i plan to do light farming (less than 10 acres) up here in Alaska. i would like to learn as much about tractors as is possible, before i go look to buy one. in addition to farming, i will use it to clear my long driveway of snow. i know absolutely nothing about these machines. does anyone know of any books on this subject. stu reder

-- stuart reder (stureder@gci.net), January 28, 2000

Answers

Everything you could possibly want to know about tractors is to be found at the Yesterday's Tractors Magazine website. They have available online any number of forums, classifieds, etc. Good luck, John and Pat

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), January 28, 2000.

Stuart, they're right that's a great site. Might I also suggest you start looking at sale bills, classified ads and such in your area. It is one thing to have decided on the "perfect" tractor, something else again to find one, especially in Alaska.

YTM sells manuals, also a place called King's Books. But it would be best to wait until you have a tractor rather than just buying blindly.

If you're buying new or used, you're going to need to think about things like horsepower, PTO horsepower, gas or diesal, what attachments you want, what you can pay.... Start asking around. The answers may or may not be correct, but at least it will start spreading the word that you're in the market. Talk to people around you who have tractors, no point in buying something you can't get parts for. For mechanical simplicity, an old gas tractor is probably the easiest to work on. John Deere tractors have a world wide group of collectors/restorers, can be an easy tractor to find parts and manuals on. Most of the other brands also have collectors/restorers also.

Our work tractor is an old Ford Jubilee, with a fancy hydralic bucket and a sickle bar. We've got a 2-bottom plow but don't use it anymore. We also use an old JD A for belt work. We didn't start out looking for tractor X, we looked for something for sale fairly close to home (but one of them wasn't, no trailer, long drive, winter, kept breaking down, didn't get divorced) that we could afford. About the only thing really important to us was a loader. We plow snow with the loader, although if you're really rich or get a great buy, a blower will work too. If it can handle your driveway.

Good Luck Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 28, 2000.

Just thought I would provide the link to the Yesterday's Tractors website. Lots of info there. I'll try posting the link here:

Yesterday's Tractors

If that doesn't work, just type www.ytmag.com into your browser.

-- KP (farmer40@webtv.net), January 28, 2000.

Try TimberTrails.com for this. They are real nice and answer questions about cows too. Patrice

-- Patrice Bertke (herbalgroup@skybest.com), January 29, 2000.

Where in Alaska? We spent 7 great years in SE (Juneau & Ketchikan) before settling in Maine. My one piece of advice: If you can find and afford it, get a "4-wheel drive". Knowing that terrain and this, you'll be glad you did, especially if you do any logging.

-- Brad (homefixer@mix-net.net), February 03, 2000.