Farmall M

Gents,
Would like your opinion/input. I have a '48 Farmall M. I have sunk about 3000 into a engine rebuild (yes, I know, that is ridiculous...but thats another story). I really like tractor, which is good, because for what I have invested, I can never sell it. It is far from finished. Needs tires, paint new brakes and a few other odds and ends. I have a small farm. Use a JD 4320 for most of my work. Have a 4 row JD 7000 planter.

I find myself between a rock and a hard place. Due to what I have invested in the farmall, I really need to use it as a farm tractor. To plant with, to run augers and to do other things. My dilema is this....

The tractor has no live hydraulics, no three point hitch, no loader, no power steering...etc etc. I am starting to think it is just a bridge to far to make this tractor useful in modern farm environment. By the time I add a 3 point hitch, live hydro, strip and paint it and add new tires, i'm guessing I'll have 6-7000 invested. WAY TOO MUCH FOR AN M. (I think) Sooo, should I just give it up and park it in the corner, cut my losses? Finish it and sell it...and take my losses? Or does it makes sense, at all, to anyone to turn this old girl back into a modern farming machine?

I do happen to have an old forkift in the shop, with a great mast, that doesnt work any more. U think the belly bump would run a fork truck mast??? I could put her on forklift duty?

O, one last question....If I do sink the money into this tractor ie., 3 point hitch, live hydro, power steering all the bells and whistles , do you believe that the performance would be good??? or just ""ok"

Why do you have it? If it is just a hobby, work on it as you can, a lot of people do that. If your planter is a trailing planter, the M will handle it. If it is a 3 point, maybe so, maybe no, as I don't know what it weighs. It will work an auger, etc. Any tractor I do, I figure will cost me a minimum of $4000, plus the buying price of the tractor, without engine work, which can be $1-$2000 depending on the tractor. Bottom line, you or me or anyone else will NEVER get our money back. Old tractors are to enjoy, if it becomes an albatross, get rid of it.

I don't have a "big" farm by any means, but I am farming a few acres (almost) full time as a truck farm. This summer my M has been my main tractor, it has none of the add ons that you mention, and it works fine for me. I do have an MTA that I put $1500 into new tires, and about $1000 I sunk into the 3pt I built for it and all new hydraulic lines. BUT, the live pump went the way of the big scrap iron pile in the sky... SOOOOO, I flogged the M back into service untill I can justify spending ANOTHER $700 on a new live pump for the MTA.
So, ask yourself, "Do I really NEED" all those extras, or can I do without them, and get by, for me, the answer was yes, mostly because I had no choice, and frankly, I can live without them for most of my chores.
Even a bare M can do alot of work...

Ben

For less money than it will cost to do all of those things to your M, you can probably buy a tractor that has it all. Just keep your M for the things it can do as it is and buy a "more modern" tractor.

You have one of the best tractors ever built. My 48 M rakes the hay, cultivates the corn, plants the Pinto beans, pulls the main irrigation ditches, runs the 3 point sprayer, ditches the corn and beans, cuts the beans with the bean knives and on and on. This year I"m building a custom quick mount loader based on the Wagner design with quick attach skid steer plate.

I built a custom cat two 3 point that uses the 450/560 rockshaft mounts and rockshaft arms etc and the standard single hitch cylinder. All this on belly pump power and it will lift the sprayer with 125 gallons of spray.

The loader with 3 in cylinders at 800psi will exert 5000 lbs of lift each.

Just saying, you can do alot with a good running M.

I'm always happy to share my 3 point plans and pics.

My other tractor is an 856 but I couldn't do what I do without the M.

Almost nothing a person owns wil bring its "value" on the market. What would it cost to buy the equal is the question.
and old iron is very useful and reliable. If you loaded the unit with the components you describe, it will do wonders. Then what would you pay for its equal ((probably in the range of 40,000 new, or 5,000 in a older more modern unit with unknown issues. Jim

Just love my old M and use it all the time. Got about $5500 in 'er counting the buy in price.

'Course, I didn't have to overhaul the engine neither.

