Friday, November 5, 2010

New tractor

I've been looking for a smaller, lighter tractor for my farm, and ran across this one on craigslist. The basic features I looked for were 4 wheel drive, hydrostatic transmission with shuttle, a front loader and if I could find one, a backhoe.  This particular tractor had all of that.  1700 hours on the engine is a bit higher than I'd like, but it looked like it had been well maintained, pins in good shape and no welding on it, so... 
It's a New Holland TC33, weighs 2500lbs (without the backhoe) and is 33hp.  It's a 2000, cost me $9800 off craigslist.  Included was a 3pt auger, 5' brush hog and a 5' rock rake and a 5' box blade.  Good, light tractor and I've found it every useful. 

ok.  I confess.  I love machinery and I needed an excuse to own another tractor. 

 The backhoe is a bradco 3375, and it's mounted to the tractor on a 4 point frame mount.  It uses the hydraulic system of the tractor and it works pretty well.  You can remove it and use the tractors 3pt hookup for other stuff, like mowers and augers and stuff. 
I needed a smaller tractor to be able to move across softer ground -- river bottom land gets soggy - and I wanted something that could get into barns and stalls and other tight spaces to make the daily chore grind faster and easier.  Pretty happy with this tractor so far.  

3 comments:

Joanne Rigutto said...

Alright, I'm jelous....

Anonymous said...

Commonly referred to as hardware disease.

Mike said...

I am nowhere near a tractor expert, but, I worked for a concrete contractor one summer and he owned a new holland. I loaded sand into the trucks every morning and I loved the thing. Started every morning. Easy to drive. Powerful. When we have the money I hope to buy one too!