I bought a 500A (72) back in 95 and used it to put in a cabin in heavy woods. It was quite a power full machine with the 80HP diesel. It had well over a dozen fish plates on it and soon I had to oversize the front frame to engine block bolts. It was essentially a JD 400 tractor with backhoe attachments. In the 15 years I ran the machine, the shuttle shift trany was bullet proof. Once I talked to a big tractor bone yard in Texas and the guy told me the tractor's engine was a sought after engine. Said he would buy the back hoe if I ever wanted to sell it if it ever became a parts unit. I originally paid $4400 with manuals in 95 and sold it to my neighbor for $2500 with no dickering. Im sure I could have gotten more but I sold the cabin homestead and had to move ASAP after I used it to load heavy machinery into my trailer. That machine saved me many, many thousands of dollars in everything from putting in my leach field to skidding & stacking fire wood trees. Many of the bushings & pins were pretty beat but it was still a good working property machine when I sold it. In my new home now and just bought a NH Ford 555E for $14,850 delivered with 2900 hrs. Huge upgrade from the old 500, just hope it will be just as reliable with that TC trany.