Allan

A lot may also depend on what you want to do with the 3 point... you will not have draft control with any add-on 3 point, so you will be at a disadvantage for most tillage implements. But you no doubt already have that on your John Deere and may not need it on the M.
The M can still be a useful tractor without the "extras", so you need to assess what work you [u:55255aa895]really[/u:55255aa895] need those "extras" for, then look at your options for adding a tractor to do those things. You may be able to find something for the $3-4000 it will cost to add to the M. If you have a good shop, time and ability to fabricate everything, that would also be a consideration. A lot of attachment to those old tractors in nostagic and not really all that practical. You will never add live PTO to it and live hydraulics will still not add draft control for a 3 point. Power steering is about the only thing you can add that will do the same thing about as well as factory. Most any tractor built from the mid-late '50s on will have all the things you need.
BTW, I see you must fly Cessnas... I worked in the engineering dept. of Cessna Fluid Power for 24 years.

If the farmall M had all the extras they would have never made any other tractor.

Depending on what all the motor needed, don't feel too bad about the $3k. Maybe a little high, but bath for head and block, crank turned, deck smoothed, head mag'd and worked, broken head studs removed and fixed, and more, plus parts, will get you there pretty quick if you paid someone to do it. I had over $2,000 in mine.

Other than that, you knew it didn't have all those features you mentioned when you bought it, so I don't understand your surprise now at the cost of adding them.

If it were me, I couldn't walk away from it now. Once you add the things you need it's golden for 30 years. Grit your teeth, buy the live pump, the 3-point, and to heck with the paint for now, you want it for work, right? You can paint it anytime down the road when you've recovered from current costs.

Plus, nothing sounds as good as an M out in the field.

Personally, I would not put a loader on an M, but that's just me. As for the other options - power steering, live hydraulics and a good 3-point - I'd sure put them on. Don't worry about the cost because all three of those systems can be removed and sold seperately to recover your money when/if you decide to retire the tractor to parade status or sell it.
My SM has all three and it sure updates the usefulness of the machine.
I found another (like new) Saginaw 3-point a year ago for $500 right here on the YT Marketplace and just got it mounted and hooked up to my SH. The Saginaws are great.

(quoted from post at 06:29:32 06/14/10) Just love my old M and use it all the time. Got about $5500 in 'er counting the buy in price.

'Course, I didn't have to overhaul the engine neither.

Allan

<img src="http://www.rieckesbaysidegallery.com/programfiles/talers/4.JPG">

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Allen, what kind of seat is on your M?
Can you post some more pictures of it from different angles?

Thanks,
Spotted Horse

Red Mist, I wish I had the pictures of the old farm hand type loader that my M had on it for all the years I was younger on my grandfathers farm. Back in those days they didn't have stack wagons for hay, it was all by hand.
After all the fields were baled with small squares there was a very large attachment that went on the front of the Farm Hand that had around 20 long spear type tubes that made the bottom of the bucket if it was a loader. There was a flat hydraulic push off plate at the back. What you did was run through the field with those tubes running on the ground and the bales would ride up on on top of the spears. When you got a full load which was around 15 to 20 bales you would lift the whole thing off the ground and drive to where the hay stack was being formed by 2 or 3 guys doing the stacking. Then push the bales off and go get another load.
The size of that old style loader was much larger than what we think of loaders today. The size and style of loader I'm going to put back on it doesn't come close to what that M handled for more years than I can remember. It's amazing what these old tractors can do when equipped properly.

Did somebody say "forklift mast?

Let's assume that your cylinder has a bore of 3". If you do the math, it will lift 2826 lbs less the weight of the slider, carriage, and forks. If there is no slider (very unlikely), it will pick up double that.

Oh, BTW, you will want to install the forklift on the back where it should be.

I just went with what the hydraulic site said a 3" bore at 800 psi would generate in lbs lift for the cylinder I was looking at for the main lift cylinders on my loader design. It was 5600 lbs extend and 3141 lbs retract.

Here is a picture of the hitch. And by the way...draft control is over rated on this size tractor. I'm going to be rebuild the engine and trans on this one this winter. Got to do it since it's such a good work horse. As far as the hitch I've been looking at picking up the rest of the fast hitch pieces and turn this into the fast hitch it was to begin with. Sway control would be better I think and I can put a custom built 3 point quick style on fasthitch prongs.

You guys are great. Thanks for all the tips and encouragement!

dansuper27,

You didn't do the math. Nearly all forklifts are set up to lift double the length of the cylinder stroke. As a consequence, the the lift capacity, in pounds, is halved.

Some low mast (low clearance) forklifts have three sets of sheaves or sprockets. Their lift height is four times the cylinder stroke.

My previous post is correct. I have two tractors with forklift masts, three forklifts, and two elevators built around forklift masts.