ChookHappy
Exploring the pasture
Wow nice, talk about a dream come true! Have a great time looking for your property! We should be starting up the whole process here in about 3 years. 
We've been preapproved! Help me celebrate!
- Thread starter Mini-M Ranch
- Start date
YAY! 
Here's my totally unsolicited, longwinded advice to pretty much any new landowner:
Hop on craigslist or look through the want ads and find yourselves an 8N Ford "Redbelly" tractor, right off the bat. They were made from '48-'52, and they're still extremely plentiful...that should tell you something. Can be had anywhere from $1800-$2500, depending on condition, and are worth their weight in GOLD on a smallholding.
Everything on one is simple to understand...a real "fire, air, fuel" type engine, simple hydraulics, overbuilt cooling system... They were basically made to be repaired in the field by farmers with nothing but a few screwdrivers, wrenches, and a manual. The cylinders are sleeved, which means if they wear out, you just replace the sleeves instead of boring it out or replacing the block. That's why so many are still around...wear it out, rebuild it with new sleeves, bearings, and rings, and wear it out again!
And replacement parts are everywhere. I gaurantee you could go to TSC and find carb and ignition rebuild kits on the shelf right this minute. And if you need a part that TSC doesn't have, there's a place out of NC called Just 8Ns that has everything you can think of -- including a lot of expertise that they're often willing to part with, free of charge!
The coolest part is, if you need light implements (blade, bushhog, plow, disks, boom poles, pond scoop, finish mower, etc), it doesn't matter if they were made in 1950 or 2010 -- they'll hook up to an 8N. It was the first tractor on the market with the 3-pt hitch and full-range position control, then everybody else followed right along till this very day.
I've owned two, and still have one. It's a '48 model, resleeved in '06. Runs like a new one. I do everything from bushhogging to drillling post holes to turning gardens with an old Dearborn 2-bottom plow on that old tractor.. We raise two gardens, each about 50x100....I can turn one in less than an hour, including the time it takes to hook the plow up..
Suffice it to say that me and my old tractor would be hard to part.
Ok...so there's my totally unsolicited advice. Take it for what it cost ya!
Congrats again.
Here's my totally unsolicited, longwinded advice to pretty much any new landowner:
Hop on craigslist or look through the want ads and find yourselves an 8N Ford "Redbelly" tractor, right off the bat. They were made from '48-'52, and they're still extremely plentiful...that should tell you something. Can be had anywhere from $1800-$2500, depending on condition, and are worth their weight in GOLD on a smallholding.
Everything on one is simple to understand...a real "fire, air, fuel" type engine, simple hydraulics, overbuilt cooling system... They were basically made to be repaired in the field by farmers with nothing but a few screwdrivers, wrenches, and a manual. The cylinders are sleeved, which means if they wear out, you just replace the sleeves instead of boring it out or replacing the block. That's why so many are still around...wear it out, rebuild it with new sleeves, bearings, and rings, and wear it out again!
And replacement parts are everywhere. I gaurantee you could go to TSC and find carb and ignition rebuild kits on the shelf right this minute. And if you need a part that TSC doesn't have, there's a place out of NC called Just 8Ns that has everything you can think of -- including a lot of expertise that they're often willing to part with, free of charge!
The coolest part is, if you need light implements (blade, bushhog, plow, disks, boom poles, pond scoop, finish mower, etc), it doesn't matter if they were made in 1950 or 2010 -- they'll hook up to an 8N. It was the first tractor on the market with the 3-pt hitch and full-range position control, then everybody else followed right along till this very day.
I've owned two, and still have one. It's a '48 model, resleeved in '06. Runs like a new one. I do everything from bushhogging to drillling post holes to turning gardens with an old Dearborn 2-bottom plow on that old tractor.. We raise two gardens, each about 50x100....I can turn one in less than an hour, including the time it takes to hook the plow up..
Suffice it to say that me and my old tractor would be hard to part.
Ok...so there's my totally unsolicited advice. Take it for what it cost ya!
Congrats again.
