Whats a good price for my 41 Ford 9N?

[cabosh]

Wasn't really sure which section to put this in but figured it's more of a farm tractor than anything. So I'm looking to sell my Ford 9N and judging by the serial number I'm pretty sure it's a 1941. I've looked around and it seems like there's a pretty wide range of prices for these tractors depending on the condition and I like to think mines pretty decent but figured I'd get a couple opinions before I go asking too much for it. Also I'm selling it with a 3 foot brush hog. I was thinking about asking around $2500 but what do you guys think?

 

[Delmer]

I'd say that's a little better Ford than $2,500, but the market is down a little in the last few years, and so local anyway that what I think is probably irrelevant.

If it was here, I'd buy it for somebody that's looking for something like that. Is that really only a 3' bush hog?

 

[check]

Looks decent. Around Missoula one like that would sell for $4000. Some parts of the country they're much cheaper. Arkansas and Missouri is loaded with cheap old tractors.

 

[td25c]

Nice looking 9N Ford cabosh !

I generally look around tractor house at asking prices to get an idea .

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listing...rs-less-than-40-hp/manufacturer/ford/model/9n

Those old farm tractors are a pretty safe investment if you have some mechanical skill & a few tools . Better than money in the bank .

Was going to guess it would have sold new for around $800.00 in the early 40's .

Tractor Data shows a 1939 original selling price at $ 585.00

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/2/2/225-ford-9n.html

What kind of motor cross bike is that in the background ?

 

[check]

The 9N looks like someone welded truck spindles/hubs on the front. Maybe it had a loader at one time and they needed stouter rubber under it.

 

[cabosh]

Well it sold the day after I put it on craigslist. I had it on for $2500 because I looked around and there's quite a few of them around over here, and there were a few for sale in a little rougher shape for around $1500. So I think it was an alright deal all in all. Sadly we didn't really have a use for it anyway, all we did with it was brush hogging a small field (which is easier and faster with a lawnmower) and pulling some logs (which our bulldozer is better for). And td25c that's my little brother's yamaha YZ85 in the backround.

 

[Old Doug]

I live in MO and last summer one in good shape brought 300.00 and another will brand new tires brought 500.00. I have one seting by my shop that a guy rescued from the crusher for 150.00. It runs great and hasnt be used alot with good tires but now it needs a rad.gastank.grill and hood. It will cost way more to fix than its worth. I need to check out and maybe haul a load of them some were and get rich. What are they useing them for?

 

[Willie B]

9N is the most sought after of the Ford tractors of the 40s and 50s. They have a few "modern" features making them appear to be a functional collector's Item. In practice, not so much. The trick is finding a buyer with deep pockets, and no actual tractor experience. My daughter in law's father has one. It spends most of its time in my garage dismantled waiting for parts. The rest of the time it is parked in his shed 'cause it isn't very useful. They are special as the tractor that fed the world. They aren't very useful. I say this as the owner of two Farmall Cubs, the other not so useful little tractor.

Willie

 

[check]

I live in MO and last summer one in good shape brought 300.00 and another will brand new tires brought 500.00. I have one seting by my shop that a guy rescued from the crusher for 150.00. It runs great and hasnt be used alot with good tires but now it needs a rad.gastank.grill and hood. It will cost way more to fix than its worth. I need to check out and maybe haul a load of them some were and get rich. What are they useing them for?

Look what they go for in Missoula Craigslist. Some people put chains and a back blade on them to clear snow in the winter and grade the driveway in the summer. I see them used regularly as a backup in small haying operations. I used to have an 8N and I loved it. It amazed me what I could do with a 5' bushog on that tractor. There is a glut of them in Missouri.

 

[cabosh]

9N is the most sought after of the Ford tractors of the 40s and 50s. They have a few "modern" features making them appear to be a functional collector's Item. In practice, not so much. The trick is finding a buyer with deep pockets, and no actual tractor experience. My daughter in law's father has one. It spends most of its time in my garage dismantled waiting for parts. The rest of the time it is parked in his shed 'cause it isn't very useful. They are special as the tractor that fed the world. They aren't very useful. I say this as the owner of two Farmall Cubs, the other not so useful little tractor.

Willie

They can be pretty useful if you use them for the right kind of work. Like while we had this one it worked great for pulling logs around, and I think the best use for a tractor like this would be pulling wagons or doing field work like tedding hay and stuff. They are old though and there's plenty of tractors out there that can do the same work faster and easier, but I'll always love the simplicity of the old rigs like the 9n.

 

[check]

Disadvantages of 8N and 9N tractors: They are geared too high and underpowered.

Advantages: They are rugged, made in USA, cheap to buy, parts are cheap and easy to find and they last forever.

They're so cheap that any use you find for them at all is cost-effective.

 

[Birken Vogt]

My Dad still has a 1949 Case VAC and a 1953 Case DC and he works them all the time, just regular farm tractors to him. His Dad bought them 10 years old, or less, when the farm was much bigger. They had very little money so I don't know why they ended up with Cases but it seems like a good choice 60 years later.

Compare them to the Ford -N it is a night and day difference. The Cases are much more rugged and more "modern" in design if you can really say that, but also they are a bit larger and heavier class of tractor. At the fair I was noticing they had a lot of Internationals on display and the Cases seemed to be ahead of them on design features in those years as well.

That being said, I am sure the Cases were more expensive new and the population is not the same. From what I understand the Fords were kind of an entry level product so they sold scads of them. You don't have to go far to find them for sale around here in various states of "when I get around to it", for instance there is one at a neighbor's that has been rotting in a yard since he bought it, fixed it all up, put all new rubber on it and it has a box blade and front end loader. There is even a small time dirt contractor that uses one for driveway grading.

