Looking for a vintage lawn tractor.

[MasterMech]

Very nice More wall hangers!.....Just need a little splash of yellow and white.

Got one sitting out behind the woodpile. Waiting for it's trip to the scrap yard. (Don't worry, it's an MTD! )

 

[Ashful]

Holy Deere's! You have a clear case of TAD.

Here's a slightly older one. I'm driving, younger brother is in the trailer.

 

[smokinj]

Got one sitting out behind the woodpile. Waiting for it's trip to the scrap yard. (Don't worry, it's an MTD! )

The old cubs turn heads for sure.....Mine will be pulling a float next year with 1964 wheel horse and a jd 212.

 

[smokinj]

Holy Deere's! You have a clear case of TAD.

Here's a slightly older one. I'm driving, younger brother is in the trailer.

View attachment 105631

Awesome!

 

[Bocefus78]

Finally got mine all done and running. Since everyone else put up pics, guess I might as well. Here is a before and after.

 

[smokinj]

Finally got mine all done and running. Since everyone else put up pics, guess I might as well. Here is a before and after. View attachment 106130View attachment 106131

Looks good!

 

[Ashful]

Finally got mine all done and running. Since everyone else put up pics, guess I might as well. Here is a before and after. View attachment 106130View attachment 106131

What? No kid on it?

 

[Bocefus78]

What? No kid on it?

Unless you want to see my dog or cat on it, nope.

 

[Okie1]

Here's one of mine, 1976 Massey Ferguson MF-16

 

[Ashful]

Schweet!

 

[Okie1]

Schweet!

You like that one? I have 16 more, This ones a 1976 Bolens H16 single cylinder overhead valve cast iron Tecumseh, running 25x10-12 ITP 589 rears and 4.00- tri-ribs up front, foot feed Hydrostatic transmission, with lock out posi-trac and all shaft drive, front mid mount and rear, and hydraulic lift. Nobody better get in my way, lol. I paid 500 for this (it didn't look like this) and a snow blower, tiller, deck and plow and I restored it last year. Cubs and Deere's run from this machine

 

[Charles1981]

I just got a 1979 Yanmar 240. It is a little bigger than most of yours but I am really excited to use it this winter.

Has a 3pt hitch, PTO, 6 foot rear blade for snow removal, and a 60 inch belly mower deck.

Has taken 3-4 weeks for me to get it running again though but I got a steal on it at 1,000$.

Still needs more work though.

New battery, tire replacement (real beyotch), oil change, oil/fuel/air filter, new starter, serviced the fuel injector system, severely clean up the mower deck, find replacement parts, install a new mower belt also a real pain, front weights, lube and grease everything, Still gatta service the breaks, clean her up some more....

Overall pretty cool. My wife is determined I love the tractor more.... erhm... ehm.. uhmm...

I definitely cant keep my hands off it past few weeks for more than a few days or so though.

 

[Okie1]

I just got a 1979 Yanmar 240. It is a little bigger than most of yours but I am really excited to use it this winter.

Has a 3pt hitch, PTO, 6 foot rear blade for snow removal, and a 60 inch belly mower deck.

Has taken 3-4 weeks for me to get it running again though but I got a steal on it at 1,000$.

Still needs more work though.

New battery, tire replacement (real beyotch), oil change, oil/fuel/air filter, new starter, serviced the fuel injector system, severely clean up the mower deck, find replacement parts, install a new mower belt also a real pain, front weights, lube and grease everything, Still gatta service the breaks, clean her up some more....

Overall pretty cool. My wife is determined I love the tractor more.... erhm... ehm.. uhmm...

I definitely cant keep my hands off it past few weeks for more than a few days or so though.

The yanmar is a good all around machine, what you wont care for alot is turning around during snow removal. our going to need chins or AGs before winter. I don't know why front blades weren't popular on these bigger tractors, like they were on smaller ones. My two stage 48" snow blower on my 1979 Ariens GT14H blows snow more than 40 feet going forward and at pretty good clip, and with the tiller on the back I have all the ballast I need

 

[Charles1981]

Hrmm by chins do you mean chains? and I don't know what AG are.

The owner recommended I plow in reverse with the blade backwards. He never used chains and had some small inclines to plow as well. My driveway is completely flat... so hopefully I won't need chains. We will see.

 

[BrotherBart]

AG=agricultural tires. Heavy lugged.

 

[Okie1]

Hrmm by chins do you mean chains? and I don't know what AG are.

The owner recommended I plow in reverse with the blade backwards. He never used chains and had some small inclines to plow as well. My driveway is completely flat... so hopefully I won't need chains. We will see.

