Looking up the year of manufacture may not be
convenient or practical if you've just found a tractor that otherwise
looks very interesting at a dealer or auction, so you may want to cross
your fingers and hope that the current owner has the correct information.
Besides the date of manufacture gives you an indication
as to what technology the tractor in question has, but it doesn't tell you
much about the amount of use it's seen in it's lifetime. That's why
it's nice if the machine you're looking at has a working tachometer with
an hour-meter. An hour meter is also pretty handy to have when
calculating your service intervals, but the chances are the machine in
question won't have one, or if it does, that it won't be working.
So you'll need to make an educated guess.
A good way to do this is to examine the metal foot
pedals, which are likely to have originally had a tread, grid or some sort
of design that will now be showing wear. If these are inconclusive
then a more important criteria would be the overall condition of the
machine. Oil leaks and lots of play in the steering and pedal travel
are not good signs.
Of course you also need to remember that quite possibly
someone has gone to some trouble to make the tractor appear newer than it
is with a paint job. That in itself is no bad thing since it amounts
to protecting your soon-to-be investment, but if the tractor you're
looking at has shiny new paint, you should try to imagine
what it looked like before. Also, while professionals will tell you
that a re-paint can actually be harder and more durable than the original,
don't count on it. That shine may be chipping or peeling within a
year, so while a new paint job has its benefits, once it's been applied,
it's hard to tell how long it will last..
When you're buying a pretty low-priced tractor, don't
forget that
replacing a set of tires may cost you $400 to $800, so look at the tires
carefully. Just because they have a lot of tread doesn't mean
that they'll last a long time if they are severely weather-cracked, or if
they have deep cuts. In fact, it's not a bad idea to assume that
you'll be wanting a new set of tires early on and bear that in mind when
setting your budget.
Next, you want to start up the engine. I'm
assuming that you wouldn't be reading this if you were an expert at engine
diagnosis, and I'm not one either, but I can tell you some basic
things to watch for that don't take a lot of knowledge.
