Types Of Farm Tractors

Digging Bar For removing individual boulders of medium size (or even fairly large ones), a digging bar is a great tool. A powerful tool like this, although expensive, will help you excavate large stones that would be much too heavy to maneuver by hand.

An Internet search can turn up original manuals for sale by collectors, as well as reproductions from companies like Jensales Tractor & Equipment Repair Manuals, which carries owner's manuals for nearly every tractor made from 1900 to present.

Once you've chosen a piece of wood, you'll need to drill holes in two adjacent corners. For moving an occasional tree stump or rock, it works great, and it's also easy to customize to your own preference.

Keeping the ice under control can be a season-long battle, so arm yourself with tools such as a digging bar, a snow shovel and a digging shovel to carefully break up and remove patches of ice.

In older gas-fueled tractors, pull spark plugs to check for signs of improper firing, such as carbon buildup. Industry tests consistently show a 3½-percent increase in power with proper air and fuel maintenance.

Like compact tractors, most new models are offered with diesel engines, and four-wheel drive is a readily available option. The plow does the first rough turning of the soil, the disk smoothes it over, and then the harrow does the fine smoothing.

Power Take-off (PTO) This spinning drive shaft allows implements, such as a mower, loader or backhoe, to pull energy from the engine to run. Hydrostatic transmission (HST) These tractors use a hydraulic-drive-propulsion system instead of a standard clutch-and-gear...

With the emergence of no-till techniques, many farmers have cast aside plows in favor of alternative field treatments. These attachments use teethlike tines (one, two or three or more) to pierce the soil, then pull clods loose to breakup topsoil, expose...

Check the fan's drive belt for wear and tension, and visually inspect the radiator core and grill screen. If you have an older tractor, this is a good time to check oil levels in gearboxes with their own reservoirs.

Sometimes there are other ways to acquire equipment that don't require ownership. If you've never operated one before, your learning curve will be larger and you could also face repair costs for the equipment and your property if your learning curve were...

Transmission The type of transmission is a key feature to consider, because it will make a big difference in the way the tractor performs. One of the most useful is the three-point hitch, which includes a hydraulic lift for raising and lowering attached...

With special attachments, tractors can even handle digging stumps and drilling fencepost holes—and don't forget the convenience a tractor can add to even simple farm chores. If you have a modest-sized lawn to maintain and have an occasional need to...

Farming was hard work and required a tough, pragmatic approach. The selection of a 12-volt electric winch, gas-powered winch or power-takeoff (PTO) winch depends on your budget and how much pulling you need to do.

In this case, walk-behind tractors have the advantage of not needing a huge truck or trailer to haul them; with the adjustable handlebar design allowing them to fold down into a small package, any of the walk-behind tractors will fit in a SUV or most...

While topping a hill in western Washington state this summer, I saw before me a wheat field with harvest equipment circa 1930 and 1940. Feeling like I had slipped back in time, I pulled into the next driveway.

You might not win a race by pulling back on the throttle, but you can score a significant victory of a different kind by saving gas. Thanks to the high gear setting and low throttle, the mower couldn't offer much in the way of strength—you wouldn't...

Truth be told, the ground was dry enough to accommodate the farm machinery—except for one area on the edge of a field that was slightly lower than the surrounding terrain. But while many projects are perfect for spring, be careful while moving farm...

Tractors can do a lot of things, so naturally they have a lot of features with their own unusual names. Hydraulics Much of a tractor's versatility comes from its hydraulics system, which provides power for lifting attachments or powering implements, such...

In the place of a bale spear (which does just what it sounds like), you can also use adjustable forks to move large round bales of hay. Looking at the front-end-mounted products on the market—mechanically as well as hydraulically operated—can leave...

In my case, with the right wheel raised slightly off the ground, the left wheel was being asked to do all of the work, and because the mower was stuck and reluctant to move, the left wheel essentially gave up any effort to move and threw all the power...

Thanksgiving Day might be behind us, but the feelings that the day promotes can (and should) linger year round. Nowadays, the three-point hitch has been formalized into five categories for different sizes of tractors, so implements of a particular size...

Before things get oily, I recommend slipping on a decent pair of nitrile safety gloves to help minimize any damage or irritation to your skin. Again, tighten it down either by torque spec (recommended) or by the same rule of thumb used with the filter...

We look at three tractor attachments that can help you get the job done. While they're great for breaking up and leveling tough driveways, they require a powerful tractor, and some people have difficulty fine-tuning the driveway grade with a box blade...

Ponce/Flickr New tractor tires can be prohibitively expensive, so if it's just a small puncture you're dealing with, you may want to consider buying a patch kit—a smart thing for any farmer to have—or having a local dealer patch it for you.

What's better than producing your own hay for your livestock? Baling hay is a satisfying and worthwhile effort, but it's challenging. But unless you produce just a handful of bales, this really isn't practical, and anyone who has ever participated in...

Not necessarily, when it comes to tractors. Suffice it to say, the Massey has done fine work for us, though there's no need to feel sorry for Little Mo, who is probably enjoying the lighter workload while remaining the boss of the farm for easier tasks...

Post-hole drills can be mounted to the three-point hitch or front bucket, which allows for greater downward pressure and quicker digging and can be operated exclusively from the tractor seat.