i just made up my mind today to buy it.
Patrick said:
Damnit i just made up my mind today to buy it.
To be honest, I kind of feel like this forum is a big community, almost family, and I prefer to sell my junk to strangers that I never have to hear from again. I would feel pretty bad if you took it home today and tomorrow started a thread asking where to get tranny gears, or how much scrap is currently worth.
No worries. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with the tire right now. I thought about it since I asked price and this morning on the way to work i was like yep, i should do that
Maintenance day for the 424. I changed the transmission fluid and the hydraulic fluid. The trans may have had some water in it.
The trans is pretty straight forward, just drain (from two places) and refill.
The hydraulic fluid looked mostly normal, but when I pulled the strainer I was kind of amazed that the hydraulics worked at all. It was a solid mass of sludge. It took a substantial amount of work to get it clean. There was also a small orifice filter to clean and a larger filter that I replaced. Based on the amount of sludge in the tank I am going to have to do this a few more times to get it clean. I will check on the IH enthusiast sites to see if I can run some kerosene in the system to help break it up.
I got a good days work out of the 424 yesterday. We wanted to change the chicken run layout a bit to make the chicken chores a little more efficient and convenient. So for the tractor that meant pulling out four 4x4 posts, moving the coop, and drilling four new post holes using my dads three point post hole digger. It also meant about eight miles of road driving in picking up and returning the post hole digger. I got to say that little tractor did really well. I don't want to brag it up too much and jinx myself, but it impressed me. It did everything I asked it without complaint. Doing a cantilever pickup of the chicken coop gave the loader all it wanted, but it managed. And it did the whole project and only burned a small amount of fuel. Another big plus of the day was this was a project my wife wanted done, and she was out there to see how much easier the tractor made it. That makes owning and maintaining the tractor more justified in her eyes, which can be half the battle on these hobby vehicles.
It looks like another (small) tractor project has found it's way into my life. This one is a deere 318 garden tractor. It looks fantastic, but the PO bought a replacement about five years ago and thought he should keep this as a backup. It never got started in those five years, and that seems to have taken a toll on it. I got it running with a battery and some fresh fuel, but there seems to be some carb issues, the generator isn't charging, and the deck only engages intermittently. It's on the back burner for now, but as time becomes available I will try to get it as close to like new condition as possible.
I started painting the 424 this weekend. Boy that's kind of a pain.
I've got a $12 paint gun, $40 paint, and a dirty old barn with horrible lighting as a paint booth. I really cant see any reason for it to turn out any way besides super awesome.
You've got electricity and a concrete floor. I think that disqualifies your barn from being considered dirty and old. Looking good so far.
I found a cure for my poor lighting. A nice bright headlamp definitely was a step in the right direction for the second coat.
Its starting to come together. The main carcass is all painted and unmasked, all four wheels are painted and put on. The white parts of the hood are done and the red parts of the hood and grille got the first coat of color today and hopefully will get the second and final coat of paint tomorrow. If all goes well I will be reassembling it monday or Tuesday evening.
In reply to gearheadmb :
Those wheels look sharp!!!
gearheadmb said:
I found a cure for my poor lighting. A nice bright headlamp definitely was a step in the right direction for the second coat.
And you got a cyborg look goin' on
I still need to get my decals ordered and get the loader painted and back on, but here is how far along it is. I used rustoleum rusty metal primer and rustoleum farm and implement paint thinned 6-1 with acetone. I sprayed it with a harbor freight purple gun. I was really happy with the paint and the gun. I feel like the finish isn't quite as nice as a good automotive paint but I think the rustoleum was a lot more idiot proof. If I had it to do over again I would use all the same stuff.
Not too bad considering what it looked like when I brought it home.
I gotta share my glamour shot I got out in the sunshine today.
Oh my! Hope it will always run as good as it looks. Just had my 1950 Ferguson T-020 working the York Rake on my driveway. Love me some of these old tractors. Being it's only a little older than me, it gives me some inspiration, that I'll continue getting work done.
I got my decals put on today. I got them from Maple Hunter decals out of Indiana. Ordered friday, at my door monday. The price was good and so was the quality.
