Small Tractors? Massey Ferguson 230?

I'll have to keep this in mind as it may prove to be the problem my FIL thinks the 3pt. has.

Thanks!

I had another discussion with the FIL about this tractor yesterday. I offered $4k and minimal side work. I think I said "That way you get some money and I don't need to worry about helping you with stuff enough." He immediately agreed to it and will bring the tractor in the next few weeks.

Welp, new tractor day! My FIL recently sold his trailer so I'm about to go pick up a truck and trailer from Uhaul and go get it. Unfortunately, the trailer is pretty small so I think it's going to take a 2nd trip to get the mowing deck but I'm pretty excited!

Clean looking little tractor. I am not sure how well supported that Continental gas engine is though. You might want to look into parts availability, so you can lay back some spare, common, parts for it if needed. Looks like a good deal at today's prices.
Jeff

Remind me to measure things before I do them... Even though the uhaul trailer claims 6'x12' the ramp and opening of the back of the trailer is only about 4'8" or so, which is about a foot narrower than the tractor. So, I just spent 97 bucks to drive a trailer around for about 25 miles.

I'm off to drive the tractor home on the back roads.

Dummies.

Also, I'm going to have to figure out how to push the seat back a bit. It's sitting right on top of the brake and clutch pedals.

I'm sure parts for the Continental won't be a problem. MF used a lot of them in various tractors. Usually U-Haul won't rent a trailer for equipment, only a car trailer. I considered renting a trailer from them to pick up my 1st. skid steer but heard they won't rent a trailer because the skid steer could be a lot heavier than what the trailer is designed for. 25 miles isn't that far to drive a tractor.

The weight limit was like 3500 lbs on the trailer so I thought it'd work. Oh well, if it weren't for expensive lessons I probably wouldn't learn...

It was about 15 miles or so, took just over an hour. No one honking and other than some crazy business with the steering I need to check out it was fine. And it fit right in the barn!

OK, a couple questions for the pros or experienced...

How loose should the steering be? The only scary part of driving this thing home was the power steering seemed to bump from engagement point to engagement point, which meant I looked drunk as a skunk as I drove it home. Is that part of the deal? I messed around with the steering before I parked it and noticed some slop but I don't know if it's fixable. On the road it was like turn and a half this way to start veering one way, then turn and a half the other way to even it out. Normal?

Second, should all the levers be hard to move or should they be relatively smooth and easy? I know this tractor will make me more of a man and I'm OK with that but I don't really know what is normal and what needs or could use adjustment. The throttle and the 3pt hitch all kind of scrape their way into place.

Also, I need to go look for a manual for (hopefully) instructions on what does what. The biggest point of confusion so far is the 3pt hitch lever and the other lever, right next to it, that seems to limit the hitch height?

The second lever may be draft control

You got something wrong with the steering.
I don't have experience with that model but my old man has a little Massey TE20 which is older than yours and it steers ok.
Probably start looking at tie rod ends and work your way back and see where the slop is.

I found manuals which I think will help, but I'm sure I'll still have questions. It seems like it should be relatively easy to work on, hopefully. I'll do some fluid changes and see what that gets me, then take a look at the steering to see what's up. Nice to know that it isn't normal.

My neighbor let me borrow his JD to do some grading and it's steering was even worse. Hopefully, I can get it back to right.

If your linkage is good then i suspect you have a control valve/spool problem

I went and mowed a new go-kart track in the back field yesterday and at slow speeds it feels fine. I wonder if attempting to fix the higher speed turning will be a mistake? This was all at higher rpm.

Looks like I maybe about to pull the trigger on this blade. 7' long for my 5.5' wide tractor and they'll ship it free. Let me know if anyone has had disastrous results from these but it looks beefy enough for my uses. I've looked for a few days for other blades and while I can find them, there's nothing local, shipping will be rough and I can't tell what kind of shape stuff is really in. I almost went and looked at a blade seen on Craigslist until I realized it was only 4' wide, I think I'd be upset to learn that lesson the hard way.

Maybe they'll screw up and double the order again like they did with the forks... I've got a feeling this thing would be much less easy to mess up.

3 pt. controls should move easily but hold in any position. They can be tightened or loosened but rarely need adjusting. Inner lever is position control. Outer lever is draft control. It has to be all the way back(up) for the position control to work. You don't have to pull the position control all the way back to lift the 3 pt. Especially with things running off the PTO you want to be careful not to lift them too high where the U-joints are at too extreme an angle or even pull apart. Although it's not the normal function of draft control, you can set the position control for your transport height and raise and lower your mower with the draft control. For a mower this would be fine because it doesn't dig into the ground. The other thing to be mindful of is the live PTO. Always remember that it keeps running with the clutch half way down and stops with the clutch fully depressed. This lets you bring your mower/rototiller, etc. up to speed before you start driving. Fully depressing the clutch pedal at PTO speed (1700 RPM) and then just releasing the clutch puts a sudden shock on the driveshaft and mower gearbox. If you ever get a rototiller always turn the PTO on and off with it lifted out of the ground. This includes when using the dual clutch too. You can potentially break the PTO shaft.
I wonder if there could be air in your steering circuit or maybe the fluid is low? I think the 230 has power assist steering where it's big brother the 245 has full hydrostatic steering.

Thanks Dave! I'm still a bit confused on the draft/position controls and I'll have to mess around with them some more. I don't understand the point of the draft control, though I think I can understand why it's there... I'm also getting the hang of the pto, like you mention. Lots of little things to be wary of. I was wondering about fluid levels too. My FIL is pretty good with that sort of thing, normally, but he may have been using it seldomly and slowly enough to not notice the steering doing something weird. I think I'll figure it out, and I think you are right about the power assist, it gets tough to steer at low rpm.

Also, I didn't wait to pull the trigger on the blade. Hopefully there are no horror stories.

No no no. Don't know what happened but I lost what I was adding to my above post. I'd look for a better blade that at least uses standard grader blades, not that you'll likely need to replace it. Also a blade where the moldboard is bent so the cutting edge is recessed to make a smooth transition. John Deere dealers often have the best price on implements because they sell so many. Here is a blade a little more money but also better quality.

Frontier 7' Rear Blade (RB5084) Attachment (muttonpower.com)

Frontier Rear Blades | Mutton Tractor Attachments (muttonpower.com)

Too bad you already bought the blade. I would have asked about your grading jobs.. I have a land plane that does a much better job of leveling & grading my driveway. I used to use a neighbor's blade. I put more humps and dips into the road than I took out after many passes. The land plane does the job in two passes. One out and one back.

Gas engine .. Be very careful fueling a hot engine. Looks like the filler is on top of the engine. Years ago, an acquaintance was badly burned when he spilled gasoline that ignited from the hot engine.

Hahaha! Well, I live and learn yet again. We'll see how it goes, I was really hoping to find something used and local in the sub $500 range, so the Titan job is essentially doubling my budget as it is, and who knows what the wife will say, luckily we don't really share money, but she's got the dagger eyes when she needs them. I can't afford the nicer stuff, for now, and I could use something like this pretty much immediately.

My grading stuff should be, really, pretty minimal. I'll hit the driveway every once in a while, maybe use it for snow also, and it'll help level the barn floor out once I start pouring more gravel into it. Beyond that maybe dragging some dirt into the low spots in the yard and that'd be about it.

I really hope everyone understands how much I appreciate their input regardless of my potentially reckless purchases.

I also just did some more looking at draft/position controls and I understand it a bit better. Thanks!

hosspuller- good call on the hot refuel! I don't know that I would have thought of that.