Firewood tractors

[FergusonTO35]

Well, this weekend I might have me another tractor. Not exactly a new acquisition, more like an old friend coming home. Around 1970-71, my grandfather bought a new Massey Ferguson 165. I spent many hours on it cutting and raking hay growing up. Grandpa got out of farming and it went to Dad, then Dad decided to take a hiatus from farming and it went to my sister and her husband. Despite my insistence that real tractors are red and gray, they found a deal on a new John Deere that they couldn't pass up and the 165 has been in their barn ever since. So, we are going to haul it over to my place to give the little TO-35 some help.

 

[Locust Cutter]

I spent a decent amount of hours on a Massey 165, bush-hogging, doing chores, cutting wood and building fence in the Flint Hills of Eastern KS. It was a gas (Continental) engine, but it always ran well and had torque for days. BUT, no matter what you planned on doing, you better bring at least a spare 5 gallon can of fuel with you. I also had heat prostration, if not heat stroke on it cutting weeds out of a brome field one time. Damn near melted off of the tractor when I was done cutting out about 2 acres, in 105°F heat after spending all day building fence. I was already dehydrated, but the blast heat from the engine and radiator, plus the ambient heat/humidity, plus the dehydration did me in. I still feel it from time to time, if I overdo it in the heat, which is wonderful being in the USAF...

 

[FergusonTO35]

Interesting, the Z-134 on the TO-35 is one of the most fuel efficient gassers I have ever used. 'Course, the 165 is alot heavier too. Ours has a Perkins diesel.

 

[Al Smith]

I had to look that one up ,I have a book of the Nebraska tests. According to it that model uses a 212 cubic inch Perkins gasser .It's around 50 HP on the power take off and around 45 on the draw bar .
The guy I bought my JD 70 gasser from had a 165 and always remarked on the plow the old JD even at a lower HP rating would out pull the Massey .He never took in to account things like weight transfer and low end torque . In spite of that the Massey would be a lot more handy than that heavy old JD row cropper .

 

[FergusonTO35]

Well, 212 CID versus 134: yeah it's gonna be thirstier. Was that a four or six cylinder? I didn't think Continental ever made any four bangers that big. If I'm not mistaken, JD designed most of their old tractors for row crop use, so it's not surprising it would plow better.

 

[Al Smith]

4 cylinder Perkins not Continental . The JD 70 weighed about 2000 pounds more and had a little over 2000 more pull on the low gear test at Nebraska .JD test ,1953, Massey 1969
As far as what they will pull ,I used to pull antiques and on soft conditions I've seen the wide front ends out pull the row crop models ,same model and make of tractor .Hard conditions with the right hitch set up where it pulls the front end up it's usually a tricycle front end .

 

[Al Smith]

All that aside you're probably better off with a wide front end for woods work than a row crop .I'd hate to hit a log with a row crop front end and either break the pedestal or break your arm from the steering wheel spinning around .It's bad enough to hit a dead furrow with a tricycle front end . It's worse with a spinner knob

 

[Al Smith]

I'm on a roll .You can move a fairly large log with a small tractor if you use some ingenuity .First you can't drag it with the front of the log plowing dirt ,you have to get it up .If it has a three point hitch that helps .If it's too much to lift something as simple as a stone boat works .Twenty minutes of rigging will save you a whole lot of grief and time in recovery .

 

[FergusonTO35]

Ok, wasn't paying attention where you wrote Perkins instead of Continental. I wonder when exactly MF quit using Continental? Late 60's maybe? I've seen both engine brands in tractors of the 135-150-165 generation.

 

[Adamski]

The local estate near me uses one giant Shire and two Suffolk Punch horses.. do they count as biological tractors?? [emoji23][emoji23]

 

[XP_Slinger]

I'm on a roll .You can move a fairly large log with a small tractor if you use some ingenuity .First you can't drag it with the front of the log plowing dirt ,you have to get it up .If it has a three point hitch that helps .If it's too much to lift something as simple as a stone boat works .Twenty minutes of rigging will save you a whole lot of grief and time in recovery .

