You ever try to buy a tractor ?

[bama20a]

 Some may remember awhile back I asked about the H.P. on a tractor,
Well I've been looking for a used tractor with a front end lift,
Due to my job I don't get home to look much :-\,I can find them all over without a lift,
I've seen ways alot of you get's the job done,
So I guess my question is do I really need a lift?
Show some of your ways of moving logs,Without a lift.I'm going to get a tractor anyway because of other use for it also.
So bring on the pictures ;D,Mark,,,,,,

[Brad_bb]

Are you talking about a 3point hydraulic hitch?  Definitely need it.  I try to find as much use for each piece of my equipment as possible.  On my Ford tractor, I have the mower deck on it all summer(rear deck), and then in winter put the rear blade on.  On my smaller late model John Deere I have a belly mower on, can hitch a yard wagon on, and am trying to figure out how to use the PTO to pump water,  plus I have a rear grader blade.  I advocate versatility to get the most use out of something.

[thurlow]

Get one with a front end loader.......you'll never be sorry and...........you'll wonder how you ever lived without one. 8)

[Raider Bill]

You've got to have a front end loader and 3 pt hitch!

[locdogg]

You've got to have a front end loader and 3 pt hitch!

x2

[SamB]

I tend to use my boom pole more for moving logs than my front end loader, but I'd never give up my FEL.

 

[Bogue Chitto]

I made this from a hay lift. 

 

[Bogue Chitto]

 

 

[sealark37]

Don't waste your money buying a tractor without a front end loader.  Before you buy it, make sure that the loader will lift the front wheels off the ground by itself.  Then make sure that it will lift 2000 lb without picking the rear wheels off the ground.  Regards, Clark

[jander3]

Oliver 880, gas 1960 or so.  I spent 3K on this a number of years back.  I can't imagine building the Stump Ranch without her. 

A log arch is a must have, too.  And, later I ended up getting an ATV which helps skid things out a bit quicker.



  

  

 


No loader?  No way!

[WDH]

For working around a mill, you must have a front end loader.  I did without one for ten years, and I don't see how I managed to not kill myself without it. 

[customsawyer]

If you can get the FEL and get 4X4 that way you can drive it around on just the front tires.

 

[WDH]

As long as they are not flat  ;D.

[sandhills]

I know I catch a lot of heck around here for saying buy old equiptment but I still don't think price wise you can beat a good old JD 4010 or 20 with a fel.  The loader is definitely worth the cost especially if you would be using it to handle logs.

Jander3, is that a K-5 on your Oliver? have one on a 4020 but the cylinders are reversed.
I finally broke down this winter and bought a Westendorf but have never got it on the original intended tractor (JD 4840). It's now on Dads 4010 but I love the pallet forks and grapple 

[chevytaHOE5674]

From what I've seen JD 4020's seem to be made of gold. They just about sell for as much used as they cost new 30 years ago. If I was just looking for a tractor with a FEL to tinker around with it wouldn't be a 4020.

[thecfarm]

I have a front end loader and use the loader everytime I am on it. Many rocks have been hauled into the bog with it and many loads of dirt have been dug up and carried back to fill in those rock holes. Handy around around the mill too.

[Al_Smith]

 :D A 4020 JD is an icon of tractors .They've held their value for years and probabley will continue to .They're just as good or better than 8n Fords or TO 20-30 Ferguesons in that respect .

[hackberry jake]

Customsawyer, I dont think I've ever seen a lift stick that far out in front of the tractor. If it were about 4' shorter, you wouldn't have had that issue. We have owned a 90hp hesston with a fel, a 45hp massey with a fel, a 30hp kubota with a fel, and a 30hp massey withOUT a fel. The best thing to have is one tractor with and one without. Its much easier to brushhog without a fel on the front. If I could only pick one, It would be the 90hp tractor with the fel. With tractors, weight is your friend.

[John25mm]

I know that green is REAL popular but I love my Kubota L5450 (50hp) with the FEL on it. When the wife and I got it and took it to the family farm(her family) I thought I would get nothing but grief for bringing 'Yellow' to the farm. There was nothing but JD and a Ford or two there. Turns out they are using it as much or more than anything else on the farm due to it also being 4x4. It is fairly low slung and will go on sideslopes that some of the others wouldn't dream of going on. This is in south eastern Ohio so it can be hilly and tight in some spots. In other words get the FEL ad don't think of anything else.

[bama20a]

Lots of good points here fellows.I knew ya'll would come across ;)
I know where there is a Massey 150 FEL, the price sounds alright. I guess I'll go look at it while I'm off this weekend.
Sure makes it hard when you stay gone as much as I do. ::)I've had my mill around 6 weeks & havn't cut a board yet :'(,That is why I'm needing the tractor,Got a little land to clear where I will set up the mill.
Also have any of you had any dealing with a 150 Massey? Mark,,,

[shelbycharger400]

i have a fel for my case, just havent got around to putting it on yet.
still waiting for a price on a forklift attachment for the rear.

moving logs by hand is no fun

[barbender]

Customsawyer, you are nuts  :D :D 8) That's a big tractor to get face down like that  ;)

[thurlow]

Also have any of you had any dealing with a 150 Massey? Mark,,,

We had a 50 and a 150, in additional to several other M-Fs, way back when;  great tractors.  Only Massey we ever had a loader on was a diesel 175;  it worked fine, but you'll be quite limited as to how much you can lift.......

[Indiana Robinson]

Front end loader basics... If you put a loader on the front ballast the rear... Also lots of farmers and construction guys have been injured buy picking up a load (especially logs and poles) in the bucket then lifting it too high and having the load flip over and come down on them. I once got hit by a section of thick sod that way with my back-hoe trying to reach a high truck side (didn't taste good at all). Logs and poles are about the worst.
We have 2 tractors with loaders here on the farm, one a Deere back-hoe / loader with the hoe removed (belongs to my son) and the other my old Farmall Super M with a new Idea loader on it. Both get used a lot. My new Idea Loader is a lot like the loader on Jandra3's Oliver. Just behind the "dogleg" in the loader arm on each side I have a heavy piece of angle iron welded to it sticking up at least a foot and slanting forward at near a 45 degree angle. They help keep stuff from sliding back along the tops of the lift arms. I have been promising myself that I will build a safety bar much like today's roll-bars onto it but in front of the operator instead of behind him, attached to the loader main-frame as protection from the front. I thought of that after seeing a picture in a farm magazine where a guy got nailed by a utility pole that rolled down the lift arms. The muffler and steering wheel did not slow it down much... I have been thinking of adding a rear roll-bar as well and putting a canopy on them.
We just leave the back-hoe part of my son's tractor stored in a barn. If we need a hole, trench or underground bore he just brings something home with him from work.
BTW, I am officially an old tractor nut but for utility stuff around the farm I am fond of the old 20 to 30 HP tractors like I grew up with.
I did own a Deere 4020 for about 20 years. Bought it used, spent very little on lt and sold it for about what I paid for it.
"What do you mean "antique" tractors, I grew up on these things!!! And I am only 70...  :D


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[customsawyer]

I am nuts but for many more reasons than you know. ;D