Newbie with Questions

[ejb17]

OK guys need your input. I need to do quite a bit of work on my 12 acres and am looking at purchasing an older JD. The 2 I have in mind to go look at are as follows: a 1958 420C that runs and works but needs U/C work $2400.00. The second is a 1960 1010 gas that looks pretty good all around with inboard blade and manual angle 4450.00. Working on either does not bother me as we have plenty of other tractors etc and I work in a fleet shop. I do not want to go any bigger in size than a 1010. My next newbie question is does any one make rubber tracks for either as I need to cross acres of grass and want to park it inside on my shop floor daily and cross my concrete drive. Thanks in advance for any thoughts. