WD 45 for my hobby farm?

Welcome to the information place... You are going in the right direction, the 45 would be a good all purpose tractor for small work like you want to do....i will not speak to prices and such cause that is out of my league...again welcome

As a youngster I used a 45 for cutting and bailing, and a WC for raking.  A 45 does great, we farmed 125 acres with them. 

WD45 is a good value for what it can do.Newer D series tractors have some improvements, but cost goes up.WD 45 was intended to run a Roto Baler as a roto baler needs the pto to keep spinning while the tractor can be stopped with the hand clutch.Roto Balers do not require the horsepower of modern balers but can be a handful to "finetune" and keep going.My father was really good at tuning the roundbaler.He liked it because nothing on broke,it only needed adjusted from time to time.

Welcome to the best A/C forum on the internet.I have a WD 45 and love to hear that old muscle work.Keep us informed of your progress.
Something to think about; snap coupler equipt. is getting harder to find.An inexpensive 3 pt adaptor would make finding sickle mower,and other mounted equiptment easier.

The 45 is a fine machine for that task, but my preference would be to go with a D17... if you're lucky enough to find a Series 4, it came OEM with modern low-pressure/high volume hydraulics, and was an easy fit to full-hydraulic loaders.

The D17's advantage over the WD45, is the 'Power Director' setup- it has a high- and low-range portion on the hand clutch, so if you're running the square baler, and hit a heavy-spot, you can pull the lever to Neutral and let it catch up, or you can drop it into LOW and keep it feeding, albeit at slower ground speed... and never stop the PTO.  It was this feature, as well as a culmination of the WC, WD, and WD-45's features, that make the D17, in my opinion, the best hay-making tractor on earth.

The WD45 doesn't have anything of what I'd call a 'weak link'.  You'll find a way to break something, but overall, they're the epitome of tough, simple, and strong.  Parts aren't by any means 'hard to find' for ANY W or D-series Allis tractors, so have no worries there... besides, you're right in the very heart of Orange Country...

There's many tow-behind mowers, PTO driven square balers, and many types of rakes.  Getting the right combination of mower, baler, and rake includes many factors of personal preference, as well as having an understanding of the plant growth characteristics of your hayfield... tall thick grasses bale totally different from finer types, and the height at cut time, moisture content, and drying time substantially affect how it bales, and consequently, how well the baler performs.  I never mastered the art of all those operations- my grandfather called all the shots, when he said it was time to cut, I cut, and when it was time to rake, I raked... time to bale, I baled, and of course, as soon as the bales were tied, they went on the rack.

Therin begins yet-another-stage of hay science... getting it transported and stowed.

My uncle, still insists on throwing every-single-bale onto the rack, then from the rack through a silly 2' square hole in the barn, then climbing into the barn, dragging every single bale (and lifting it) to the top of the stack.  Totally senseless waste of manpower when you don't have but two guys handling hay.  When I was young, he put me through that punishment, up 'till one day we had rain, so we fixed a broken beam in the barn.  At same time, I fixed the big swing-down door, pulled down, cleaned, oiled, and re-strung the overhead trolley, and he borrowed an 8-tine hay-fork, then we hitched up his horse to the rope, and unloaded 8 hayracks in the time it took us to unload HALF of one HIS way.  That meant we got the whole field cut and bailed in 2 days, and then had time to ride the perimeter, mend the fences, drag out downed trees, replace one hog-waterer, fix the skid-steer, and dig out 7 months of manure from the barnyard.

Sometimes, spending a few extra dollars to get the right tools, and establish the right process, is worth a fortune MORE in time...

Which by the way... isn't money...  you can exchange your time to make money, but when you're time is up, you can't buy it back.  And speaking of back...

DO get a full hydraulic loader... it'll save your back.  And knees... and shoulders... and time... and money...

Full-hydraulic means that it will not only lift, but also curl and uncurl the bucket, as well as push down (and lift the front wheels off the ground).  Many loaders are hydrauic lift only, and while they're a world better than having no loader at all, a fully-hydraulic machine can do a whole lot more lifting, digging, pushing, ripping, scraping, grading, and general cleaning-up-debris... and when you get really stuck, a fully-hydraulic loader will give you the ability to pull, push, and dig yourself out of the mire without climbing off the machine.



Edited by DaveKamp - 24 Sep 2011 at 12:10pm

John, Dave, and Pat's comments are all good, and correct.

For $2800 I would consider selling my WD-45 that I bought last fall for $700. Runs like a champ,charger works,battery hold juice for 2-3 months at a time, it just leaks oil from the rear main from setting a few years. My advice is to shop,shop,shop till you drop! For 2800 I wouldn't consider less than a D-17, and then it would have to be in very good shape with recent work done,ie; valves,manifold gaskets,seals,etc. Talk to everybody that you can including your neighbor and look for another lead in the area. Good bargains are out there and who knows????? 2800 might buy a tractor,mower,rake,baler,etc. Be patient! Besides being tightaced, I like the thrill of finding bargains, and who doesn't!  Good luck, and welcome to the Wonderful World of "Old Iron"!

This'll give 'ya a ballpark...  I saw what appeared to be a fairly nice one (albeit original and worn paint, and old tires) for $1500 yesterday, I don't see it now...


http://bloomington.craigslist.org/grd/2607830769.html

http://marshall.craigslist.org/grd/2603968849.html

http://macon.craigslist.org/grd/2540738407.html

http://waterloo.craigslist.org/grd/2572977122.html

http://springfield.craigslist.org/grd/2550964453.html

http://masoncity.craigslist.org/grd/2560070334.html

let the picture do the talking here

Jesse, The guys are right!! I wish I would have held off buying mine.  I wish I would have done some shopping.  I got mine for $1500, but a week later I could have gotten another for 500 less and it was in better shape.  Didn't have the money to get that one, but I sure wish I had!!  EVERY DAY since.  Stand back and look.  Go to auctions and do some more shopping.  For what you want to do, I agree, a 45 is NOT the tractor for you.  For that kind of money you can get a REALLY nice d-17.  I am in La Crosse and if you want, drop me a pm and I will give you some places to look and things to look at and for.  Good luck whatever you decide.  You will never be unhappy with ORANGE Power.  Ted

I started with a WD-45 and then bought a WD for $800, it did some baling and now we rake with it. I paid $2200 for my D-17 d IV and later found a gas D-17 narrow for $1500. Like everone says look around and don't jump at the first deal that comes along. The d-17 two speed on the fly hand cllutch with live pto is about the best set up for mowing and baling.

As I sell hay cord wood and lumber my " play " money increases the fleet. I've found by having a tractor for each task, I don't tend to lose the hitch pins, so in the long run I'm saving a fortune in pins! The d-17 gas with a 3 point runs the disc mower, the WD tedders and the C rakes. The picture shows the D-17 d IV baling. The WD-45 is now a puller as well as the WC and another C. Gramps B is now geting an overhaul and it will find a purpose. Now I need just one more...........

i will have to go along withthe wd-45,over the 17.we had a 19 and 4 wd-45 on the farm in indiana.he 45 will handle about any square baler you hook to it.the cultivators mount on in about 5-10 minutes.at the present,i have 8 wd-45,s.3 are diesel.being retired airline trash,i just go to tractor shows and take them to tractor pulls..retirement is great...

I just got back from a big trail ride with the horses and a pot luck supper and I was expecting to see a couple responses but holy cow there are lots of people willing to help around here!  That's great.  Thanks again guys I will be keeping my eyes open for some better deals than the one that I found. 

So JW, Booger- What aspect of the 45 makes you guys prefer the 45 over the D?

JW... you mentioned the 45 being able to handle any baler... the 17 had at least 10 more HP at the PTO, and the ability to go LOW side when the baler was gettin' too big a mouthful (rather than draggin' the clutch on a WD or 45)...  as for the mounted cultivator, Jessie didn't mention anything about row-cropping his hobby farm, so I'm thinkin' that isn't much of a concern... but the 17 certainly doesn't suffer from implement opportunities...