Sorry, chins = chains, Ags are Agricultural tires, or farm tires, plowing in reverse would mean (or should mean) that you will have to bend around backwards if you want to see what your going to hit or plow, not very comfortable for any period of time, you'll see. Wouldn't be hard to fabricate a front blade from a 54 inch John Deere blade. If the previous owner said he did not use chains on those tires in the Michigan winter, I would seriously take stock of everything else he professed to you. On a snow/ice packed driveway (flat or not) about the time you get a load of snow on the blade those tires will sit in one place and spin the same way your car would. Have you lived in Michigan long? When I was up there it snowed alot in the winter and often cars needed chains just to drive on the roads, and they weren't pushing a blade

 

[KD0AXS]

Those are some nice tractors.

Here's what I have, although it's not exactly "vintage". It's a 2000 John Deere 425. 46" blower and 54" mower deck. I'd like to get the 3 point, rear PTO, and tiller for it, and also the FEL attachment, but we're talking $$$ for all that stuff. It's a great little workhorse as it is though.

 

[Okie1]

Those are some nice tractors.

Here's what I have, although it's not exactly "vintage". It's a 2000 John Deere 425. 46" blower and 54" mower deck. I'd like to get the 3 point, rear PTO, and tiller for it, and also the FEL attachment, but we're talking $$$ for all that stuff. It's a great little workhorse as it is though.

Those 425s are awesome vintage or not, we are talking serious machinery. Save your money on the FEL, they are useless on a GT, I had one on a 455, and on grass with a bucket of topsoil the machine was worthless, barely could reverse, turn and maneuver. FELs on anything less than 2500 lbs is all for show and piddlers, not saying they don't have a place, they do, if you have 1-5 acres they can be quite handy, just don't expect a lot, and figure if you use the FEL it will cut the life of your machine considerably, they are really hard on frames,, front ends, engines, and transmissions. I would NEVER buy a GT or small tractor that had or has a FEL for that reason, most of the time they look great, but they are whooped. Do you have the tires on the 425 "loaded"?

 

[KD0AXS]

Those 425s are awesome vintage or not, we are talking serious machinery. Save your money on the FEL, they are useless on a GT, I had one on a 455, and on grass with a bucket of topsoil the machine was worthless, barely could reverse, turn and maneuver. FELs on anything less than 2500 lbs is all for show and piddlers, not saying they don't have a place, they do, if you have 1-5 acres they can be quite handy, just don't expect a lot, and figure if you use the FEL it will cut the life of your machine considerably, they are really hard on frames,, front ends, engines, and transmissions. I would NEVER buy a GT or small tractor that had or has a FEL for that reason, most of the time they look great, but they are whooped. Do you have the tires on the 425 "loaded"?

Tires are not loaded, but I do have 6 suitcase weights that go on the back when the blower is on. It does pretty good, but a little extra traction certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

I didn't really plan on getting the FEL anyway. About the only thing I'd use it for would be moving around firewood, like big rounds that I can't pick up by hand. I suppose it might be useful for moving snow, but I already have the blower for that. (and a plow on my 4 wheeler) Definitely not worth the $3K price tag. For that price or not much more, I could find a decent old tractor with a FEL or even an older skid loader.

 

[Okie1]

Tires are not loaded, but I do have 6 suitcase weights that go on the back when the blower is on. It does pretty good, but a little extra traction certainly wouldn't hurt anything.

I didn't really plan on getting the FEL anyway. About the only thing I'd use it for would be moving around firewood, like big rounds that I can't pick up by hand. I suppose it might be useful for moving snow, but I already have the blower for that. (and a plow on my 4 wheeler) Definitely not worth the $3K price tag. For that price or not much more, I could find a decent old tractor with a FEL or even an older skid loader.

I see 3 points out there very reasonably on craigslist, and sometimes you can sneak up on a good deal on ebay, if you had a 3 point you could buy or build you a little boom pole, 6 footer, they sell them on ebay for about a 110.00, with the blower on the front for weight you could haul some big rounds. I'll tell you a trick about loading the tires, take the tire off the tractor and drill the same size air valve hole on the opposite side of the wheel, install another valve and remove stems from both valves, With both valve stems at the 12 o'clock position, hook a small hose attached to the bottom of a large bucket of windshield wiper fluid, it will fill very quickly displacing the air out the extra valve stem, when fluid runs out of the other air valve replace the stems, This will add 80 lbs or more to each tire, won't freeze, won't rust out your rim, and won't kill grass/dog if a leak occurs, best of all its cheap.

