ALTERNATE DIRECTIONS,,, MIGHT TRY THIS

[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,497]

Since getting my 1st wheel horse allmost a year ago,,, then another one a week after the first. Then a few months later the 5xi. Well sir,,, I start looking all over the place on other brands to.

Right now I am looking at a ford 8n and 9n. What great machines these are. In particular the last couple years of production,, the ford 8n jubilee, wouldnt want a belly mower, but a pto driven brush hog or finish mower off the back.

Also,,,, I came across the International cub lo boy......the 154 is sweeeeeet,,, but,,,, the 184 is the cream.

Allllllll I see on those tractors are woods belly mowers. I cant understand for a 1500 pound machine why the low horsepower. But whatever.

who would like to tell me about these machines? I see my garden tractors growing soon. I really like both, including the ford 8n ,,,,, looking for pros and cons on each,,,,, matter of fact,,, I bet some of you might know where some of these are. If you know of one,, please pass the info to me.

thanks guys,,,,,,, will be interested hearing on these picks of mine.

Edited October 8, 2014 by JERSEYHAWG / Glenn

[RMCIII 838]

Ford 9n with a FEL was the very first tractor I started on at 5yrs. old. Yeah, go figure, how does a 5yr. old drive one of those tractors, without power steering? How does one even depress the clutch far enough to shift gears.... There is a whole bunch of "how’s" in those first 2 sentences.... Anyway, ford 9n, great little tractor.... Had the FEL on the front and sickle mower off the back. Used it to glean the fields when harvest time came.... You see, back in the 70's the combines were not as efficient, as they are today. If the drum was not constantly full of ear corn to separate, it would shuck full corn cobs out the back.. This was standard across all brands of combines. So what you did was take a tractor with a FEL and walk the end rows... Well at 5yrs. old that was my job.... Take the tractor out to the field after the combine went through and pick up all the full ears of corn lying around... We would get anywhere from a wagon, to a wagon and a half of corn... Usually about 325 to 500 bushels. Now, that is a lot of waste back then..... At $1.25/bushel that paid for all 3 of us kids school supplies for the following year. That included new clothes.. So the 9n brings back some very fond memories..... I can't talk good or bad since I was only 5 and by 7 I had graduated to the International 806 Diesel.... All I know is, if a kid wants to bad enough, he/she will find a way to get it done!

 

Rob

Edited October 8, 2014 by RMCIII

[Geno 1,929]

I would stay away from the Fords myself, The Farmalls are far superior.  What are you gonna do with whatever you get?

[shallowwatersailor 3,213]

Have you tried:

 

http://www.farmallcub.com/dcms/

 

http://www.binderplanet.com/

 

http://www.farmallcubforever.com/

 

http://www.redpowermagazine.com/

[Desko 608]

I would stay away from the Fords myself, The Farmalls are far superior.  What are you gonna do with whatever you get?

Not to start an argument or debate but id stick with Ford IMHO Farmall international have torque converter issues which in turn you have to split the tractor to fix but if it weren't for that problem they'd be great tractors the biggest problem with fords were the motors not being sleeved easy fix sorta and John Deere lets not even go there I've got all 3 brands Ford 3000 John Deere 3010 international 656 (uncles he just left it in the barn) and farmall M (uncles also abandoned)

[Geno 1,929]

Farmalls don't have torque converters.  

[Desko 608]

True Farmalls don't but farmall internationals do lol but not a fan of big reds but blue to each your own but I like the own farmall 540 or 640 (don't know exact number) but they fire up on gas and switch over to diesel its really cool.

[squonk 41,016]

Brother in law had a 9N with a bush hog. I had my dad's 39 Allis B with a belly mower. 1 field to mow. We started on opposite edges and were going to meet in the middle. I ran circles around him and ended up doing 2/3 rds of that field. 

[Geno 1,929]

True Farmalls don't but farmall internationals do lol but not a fan of big reds but blue to each your own but I like the own farmall 540 or 640 (don't know exact number) but they fire up on gas and switch over to diesel its really cool.

