Best "Economy" Tractor 80-120 Hp

I'm doing this project for a college business class and I'm adding up some fixed and variable costs for something. I've been surfing the net for the past few hours looking at prices of equipment, mostly on tractorhouse and local dealerships. I have a question though. Based on your thoughts, since many of you have been around these things more then I have when it comes to maintance, retail price, etc. what is the most economical, Allis or Non-Allis, 80-120 HP tractor out there? JD 4020? International 10 series? Allis 190XT etc.?

Ford tractors from the 8000 to 8700 models where considered by alot of people to be the best tractor in their time or size class.

Morton, there is  not a simple pleasant answer to your question,   my answer to you is what kind of initial investment do you wish to make to begin with?  Seriously a new unit under a lease arrangement for 4000 hours is going to be the least cost to operate.

Case 9-1030 series, 970-1070 series. I have a 1070 with loader and it sips fuel under light loads, but will burn with the rest under load. It was rated 108 hp from factory. Effective horsepower is somewhat more vs other brands, like green/yellow wheels!

Allis 6080, 190xt, 200, 7000. All misers on fuel and hardly anything else came close for that era, reasonable to purchase and have good reliability. The torque rise on these engines is also superb. You'll have a tough time finding a green, red, or blue tractor or any tractor that will match the torque rise of the turboed 200cid or turboed 301cid of that timeframe.

Edited by Lonn - 06 Mar 2012 at 9:43pm

We had a new 1974 8600 Ford, the factory cab was awful any aftermarket cab would have been better. It had a bad imitation of John Deeres 4020 shift. From the time it was new it would get out of alingement and you would have to use a big screwdriver to pop it back in. If you put it in park on a slight incline it would get stuck in park. We had a shifter pawl break while it was under warranty had to split the tractor for a $5 part but no cost to us. The tractor never had any other issues and it was economical. We used the tractor till around 1990. I considered 9700 and TW series Fords but lack of a local dealer (our's had closed) was one reason we stuck with AC over another Ford, the other is lack of resale value. The main reason I kept the 8600 so long is it wasn't worth trading off.We had a new 1965 190 XT it had two upgrades to the rearend at no cost and a third repair in 1970 that Dad paid for. We also had some hydraulic pump issues. It was traded for a new 1971 190 XT. We never had any issues with it that I remember. It was traded for a 1976 7060.They're outside your 80 - 120hp range but I've owned 1975, 1976 and 1978 7060's and a 1976 7080, the most common issue is broken hydraulic control cables and transmission brake needing adjustment due to operator error. The T handle shifter on the 1978 7060 was difficult to use (cables). The 7060's, for 160hp tractors are reasonably economical on fuel. My 7080 may have been turned up but it was hard on fuel compared to the 7060's. I still have the 1975 7060.

Edited by Dave in il - 07 Mar 2012 at 8:57am

old deutz as far as fuel is concerned, those air cooled babys sip fuel

How long a service life are you expecting?  If only for a few years, the up front price is important.  How many acres do you expect to use it for?  In the case of many acres per year, operating expenses are important. I don't think ease of operation is all that important, financially, as long as you will the the only driver.  If you plan on putting hired help in that tractor seat, it becomes more important.  Tell use exactly what you want to use the tractor for and we will give you more of our biased opinions.

[QUOTE=Lonn]I always thought the AMBAC injector pump in the 8000 series was not as good as the Roosa Master in the earlier 7000 series. Wonder if many change them over to Roosa or Bosh inline? 

That's a nice looking IH.

Dave in IL

I don't know how you can call the Ford shifter a copy of the 4020 shifter.  The Ford is easy and straight forward to understand, the JD is exactly the opposite.  Our 8000 has never had a problem of getting stuck in park or needing "adjustment" to get the shifter back in line.