dieselfuelonly

Well I went to look at a tractor today and ended up looking at a couple...

Here's how it went:

I originally went to look at a little Kubota B6100E tractor. It was sold, but they did have a MF 135 there. It was the European version. It looked pretty rough, but ran good and all the mechanical stuff functioned correctly.

The bad:

It had an oil leak, looked like it was coming up from the upper half of the engine, one side was covered in oil residue.

The sheetmetal was pretty rough. No guard for the radiator, the hood was dented up, but I don't really care how it looks as long as it works good.

The brakes were HORRIBLE. Driving around the parking lot I had to darn near stand on the brakes to get it to stop. I don't know if thats a simple adjustment or a bigger problem.

It had power steering, though the lines needed to be replaced. They were all cracked up, but the power steering still worked very well.

The good:

It fired right up, ran good, shifted well and idled well. The PTO worked fine, lift worked good, and clutch seemed good.

The place (Holder and Sons Equipment) quoted me $4700 I think for the tractor and a 5' bush hog that was very well made (heavy). The guy said the tractor was $4,500 but on Equipment Trader it was listed for $4,200 so I would probably stick with that price.

I was going to offer $4,300-500 or so. But I wanted to make sure it was a smart thing to do.

Just note, it is the European version. I have no idea how it made its way over here. I think its a 70s model. Its got the Perkins diesel and all the mechanical stuff seems to be the same as the US stuff, but I don't know for sure.

I'm going to look another tractor sometime soon. Its quite a bit smaller however, so we'll see.

So, is it worth it? How hard do you think the oil leak would be to fix?

Thanks for any insight.

DFO

EDIT:

I talked to a guy at a shop that had an old Ford 800 (I think) that he was putting back together. It had a gas motor, and I really, REALLY want a diesel. Any opinions on that?

Box5

I think u can do alot better for $4500....keep lookin for a nice one with a loader and stuff, lol.

jbjarko

I agree, don't sell yourself short yet. You'd hate to invest ~$5k and have it have more problems down the road.