 

[Willie B]

In 1940 three 9Ns could be bought for the price of a Farmall H. Until they had a need to pull hard as in plowing sod they could be used for the same job. In January 1942 my father was in CT working at Remington Arms.He got word his father was dying. Arranging enough gas to get round trip was a major accomplishment. A month after Pearl Harbor, his draft notice arrived while he was in VT. People worried about gas consumption then. Some farmers made do with their horse drawn implements when they bought their first tractor. In the day, the 9N made sense.

Today, at the antique tractor pulls the 9Ns come off the trailer for the first pull, then are reloaded. My Farmall M with no weights at all is still pulling at 2:00 PM. Comparing a 9N to a Farmall makes as much sense as comparing a Prius to a Kenworth. Both are fine machines serving utterly different purposes.

Willie

 

[Delmer]

Comparing a 9N to a Farmall makes as much sense as comparing a Prius to a Kenworth.

I don't know if I'd go that far, maybe like an F150 and a Kenworth, both do roughly the same thing. That 3 to 1 is about the weight difference between an H and 9-2-8N. I bet IH made a lot more money on the one H than Ford did on the three N's. I wonder if you could buy a Farmall during the war? The 2N was made without a starter, alternator or tires to conserve resources for the war.

 

[Willie B]

I don't know if I'd go that far, maybe like an F150 and a Kenworth, both do roughly the same thing. That 3 to 1 is about the weight difference between an H and 9-2-8N. I bet IH made a lot more money on the one H than Ford did on the three N's. I wonder if you could buy a Farmall during the war? The 2N was made without a starter, alternator or tires to conserve resources for the war.

Yup, you could if you were able to document that you were a real farmer. Of course there were no weekend warriors to buy tiny Kubotas with loader & backhoe able to lift the same weight as their owner. My friend has the first M the local dealer ever sold. If you count grandfather's it's a one owner. He sheepishly admitted recently it has the original gear oil in transmission, and differential. Except for an M&W hand clutch it is unaltered from new, and has never been repaired, only lubricated. I have a 1940, My son has a 1941. They went to extremes during the war, and put iron wheels, and a steel shift knob. Struggling farms rarely bought IH tractors during the war. They were never cheap.

I've always marveled at the production numbers of the H (27 HP) as opposed to the M (41 HP) I often ask very old farmers why the H was so much more common than the M. The answer is most often gas. In the 40s people worried about gas consumption. I recently talked to an old farmer still in business with 1000 acres. He said the logic was that if you couldn't get enough gas you'd downsize the operation, and a "big" tractor would be too big.

I'm pretty sure Henry made enough money to be famous. Mr. International lived in a homeless shelter.

Willie

 

[Old Doug]

Ford tractors with there harry ferguson 3 point machaicalised farming. Henry had one thing in mined to make good cheap tractors. The vac was light years ahead of the ford. It wouldnt have taken alot to make fords better but it must have been to much cost to build them with stuff like better gearing. Farmalls were made with steel wheels, mags very little rubber and no lights during the war. H farmalls are good tractors but like the AC WD they had there place and geting on and off wasnt one of them.

 

[Delmer]

I'm pretty sure Henry made enough money to be famous.

Not sure if he made that much on the early tractors. I saw an interview with an engineer who started off as a draftsman for Henry Ford. He was involved in the introduction of the 9N or maybe it was the Fordson? Anyway, they put the tractor together, fine tuned the assembly line, put it out on the market and had no clue what it cost them to build. He told the story of talking to a class of elementary students, when he mentioned that he had worked with Henry Ford, one of the kids asked if he had met Moses.

The three point was ahead of it's time in my opinion. And a premium option on a entry level tractor. I wonder if Ford sold the tractors cheap in order to make it up on the implements? A great strategy as long as the patent lasted. That three point is the main reason for the popularity and price of little Fords for homeowners. You can convert the IH,Case, AC hitches, but it's easier just to get a Ford.

 

[Old Doug]

I think they throwed in a plow if you bought a ford. I have read alot about eary tractor builders and every one thought about if they could use stuff the first time tractor buyer already had horse drawn stuff. Henry wanted farmers to have tractors so profit was his last worry. He had to by up alot of his companys shares so he could do what he did. The ford tractor is alot of things but most inportant is its the father of all modern tractors and help grow cheap food for a big part of the world. In my mind no farmer should every look down on the 9N.

 

[Willie B]

A great conversation piece. Lots of history went into them. Yes, they once fed the world. I know an old man who once owned several truck farms. He had several 9N &2N, said they were perfect for that operation. I think they are not used today for their intended purpose. Those of us who want a loader, maybe a little backhoe, plow snow, cut grass, bush hog, grade the driveway, skid logs, etc. etc. I believe could do better. In my world the "61 B275 IH gets used to power the wood splitter, hog, or grade the driveway. The '85 IH 385 gets light duty loader work, hog, etc. These tractors are twice the power, weight, features, and cost the same, on half the fuel.

Still the bigger jobs like earth moving, and tree work are saved for backhoe, crawler, or Power Wagon.

One thing I'd retrofit the 9N with would be wheelie bars. These tractors have killed a number of people when they were either hitched improperly, or a component of the three point hitch breaks. They are famous for going over backward. A very experienced friend had a real close brush with tragedy loading one on a trailer. When it went up on its drawbar, he had the presence of mind to push the clutch. The landing wasn't graceful, but he was alive. The antique tractor pulling rules disallow their pulling with the three point drawbar, likely for this reason. Low center of gravity is this tractor's best feature, but it places the drawbar (if at standard height) too high. The tractor can walk out from under its drawbar.

Willie

 

[redneckchevy9]

At the fair I was noticing they had a lot of Internationals on display and the Cases seemed to be ahead of them on design features in those years as well.

.

WHAT are you smoking?