 

I'm surprised you know about those.  The 450 was the last of the gas start diesels.  Dad had one of those, he also had a 540 tricycle he bought new, and a 68 756 turbo wide front end he bought new that we still have. 

[Kennedy 90]

Me personally, I would go with a Ferguson TO-35. Same classic lines as the 2n, 9n, 8ns except with a high low transmission and I believe more horsepower. I wish I would have done that myself. I have a TO-20. Nice tractor but geared a little higher than my liking. I am a fan of the Farmalls too. I still would like to get a cub or lowboy cub one day. Most of the earlier Farmalls dont have a 3 point and for my use that lead me away from them.

Mark

Edited October 11, 2014 by Kennedy

[C-101plowerpower 1,605]

I'm surprised you know about those.  The 450 was the last of the gas start diesels.  Dad had one of those, he also had a 540 tricycle he bought new, and a 68 756 turbo wide front end he bought new that we still have. 

 

ah, those gas starters are awesome, family friend has a farmall 400 diesel, also starts on gas.

 

anyway, i'd say go for the lo boy, pretty much the same as a normall cub, only a different front axle i think? 

 

 

Koen  

[wh500special 2,160]

Glenn,

The N series Fords are nice "5 acre" tractors and have gotten cheaper in recent years as newer compact utilities have hit the used market. In my part of the Midwest, decent 8N's can be had for about $2k. 9N/2N's are cheaper. Really nice restored and rebuilt units are more, but still reasonable.

You can find an 8N for $1500, but it's going to cost you something in some way to get t ready for working.

We had a 1948 8n and it was a great mowing tractor with a 6' Deere finish mower on the three point. But it wasn't perfect. Dad replaced it after many years with a new Kubota and we wouldn't go back.

A few thoughts:

If you want something to work with, you want an 8N. The 9/2N look about the same but have a couple disadvantages. First, they have only 3 speeds vs th 4 on the 8N. That extra gear is helpful. They also have the left wheel turning brake pedal on the left side of the tractor next to the clutch. Both brake pedals are on the right side on the 8N. It makes operating the 9/2 a little awkward.

I think the engine on the 8N is marginally stronger than on the earlier ones. The 3pt on the 8n was also improved a bit and offers both position and draft control modes. The earlier were only draft control. Draft control means the tractor actively fools with the adjustment of the hitch to maintain draft load. This is useful when plowing a field, but not helpful when mowing or blading.

Late 8N's had their distributor on the side of the engine instead of behind the fan on the front. It's hard to adjust the points on the early 8's and the 9/2's.

They all had 6V electrical systems except some of the 2N's that were hand crank, magneto models. A well maintained 6V system is usually adequate and can still be jump started with a 12V battery if necessary. All were positive ground which seems goofy today.

All N's have transmission driven PTO's. This means two things: when you push in the clutch, your mower stops receiving power. And, the mower itself will act as a flywheel that will continue to drive the tractor forward despite your best efforts to stop it with the brakes. You will need to add an "overrunning clutch" to the PTO shaft. Those shafts are, by the way, also 1.125" instead of the modern 1.375" in most cases. Bushings and adapters are available.

The hydraulic pump that actuated the three point hitch is driven off the pto shaft. So when you clutch, you can't lift the implement. It takes planning to mow tight quarters with one of these things.

N's are very light weight and don't have great traction. That's what made Harry ferguson's draft control invention so brilliant and efficient. The 2500 lb 9n was a match for much larger ih and JD tractors when plowing. The 3pt was only available on FOrds and ferguson's until the 1950s when the patents ran out which is why you don't see any other makes of old tractors so equipped.

For some reason a lot of old timers are confused by the N series model numbers. The 9N was introduced in 1939. The 2N replacement was essentially the same tractor but was introduced in 1942 to allow a price increase during wartime (and could be had with steel wheels and no electrics). The 8N was a big improvement released in 1948. It was a new model required since Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson's handshake deal had fallen apart.

1953 saw the NAA series. The 53 model was a huge improvement with more power from an overhead valve engine and live hydraulic power. The 53 and 54 models were identical, except the 53 was known as the golden jubilee in commemoration of ford's 50th anniversary.