 

[ad356]

i thought i would chime in. i run a 1948 farmall cub, i know its a farm tractor but its the smallest of the old farmall line. nice, reliable little C60 60 cubic inch flathead four cylinder that simple little engine will run for quite a few decades in between overhauls. that little four cylinder is a low RPM engine so its very fuel efficient, balanced, and has a long life as i said between rebuilds. that engine will burn less fuel then a smaller single or twin. im running a 60" danco C3 finish mower (the other option is the woods which by the way is still in production) and i push snow with a 54" blade. cubs are readily available and so are the parts (allot of reproduction stuff being made). its a useful little tractor, it wont break the bank and they are built like a larger tractor. i paid $1,800 for mine i have owned it 3 years and so far only replaced the front tires, the battery, and the normal paint and fluid changes. the tractor looks a little better then it did in this photo as i have since done a repaint on the front hood along with decals.

the cub is a serous little tractor built for light farming use, they arent out of place mowing, pushing snow, plowing 2-3 acres, or cultivating a larger lot. they are cultivating machines.

 

[Okie1]

i thought i would chime in. i run a 1948 farmall cub, i know its a farm tractor but its the smallest of the old farmall line. nice, reliable little C60 60 cubic inch flathead four cylinder that simple little engine will run for quite a few decades in between overhauls. that little four cylinder is a low RPM engine so its very fuel efficient, balanced, and has a long life as i said between rebuilds. that engine will burn less fuel then a smaller single or twin. im running a 60" danco C3 finish mower (the other option is the woods which by the way is still in production) and i push snow with a 54" blade. cubs are readily available and so are the parts (allot of reproduction stuff being made). its a useful little tractor, it wont break the bank and they are built like a larger tractor. i paid $1,800 for mine i have owned it 3 years and so far only replaced the front tires, the battery, and the normal paint and fluid changes. the tractor looks a little better then it did in this photo as i have since done a repaint on the front hood along with decals.

the cub is a serous little tractor built for light farming use, they arent out of place mowing, pushing snow, plowing 2-3 acres, or cultivating a larger lot. they are cultivating machines.

I had one exactly like it and just about the same shape, on my 20 acres it didn't have a job, and a guy offered me 2,000 for it with a sickle bar, so off it went. They are good tractors, but two reason they need rebuilt fairly often, one their old, two they are only 10hp, that's asking a lot of an engine to power a 60 inch deck or front plow. I used the money to buy a big GT and several need attachments. This is my 1970 Bolens 1476, it's a single cylinder 14 hp Wisconsin engine with a Eaton 12 foot feed hydro with hydraulic lift , I have a three point and tiller. I put 4 bolt trailer hubs on the front along with 10 inch front narrow rims and 4.00-10 tri-ribs tires, the rears are 26x12-12 Duro 4 ply trenchers, I don't have the factory wheel weights installed yet, still drying.

 

[ad356]

those pics were taken before i did some work to her this summer. new radiator, repaint hood, decals, and fixed the shifter (i had an old IH cub cadet shifter on it as the original shifter broke while pushing snow this last winter, after all she is 66 years old, little stuff does break)

 

[ad356]

i disagree about the cub engines needing rebuild because they are only "rated" at 12 hp. they arent the most powerful tractor in the world, but it has more then enough to handle the 60" deck on fairly flat an level ground. i have mowed grass that was several feet tall on a property and was abandoned and had not been mowed all year. while its only rated at 12 hp thats draw-bar hp and not crank. these engines put out around 50 ft/lbs of torque. the main reason they need overhaul often times is that they are old and allot of them have many hours on them. the trick is to buy one that does not smoke when you buy it, and you will get many years out of it. i would venture to guess that it has quite a bit more power then your 14 Wisconsin, not that wisconsons arent good engines they are. i also think that parts availability for rebuilding might be better for the farmall, allot of parts have been reproduced for the IH tractors. i have also had kohler k series 12 hp engines and that 4 cylinder has ALLOT more lugging ability. 4 cylinder tractor engine are almost always going to have more lugging ability, after all you have 3 more pistons.

i do think allot of these cubs have ALLOT of hours on them, but once you overhaul the engine it will last a very, very long time if not a lifetime. talking to someone at a tractor show he said he was mowing 6 arces a week with a cub.... no problem, lasted 20 years doing that until he had to rebuild the engine; which he did.

i have a good running spare engine under my bench that i picked up for $300 (i stole it) that is ready to go if i need an engine, so im not worried about it for a long time.

 

[KD0AXS]

I see 3 points out there very reasonably on craigslist, and sometimes you can sneak up on a good deal on ebay, if you had a 3 point you could buy or build you a little boom pole, 6 footer, they sell them on ebay for about a 110.00, with the blower on the front for weight you could haul some big rounds. I'll tell you a trick about loading the tires, take the tire off the tractor and drill the same size air valve hole on the opposite side of the wheel, install another valve and remove stems from both valves, With both valve stems at the 12 o'clock position, hook a small hose attached to the bottom of a large bucket of windshield wiper fluid, it will fill very quickly displacing the air out the extra valve stem, when fluid runs out of the other air valve replace the stems, This will add 80 lbs or more to each tire, won't freeze, won't rust out your rim, and won't kill grass/dog if a leak occurs, best of all its cheap.

That's a great idea for tire fluid, I might just have to do that.