That’s a fact. A did a lot of log skidding with my Super A’s cultivator arms. Max lift is only 600lbs so a lot of thought and caution had to be applied to hauling out heavy stuff like the sugar maple and ash that I mostly work with.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Pulled out my first stick with my new to me tractor. Tractor did fine, lifted and pulled it like a boss but I bent my log tongs. I need to be more careful in establishing my limitations, I’m not used to having a machine with this much ability.

 

[RyeThomas]

Picked up a JD 110 TLB today, going to use it a bit, service it and then unfortunately sell it. I can’t keep more than one tractor and I’m lucky to have my 4510.



While I was picking it up I checked out his JD 6115M he has for sale and drove it around a bit. Silly, the darn rear tires are bigger than my trucks cab.

 

[ajschainsaws]

Haven’t had a chance to get in the woods yet but here’s my little Farmall Super A, it will be pulling light duty stuff with my son. I’ve done a lot with this little tractor and it’s not going anywhere as it is too good a machine to let go of, but more reason than that is because it was my grampas.
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Farmall, John Deere and a flag...Merica!

That’s a fine workshop my friend I could spend all day in there
I could fit my IH 434 and cat D2 and several axes
Very well set out relax8ng look about the place

 

[ajschainsaws]

Pulled out my first stick with my new to me tractor. Tractor did fine, lifted and pulled it like a boss but I bent my log tongs. I need to be more careful in establishing my limitations, I’m not used to having a machine with this much ability.

View attachment 118592
View attachment 118593

That’s a fine bit of timber

 

[ajschainsaws]

Well, this weekend I might have me another tractor. Not exactly a new acquisition, more like an old friend coming home. Around 1970-71, my grandfather bought a new Massey Ferguson 165. I spent many hours on it cutting and raking hay growing up. Grandpa got out of farming and it went to Dad, then Dad decided to take a hiatus from farming and it went to my sister and her husband. Despite my insistence that real tractors are red and gray, they found a deal on a new John Deere that they couldn't pass up and the 165 has been in their barn ever since. So, we are going to haul it over to my place to give the little TO-35 some help.

The 165 is a alltime classic all rounder I like you have spent days and days on this tractor those 4 cylinder Perkins diesels where indestructible we never had the option of gas engines in the Massey Ferguson’s but they where all in the Massey Harris tractors we got a Massey Harris 203 on neighbours farm with the continental 6-cyl engine

 

[ajschainsaws]

Sure does! It’s direct AG equivalent is the 1020. I like that era of Deere, nice looking tractors.
Got this set up for dragging logs and tried it out yesterday...man does this thing lift and pull like a champ.

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Like the 3-point grapple got me a thinking now

 

[XP_Slinger]

Like the 3-point grapple got me a thinking now

The tongs do pretty good but are useless on lighter logs. I’m still tweaking things a bit, gonna try to keep it simple though. I’d love to find a power grapple that I could rig up to the 3 point

 

[Ryan Browne]

The tongs do pretty good but are useless on lighter logs. I’m still tweaking things a bit, gonna try to keep it simple though. I’d love to find a power grapple that I could rig up to the 3 point

There was a guy making them around here and advertising on Craigslist. They were like $14-1500 I think. I LOVE my farmi winch (worth it's weight in gold no question about it), but I do think a nice three point grapple would be handy sometimes. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of doing something that you'd normally have to dismount the tractor to do without getting off the seat.

 

[FergusonTO35]

The 165 is a alltime classic all rounder I like you have spent days and days on this tractor those 4 cylinder Perkins diesels where indestructible we never had the option of gas engines in the Massey Ferguson’s but they where all in the Massey Harris tractors we got a Massey Harris 203 on neighbours farm with the continental 6-cyl engine

Haven't been able to pick up the 165 yet. Dad is busy fixing up his new house and disentangling his previous one from a long running divorce. My truck and trailer won't handle something that big so I figure we will do it when he is ready. We aren't going to be farming anytime soon.