In 1955, ford quit building a single tractor model and replaced it with a range of power and transmisssion choices.

Cecil Pond apparently was a Ford man and modeled the Rideaway hood after the 53 and later fords.

We also had a cub and h farmall too. Great machines as well, but the low-slung utility style tractor with wide front end of the Ford makes a more universal tractor.

Fords don't seem to be really considered collectible by many. I think it's because there are just so many of them out there and they are so familiar and common.

Good luck!

Steve

Edited October 13, 2014 by wh500special

[Desko 608]

The clutch on the N's and 2000's and 3000's were all 2 stage as in if you push the clutch halfway down it only disengages the transmission not the pto and if was pushed all the way in it would stop every thing. When the NAA was introduced the engine was upgraded to a longer stroke and sleeved for fuel economy and the live hydraulics featured a live ram with fluid always going through it and some of the older fords had an hi low option that made it a 6/8 speed depending on transmission and had larger rear wheels for better ground speed what was stated above was right but I just thought I'd add on an it'd be better to get a newer (62-70) ford 2000-3000 with the hi low tranny and ohv 3 cylinder instead of the 4 as they changed it and they had diesels.

[wh500special 2,160]

The NAA had the two-stage clutch, I think, but none of the earlier N'a did.

The N's did in fact have cylinder sleeves as well. They were pretty thin as I recall.

I had forgotten about the multirange transmissions. They were an aftermarket accessory mounted between the clutch and trans. Some were "step up" providing an overdrive of sorts. Some were "step down" providing a low range. Some were both. All of them also alter the pto speed.

Most often these are called Sherman transmissions as that was the primary aftermarket supplier. Ours had a Sherman step-up. Nice for transit purposes.

[JERSEYHAWG / Glenn 4,497]

Gentleman. I am really learning by all these great and knowledgeable posts. I have been looking at Ford 8n.9ns cub Loy boy 154. 184.

Case. I mean the list goes on. This jersey boy is sure enjoying tractors. And of course my Red Ponies.

Glenn

[Desko 608]

The jubilee has a .090 thousands sleeve from what I'm aware of and the N's had a .040 thousands sleeve and all N's jubilee's 2000-3000 all had drum brakes 4000's and up had internal wet disk and they also made industrial fords that were yellow or tricycles but they only went up to the 5000 series for the industrial models and some would either have exhausts out the bottom or through the hood and a down fall to the older fords,John Deere, farmall international etc had oil bath air cleaners that only filtered 30% of the air all older diesels had them even in trucks

[wh500special 2,160]

I don't know much about the loboys. We had a 51 cub with a 42" belly deck. Those suckers are only something like 9hp so the mower was a load for it. It is a real tractor though and can haul, plow, and do other things pretty well.

They started life as 1947 models with a 60 cubic inch four cylinder with no sleeves. They run amazingly smooth and quiet. The same engine was used on other IH equipment of the time.

I think the engine got hopped up a bit through the years but stayed similar. Very durable.

They used a 3 sp transmission that found its way into the cub cadets in 1961. Tough tranny.

I don't think any of the cubs ever got a three point hitch from the factory. Some in the 50's had the IH Fast Hitch which was pretty revolutionary, but proprietary.

The first loboys were offered in late 50's and are a standard cub with the drop housings on the rear end rotated 90 degrees to lower them. I think the wheelbase shrunk as a result by the same distance the height was lowered. Shorter spindles on front probably lowered it to match.

I see a lot of the newer, boxy loboys still around here so they must be tough little suckers. They share some mechanical commonality with early cubs but were updated and freshened to complement the cub cadet line.

I saw a loboy 154 (I think) sell recently at an auction near my house in southern IL for $1300 in running shape with a deck under it. So they are affordable too.

If I had to pick between a Ford and a Loboy, I'd pick the Ford since it is more versatile to me. And the Art Deco styling is nice. Both are cool suckers though. Steve

[Kennedy 90]

Just to add to WH500specials post.Some of the IH 154 and 184 lowboys did come with a factory 3 point and the IH "creeper" gear. Those however, are not real common.

Mark