Booger-  the comfort issue... is it the offset seating to which you refer?  Aside from the roto-baler (which Grandpa had, but I never had the opportunity to use), it'd be sensible that an offset seat would be handy... but the visual aspect seems to me to be a moot point (I pulled an NJ essentially same as Podunk's) with a square baler on the 17.  I pulled the same square-baler with a 45 ... and never found the seating position of the 45 to have an advantage... but it WAS uncomfortable on my clutch-knee.  On the 17, though, I'd flip the seat to the 'far' position, and stand sideways against the right side fender using the PD lever and steering wheel about half the time (when the windrows were heavy enough, or the hillside was lumpy enough... to require a close watch).

I don't remember which brand/model, but I recall using one once (mebbie an M-M?) that had a seat that would swing 90 degrees (sit side-saddle) to either left or right... but Podunk's note about the PTO shaft exposure, and the rear-entrance/exit path is a really important point... especially with a square baler... you can clutch and disconnect the PTO, but that flywheel keeps spinning, and the PTO shaft will whirl with it, EVEN if there's an overrunning clutch at the baler's end...  some were pretty good, but you get some hay or twine wound up in the clutch, that shaft will have more than enough torque available to rip your limbs apart.  Grandpa's rule for me, from day one (12 years old) was that I didn't get off the tractor 'till the PTO was out, the baler flywheel was stopped, the tractor brakes set, transmission in REVERSE, clutch out, PD in LOW, and the engine OFF...  and I was NEVER allowed to put ANYTHING in the knife or ram area of the baler EXCEPT the wooden stick with metal hook on the end... no hands, no fingers... if I couldn't get it with the hook-stick, I wasn't allowed to take it out.  Matter of fact, I wasn't even allowed to load in more twine or adjust the baling tension.

(And for some reason, I always remember my uncles and grandpa getting that baler plugged up really bad... but I never did.  I'm thinkin' the reason why, was that I didn't try to load up the baler as hard as they did, for fear of plugging it up and having to shut it down)

<I suppose I should note that it wasn't unusual for me to bale without pulling a rack... oftentimes, I'd take turns pulling a rack with one or both of my uncles... stacking 'em sometimes, or operating the tractor others.  When we had all the racks loaded, my uncles and/or grandpa would unhook the rack, and lower the outlet chute down, and send me down the rows to keep baling, while they hitched up the racks, pulled 'em to the barn and hand-threw 'em into storage... then they'd come back with the pickup and racks, and hand-load on all the bales I'd made while they were throwin'... or they'd make me surrender the seat to Grandpa, and walk alongside, pick and toss 'em up for them to stack.  I was apparently much stronger then>

The other setup I've used, was the Two-Twenty with a Hesston stacker... which is a totally different animal... I know I watched it pretty close through the rear-views (with air-conditioning on), but since we didn't have people to worry about, I could basically run it by 'feel'... just respond based on engine load.

While it is pretty easy to buy a good WD45 for less than $2800, that doesn't mean lots of people don't have that much or more in one after a while.  And besides you are still talking asking price and not buying price.  New tires and tubes will run you more than $1000.  If you get great ones with a tractor, thats a great deal.  Good tractors don't always have much paint on them, and that's expensive, and really expensive if you pay someone else to put it on for you.  Fixing leaky loader rams and maybe replacing a hose or two is a pain in the rear and cost some dollars.  Buying a good 3 point adapter if a tractor doesn't have one is a few hundred dollars, and so on and so on...  So DON'T just automatically pass on a $2800 priced tractor.  One that you can jump on and not have to start counting the things you are going to do to it over the next few years could still be a pretty reasonable deal if you can afford the outlay all at once.  Also some people have NO idea what a tractor is worth and if shown they are pricing theres out of the ballpark of what they are truely bringing, some will get more reasonable.  Either way look this tractor over, it may be or become a fair deal for everyone involved.