Tractor

[jtbo]

Has anyone experience with such farming equipment, excluding our Volvo cars?

I was thinking of what kind of repairs and servicing those need and how often?

My 240 is indeed very rusted so I'm thinking either using motor and some other stuff from it to build something like a tractor or then just getting one tractor, I have small field and some work for yard that I need to do and also some machine power would help greatly with moving snow around.

Building route might be tad cheaper, servicing would be as I know but I'm not that good builder of such things, it might end up quite bad, damn thing might be deadly. So I'm currently leaning towards getting some proper tractor, however I have not much experience of servicing one, I have only used them for work in pre history.



Building one would of course produce something quite interesting, it would need automatic transmission, tractor tires+wheels and some frame where to install all the parts, getting two transmissions in series would be one unknown task and getting parts installed to frame would also be bit of challenge, concept itself would not be too difficult to figure out. Lack of tools is perhaps one major thing holding back of this idea.

[volvodspec]

if you want to buy a Terberg tractor i can tell you everyting about it but those things mostly work at ports and heavy industrial applications so not much of use in a field

fieldtractors usually run low gearing and hightorque diesel engines for optimal pulling power, even small tractors have more power on the rear wheels than you can think of. getting a redblock to match a tractors driveline will be very difficult, the max rpm rate of the diesel engines in those is about 1/3 of the rpm's a redblock can produce so the redblock won't perform properly in any way unless you add an additional retarder wich won't be free too..

so if you're planning a few small jobs like a transporter on the field; fit a set of larger mud tires to the 240 and you're done, actual work in the field and i personally would rather think of buying the real thing rather than building one yourself, chassis should be similar thikness as a 1980's chevy blazer.

service is mostly oil+filters, not too much of a problem

[jtbo]

I have 2.4 Diesel in my 240, so it is diesel motor.

Real tractor would be of course best, maybe Nuffield, there is one here not too far away, money is just an issue.

[jtbo]

If that can, certainly 240 can too?

[volvodspec]

yeah might be cool actually!

[Dendorssers]

My dad has a Small Kubota, its about a 15hp and has a 2 cylinder Diesel engine... They are not that cheap, but they are easy serviced and the parts are still easy to come by...
We payed about 3000 euro's for it, including a rotary cultivator it was like 3500 euro's...

I would look into small things, cause all additions are pricey...

PS we wrecked a Cardan-coupling this weekend, was about 150 euro's for the new part, still ok and as i mentioned, easy to come by...

[Fuse]

As you have the room to keep a real sized tractor, I would buy something from the 60-80's, like that mentioned above Kubota. Though Kubotas are not that common here (except excavators), but browse http://www.nettikone.fi and you'll get the idea what's on the market. David Brown/Case, Massey Fergusson, Nuffield, Ford, International etc... mainly it's a brand thing what to choose from that era.

Tractors from that era are simple as they get. If you can service your Volvo you can most definately service a tractor. Most parts are also quite cheap for older tractors, common/standardized and still available new straight from shops like http://www.ikh.fi and such.

But usually nothing major goes wrong because there are not that many parts which could fail.. Just change oils, filters, lubricate everything in proper intervals etc... and those will keep on going forever.

Also you'll get the PTO (power take-off), hydraulics and a 3-point hitch with the real sized tractor, so you can utilize all kinds of nice implements or build your own which utilize the PTO, like wood chippers, circular saws and such...

New small diesel engined mini-tractors/utility vehicles like John Deere Gator are nice with excellent maneuverability, 4x4, CVT, diff lockers etc... but veeery pricey like +10k€ new so if you aren't going to do anything productive with it, it's quite expensive and all the parts and implement's cost A LOT. And also you don't get the 3-point hitch, proper PTO and hydraulics so..

Of course anything can be built but it comes expensive quickly because if you want to do anything simple like plough snow, you will need the hydraulics for a simple adjusting also and building your own hydraulic system can cost a lot of money very quickly.

Good page for tractor specs is http://www.konedata.net/

Also a very good forum for all agricultural machinery related stuff is this http://www.masinistit.com/index.php Lot's of DIY stuff there also.

This is also a nice forum for all kinds of DIY machinery stuff http://harvelit.proboards.com many similiar projects there like this Saab which has been converted to snow plough.. http://harvelit.proboards.com/index.cgi ... thread=892

Also lots of tractor stuff at this forum http://www.murtola.com/foorum/viewforum.php?f=13 but it's mainly related with serious farming business so not as much use with "home tractor"

[jtbo]

I have service illustrations of major, nuffield etc at garage wall, those are original ones from somewhere around 60's so I'm good to go I believe

Real tractor prices seem to have dropped quite a lot in a month or two, those are now in sensible range, so might indeed considering changing yank tank to tractor as I have got trailer to move big stuff. Bit of shame to loose it as it has pretty nice ride, but it is mostly taking up the space nowdays.