How to Buy a Cheap Used Tractor

do you need to buy a used tractor hey I'm Mark Hall with Alabama Cooperative Extension system a lot of people are just getting started maybe getting started it's an organic farmer or you've got land that you need to keep bush hog and you paying somebody to bush hog and you wonder would it be cheaper to buy a tractor in the bush hog we're going to talk with Wayne green who's a farmer in Lauderdale County and he's bought and sold equipment over the years and he's going to tell us about buying a low cost tractor we're not talking about a gently used tractor we're talking about a tractor a low dollar tractor and to get started tractor just may be a limited used tractor Wayne tell us about buying a tractor what do you need to think about what you need to look for in buying a used tractor you know I have farmers that has five acres and some has ten and some of them has a hundred acres what size tractor than AE what horsepower what's the most economical forum and so I try to help them with it this is a three thousand four tractors which I'd recommends was somebody had five or ten acres maybe you know to do a little tillage work or maybe all bush hogging or stuff like that way if they'd say it's a real nice tractor what I usually look at when I buy a tractor I usually want to check the engine oil in it and see if the engine oil is good and clean in it and then I try to check the tires and make sure the tires are very expensive now and see if the tires are good on it then I try to check the steering on it make sure the steering is tied on it check your hydraulically off I try to see fiddle raised up and how fast it'll come up and check the PTO which is the power take-off that turns a bush hog if you're gonna do any bush hog retreats it what is clean all this is the oil in this tractor turnout is here in the Sun how bright this oil is how pretty and bright it is put it on your finger it's got a pretty bright color so that tells me the oil in this engine you know he's a real clean yeah and you can also tell by all if you see a lot of flakes any a lot of real shiny stuff like glitter yeah that means you've got an engine bro yeah if it's real black and dark the tractor has not been taken care of you know and you can always hold it out in the Sun you know in all that light I'll show you what condition you're always in would you be anything else in all that you look for water or it's anything like that in this you usually if it's got water in your all it's going to have a creamy milky type color so I would you know I would look for that too if it's got a creamy milky color it's got water any okay if you say something green on the ground it's leaking antifreeze and that can be very expensive if you've got a radiator problem and you know your engine if you've got much time if you see oil dripping you got a problem most older tractors 20 to 25 years old you go and some oil seepage I mean you're gonna see a few light spots all along this is just not dripping at a steady pace you know it's not going to hurt anything and come up here and tell us a little bit about tires and what you look for on cars it's the tires on this tractor are there they're worn down there probably about thirty percent and they've got a few dry crack cinnamon things but on a small tractor like this it's not a lot of weight so most of times this tire would probably last four or five years anyway so I wouldn't on the small tractor tires is probably not as important as they are on a bigger tractor with a lot of weight to them when is it too much play in your steering well when you you could always turn your steering wheel and before your wheels start moving I mean you look at your two front wheels and before they start moving say how much if you turn your steering wheel like three to four inches before your wheels move you know you've got a lot of wear in your front end so that's going to have to be fixed this tractor somebody is added the power steering to it and I would recommend if you buy a used tractor power steering is real good on one I mean you can make it without it but it makes it a lot easier you know to maneuver around with power steering four-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive exactly is that an issue it you know I would recommend you know for most 5 to 10 acre farmers I would recommend just a two-wheel drive unless you got it front end loader on it then the forward drive it does a lot better with the front end loader the hydraulic with all tractors even a thirty five horsepower tractor now would have hydraulics the majority tractors do have hydraulics now you hardly ever see a tractor now with a job without hydraulic system on how did you check what would a first-time buyer how would they check to see if your hydraulics are good would you look for leak or the lift or talk to me a little bit yes I mean you can always let you try to sit and step when you tractors running and see if it's any old leaking out from under hydraulic hold and also your layoff when you pull your lever ups for you lift to go up I mean the lift should go up pretty fast if it goes up real slow more likely you got problems this is a live system on this tractor which he would use on a bush all goes up on this track it only takes like 10 to 15 seconds that tells me the hydraulics are in real good condition on this tractor if you pull this lever and it takes like a minute for it to go up you got hydraulic problems which can be very expensive okay talk to me about the PTO yes checking your PTO on a tractor you need though till when you put your lever in into PTO you need to make sure the PTO starts turning immediately if it don't you've probably got a problem or if the PTO will not shut off when you put the lever in the opposition you've got a problem so either one of those you know tells you you got a problem with upto if it comes on real fast and it stops good you know you're good this is a 540 shave the 540 shaft has six splines around it like this it'll be six of them you're 1,000 rpm chef has 21 splines so that's the way you can tell the difference between a 540 and a thousand or p.m. shave is the splines on the shave one has six the other one is 21 if you're buying our tractor and you have a cutter with a 540 shave PTO shaft in your Bush Hager Bush all cutter and you buy a tractor with a thousand rpm shave that cutter will not work on this tractor you will ually to that to buy another cutter or buy another tractor and vice versa so you need to when you're buying a tractor you need to buy something you know that matches your cutter or buy a cutter that matches retracting what size push hog with that cool I would recommend a 5 foot but this you just it's about a thirty five or six horsepower tractor a five foot bush hog or cutter that's real good on this tractor at what point a KERS wise when most people need to step up and get a bigger track a bigger bush hog well I think if you get up into maybe 20 or 25 or 30 acres you know I would look at going like a 50 horsepower tractor and maybe getting on six foot cutters and no and if you've got you know 30 or 40 acres I would probably try to go to a feature of 60 horse by tractor and get a 7 or 8 foot cutter so it's just according to how much time you want to spend out there using the cutter now this would be like if somebody had 100 acres they needed to keep bush hog yes this would be a pretty good trap it would what would you look for in a bigger tractor that you wouldn't what would it be the issues specific to a higher horsepower tractor basically the same thing applies to a big triage it does a small tractor you look under for all leaks and was this tractor it has air only it and I would always get in there and make sure the air conditioner works properly on it this tractor here it comes with a with two PTO shows in it so you can use two different implements on it this is a thousand rpm shave which is a 21 spline this is a 540 shaft with a six plan which gives you an option over the other tractor you can use either one on it so you don't have to worry about that this tractor has got hydraulic dual hydraulic vials like you put a front end loader on this tractor you already got your vial set up on it like pulling a big high roller most people's got a 15 foot back wind cutter that they use with this type tractor it's a real good bush hog tractor it's it keeps you clean inside you don't have to worry about eating dust all day long and it's also cool in the days market you can spend from a range of maybe thirty five hundred to ten thousand dollars on a on a good used tractor it's really cording on if you want to a tractor like this three thousand or you in a cab tractor with eye on it you know you can it's a variety of tractors out there in this range and I tell people all time you buy a good used tractor ten years from now it will make you money because they go up every year because the new ones go up every year so they won't lose any money you can always turn around and resell it if you'll just take care of it wine thank you so much for that good advice and hopefully that will help you in deciding whether you want to buy a used tractor or how to buy a good used tractor

Channel: ACES - Fresh from the Field

Views: 440,356

Rating: 4.7482142 out of 5

Keywords: buying a tractor, buying a cheap tractor, buying an inexpensive tractor, buying a used tracotr, buying a low cost used tractor, Mark Hall, Wayne Green, getting started tractor, 3000 Ford tractor, buy, tractor, used, cheap, inexpensive, pre-owned, preowned, buying, need to know, tips

Id: YWiNfPRNXsQ

Length: 11min 11sec (671 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 19 2016