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OT worst tractor you've owned

I've had Case , Oliver, AC, John Deere, M F, Ford, I've had good luck with JD, but I liked them all. I will not buy anything made outside of the US.
 
I bought a butchered up F-14 with a chevy 216 cid engine in it once to use for parts and only kept a few things off it like the completly worn out overdrive and a couple front wheel clamps. The day before I sold I found out the engine wasn't stuck afterall like I thought it was. Ooops! Dang thing might have ran with a little tinkering.
 
i dont have a worst tractor but my uncle does , it is a MF3090 with allied loader, he got a good deal he thought 3 years ago, paid 12,000. now today he has over 21,000 tied up in it, 3pt still doesnt lift, replaced hydraulic pump, and many other things and labour, he bought a Case 2290 to do his chores this winter.
 
I have a few boxes worth an Allis B. The big issue is the lack of parts. I retire in a few years, and I can spend my off time putting it togather, I guess.
 
I"ve had several tractors that were problems from the get go. One was an IH 574. Tranny and electrical issues constantly. They were great tractors but the one I had was a lemon. I owned two 3000 Fords, One was a really dependable little tractor, the other was ALWAYS causing trouble. Probably the worst one was a 5400 Deere I bought new. Best thing I can say about it was it didn"t accumulate a lot of hours..... since it was always sitting in the dealers back lot waiting on parts.
 
I had a 674 and now I got a 574, I replaced the wiring harness on both of them that lead from the dash to the fenders other than that they've been good tractors. I like their size.
 
JD4010 with old JD loader, everything went wrong with that tractor even loader cylinders, when it did run I swear you could see the fuel guage going down like it was pouring out
 
ford 641. constantly repairing the darn thing. poured more money and time in it and still not right. finally dumped that turkey. FORD= fix or repair daily.
 
The neighbor would always stop over for something or another for his Cockshutt... As a kid I thought just get it fixed somewhere...
 
I've never owned a bad tractor. All tractors are just as good as they can be. And a tractor needs love the most when it deserves it least.
 
1070 case. I just happened to get a lemon. Bought it new and after 1800 hours of pouring money into it I traded it off. A nut cracked and came off a transmission shaft. The shaft was moving back and forth, misaligning gears, making them touch each other and creating filings. The tranny was fixed under warranty and the mechanic did his best to flush it out but after that there was no end to the hydraulic/brake/power shift problems. It was a handy, easy to drive tractor with lots of low end power, but I couldn't afford to keep it. Jim
 
800 Ford, I've rebuilt and re-engineered most of the tractor. And most of the 8/9/2N's I've seen were worse. Why they have the rep they do baffles me.
 
B414 IH. Wouldn't start unless it was about 80 outside. Shifting was like stirring a pailful of rocks with a paddle and brakes non existent. Traded for a 255 Leyland and thought I'd gone to heaven.
Most costly to run, an 85 Massey gasser; all I could afford at the time but 6 gallons of gas per hour made me wish we had the Cockshutt 40 back again.
 
John Deere 435
I'm 6'1" with long legs, and even with the seat back, I've banged up my shin when using the clutch pedal to stop the PTO. My dad's 320 is the same way, plus it's one of the most ungainly tractors to get off and on with a cramped platform area.
 
Currently have AC 7040 & 185. Deeres 4020 (2), 4000 & 620. They all seem to be good tractors - never had a bad one. Wait a minute, had a Sears garder tractor that wasn't worth a sh _ _.
 
My Gas 414 is one of the best tractor our family has owned. Had over 4000 hours when the meter quit in the 70.s still using it today has maybe had 1000 in repairs in its live. Most batteries have lasted over 8 years.
 
ThaT would have to be a international cub,the reason was not the tractor,it was as reliable as any.just wasnt big enough for what we were doing with it!Ive worked on these old machines all my life,and one thing ive found out..no 1 dont buy a poor mans tractor if you want it to work.chances are it just flat has not been kept up,they all wear out in different places,and a poor man just doesnt have the finances neccessary to fix it all! and no 2,dont ever buy any tractor and expect it to go straight to field,they ALL need something.and no 3,buy one brand and stick with it,this allows you to know when its not right Before it gets plumb down.
 
The 400 IHC--bought new and was a pile of junk. It was such a let down after using M's for years. The dealer covered all the problems but it was in his shop when we needed it alot. About the time they got everything fixed we traded it in on a 656. What a difference from bad to good.
 
I didn't own them but when I worked for Army they bought a bunch of JD 410s with backhoe and bucket.
If the weren't in the shop getting fixed they were being towed to be worked on.
Bad hydraulic pumps Cheap Reverser ( cast iron rings in an aluminum case) Stupid to put the brake disks up against the Tranny case. Spent hours trying to find a piece of the valve from the Hyd. pump that wound up in a relief valve in the back hoe causing the front hydraulics to surge. And if the tranny pressure dropped below 250 you couldn't get the bucket off the ground. (Real dumb)
Walt
 
Ford with Select-o-Speed. Liked it when it worked, hated it when it didn't. So hated it most of the time.

