I don't really want to shout this from the rooftops, but I will share my story, just to give you an idea of what is out there. I grew up in metro Atlanta, on the north side. My wife's step father works in Atlanta and lives almost 80 miles north, driving daily. My wife and I moved to the east side of Birmingham. I heard that a B7100D was available from my step father in law... his coworkers wife's father had passed and she had inherited it. She had no use for it or its 6 attachments, all about 80's-90's models:48" aerator, 48" sidewinder bush hog, 48" box blade, 8 disc single row harrow, single point turning plow, and a 48" Steiner Tiller. I got everything for 2k. I tried to offer more, not much more, but more. I didn't need a tractor, I just realized it would be handy with new the property we are on, which is about an acre and a half, with potential to garden more area in a neighboring lot. We plan to move to 30-50 acre farm in the next year or two, so I figure it will be a great starter tractor.
I rented a 2500 Dodge and a Uhaul cargo trailer and drove about 200 miles one way to get the tractor. I understood it hadn't run for a year, but they thought it worked last time he needed it. The man had passed and didn't relay the whole story. I was driving out and the lady and I spoke and she said, bottom line is, I need $2,000. I told her I had that and more in my pocket, but wanted to look at its condition before I gave her a guarantee on the deal. The tractor looked a little rough and had been parked in a field for at least a year and she just wanted it gone. She said she had advertised it for months and everyone wanted to split it up, but she wanted one buyer for all. Not sure what avenues she had tried, but I wasn't actively looking for tractors, so I never saw any ads, myself.
I got it home and put a new oil filter and fuel filter on it. I changed those and looked at the fuel. I had to tap the starter just to get it to begin to turn over at all when the key was turned. Next I found that it was missing a wire feed to the glow plugs. I rigged up some speaker wire and it started right up, with very little smoke and ran beautifully. I couldn't get it in gear that first time it started up without grinding gears, but it ran so smooth I figured I could fix whatever else was going on. Next time I got on it, I was able to change gears, but still made grinds some time. I have used it about 10 hours since and it seemed ok for about the middle half of those hours. I busted the PTO and it was out of commission when I took off the rear plate and found the last person had not put the bolt and three washers back into place, so I waited for parts. The I drove it and the grinding is so awful, I feel the best thing to do is open it up and look at the clutch and check it to specs.
So I feel like I got a wonderful deal and almost felt bad for getting it that cheap, but it has cost me several hours and a couple hundred bucks in new things for it(although the seat was well worth $100). I knew nothing about tractors or diesels two months ago and have had to figure a lot out rather quickly. We are also well into garden season in the south here and all our stuff is a couple weeks behind in growth. I plan to drain fluids this evening and begin detaching lines, so it will split easily. Even after the clutch and a few new tools, I should still be way out ahead and I think I will have a solid tractor for years to come.
