Hello
everyone, first off this is a great forum. I’ve
looked at several tractor forums and sights online and this is the best I’ve
seen hands down. Which is great because
I also like AC tractors. My grandpa used
them and my father in law still does. My
family thinks I’m strange (or worse) for liking tractors without a use for one but
what the heck.
We
just bought a house outside town so I want a small tractor, it will be used for
finish mowing my 3 acre yard… that’s my justification to the wife. It's really more of an expensive toy though. I decided a D10/12 series 3 would
be perfect, it’s small, lightweight, has good features for any future needs, has
the power director, looks good. I would
use it for mowing 3 acres, plowing a garden, plowing snow, grading a gravel
driveway, running an emergency generator.
Unfortunately
the D10/12 is an expensive and hard to find machine. I ran across a real nice all original D12 series
3 with AC trip bucket for $5K but passed on it.
I just ran across an early 1960 D12 series 1 with the small 138in^3
motor. It has a trip bucket and no power
director so I have a few questions about it that I didn’t find definitive answers to when
searching the forum.
1. Assuming the hydraulics are not “live” how would
they work? I read here they only became
live late in series 1. As
I understand it if I wanted to lift some gravel for example I would have to:
-put
in neutral, let the clutch out then position the bucket (Assuming I can’t
position it on the move)
-put
in gear and drive into the pile
-put
in neutral, let the clutch out and position the bucket to drive
-put
in gear and drive off Is that correct?
2. For mowing without the power director as I
understand it the blades would stop whenever I push in the clutch. And I should get the overrunning PTO for safety. Would a CA be a better mowing machine? It would be cheaper for sure, but not quite as capable for other stuff or as purty
3. I’d like to get a plow or tiller to work the
garden eventually. I’ve read that
without the power director you cannot go slow enough to till and can’t get a “nice”
plowing speed. Since the tractor was
designed to work with a plow that seems a little strange but I’ve never plowed
before so who am I to say. Is this true
or would it plow just fine without the extra gears from a power director.
4. I’d like to tinker and maybe “restore” a
tractor if I really liked it. However I
am no mechanic nor do I play one on TV so I am intimidated (scared) of trying it.
Am I crazy to start with a D10/12? How
much worse than a smaller simpler machine like a B would it be? Without the power director I assume it would
be fairly close to a B actually.
I’ve
never driven a tractor without the power director so I’m not real sure what to
expect and I didn’t want to throw down $30 on an operators manual for a tractor
I probably won’t buy.
Thanks
for the help I’ve typed enough, sorry for the long post, again this is a great sight.
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