Mechanic told me in the 80's there was more parts in the tranny alone than in the rest of the tractor. He has long since retired, I doubt you could find anyone who can work on a S-o-S today.
 
Well.......
She's feelin a little wear from her age, but dad hooked a 5' brush hog to her 7 years ago and it has never come off! Does OK once you get it runnin, it's just that you need to give her a toot in the blower to start the first time of the day.(IT is one of the most annoying sounding diesels I've ever run) After that it will run long and strong all day! Been like that since we got it in 1989
 
In order,Farmall 706 diesel,John Deere 3010 diesel and John Deere 730 diesel. Might as well have had a vaccum in my wallet for the expense and a gun in my mouth for the frustration.
 
Dad had 2 as I was growing up. The worst because it was the main tractor was a Farmall 400. He bought it used and had the block crack out at the rear main, head cracked twice, ta went out, rear end twice. He then traded for a new 706 and was pleased with it. It did use quite a bit of gas and they usually needed an overhaul after 3000to 3500 hours of hard usage. He bought a second one (used) a year after the first.
The other bad one was a 1939 Oliver 70. Hard to start, and the transmission was a problem. It worked in 1st 2nd and 5th and low reverse. He tore it apart and fixed it. Took it out to haul a load of manure and 3rd, 4th and 6th didn"t work again. He bought it cheap, so he didn"t want to put much money in it. Ended up trading it in with a 2mh picker for an Oliver picker.
 
My grandad bought a brand new D-19 gas series 4, one of the last ones, whatever year that might have been, even with all my dads efforts to discourage it. He bought a brand new AC 4 bottom semi mounted plow with it. He took it to the field to plow in the spring and was very dissapointed, he couldnt believe how hard the AC plow pulled so he pulled out of the field went to town and traded for a new IH 4 bottom semi mounted plow and came back to he field. Well needless to say the plow wasnt the problem. He wasnt one to admit a mistake so he keep that dang thing till he retired. Of course it wasnt long till a brand new 806 diesel was bought to take the work load off that orange thing and then later he added a 706 german diesel. That tractor spent most of its life doing odd jobs and never did get to many hours on it. The tractor never had alot of mechanical problems but it was a huge dissapointment from day one. No doubt the worst tractor that has ever been around this farm.
bill
 
JD 2010 diesel. My Dad bought it new. Hydraulics were useless. Hardest starting tractor I"ve ever experienced. It was a joyful day when that thing left for good.
 
got a neighbor that has 2 sos tractors and I know he can go from front to back on that tranny and make them work well
 
1070 Case with power shift. Don't know a soul who bought one of these that didn't have trouble. Other models,870' 970' 1170' and so on were ok. Mechanic told me it could go out again when we backed out of the shop when I asked what I did wrong to cause it to go out. Traded it off before it was backed out.
 
I did not actually own my nominee, but unfortunately my Granddad and uncle did. My nominee is a Minneapolis Moline G705 Diesel. What a piece of junk; I want to puke whenever I see anything that even resembles one at antique shows. Ungainly handlingly, poor gear ratios, and a useless 3 point hitch were just some of its many issues. My granddad and uncle traded for this unit back during the 70's to be their big tractor for tillage and at 90 plus claimed hp it should have been a workhorse. Unfortunately, their JD 730 diesel or my dad's Oliver 1800 Gasser would outwork it by a considerable margin even though they were less hp. A major overhaul on the G705 still did not correct this.

To make matters worse a very good JD G, a worn out MM UB diesel, and boot cash were all traded for the useless MM G705. They would have been much better off to have overhauled the MM UB that they already owned as it might have been at least somewhat useful after an overhaul. At the very least they still would have owned the JD G and had the boot cash in their pocket.
 
Has to be my fault. Bought a 2N, real purty from city official. Smoked a little. He said it quits after 30 minutes. Changed oil and really started smoking. Tore down and everything was out of specs or out of round. Sludged up real bad. Got my money back, mostly, after a while. Dave
 
First off was an Oliver 880 Diesel. Started hard, no low end, steel pan seat, no power steering, poor hydraulics with horrible placement for the controls. For general complaints. Blew two head gaskets, rear main, hydra power trashed so we removed it, PTO bearings twice, and the tranny went so we scrapped it for overall problems.

Didn't learn from the first. Bought an 1850 gas. Other than burning 10gal an hour, swallowing my teeth to pay for a fuel pump and Holley distributor. Rear main, timing gears, governor, carb, pto clutches, used to stick in gear all the time, the power steering didn't have enough in it to turn the wheels in soft soil, non-sychronized transmission, horrible toggle hydraulics that chattered, useless quick hitch 3pt thing that I welded shut, thermostat that cost $80 to replace. Barely had more power than our 1967 - 3020 Deere. The final straw was when my dad caught his foot between the hydraulics that were conviently placed between your legs on the floor and the shifter that was in the middle of nowhere and took a nose dive off the platform onto the barn floor. That was the last night it sat inside, the rest of it's life on our farm was by the road with a for sale sign.
 
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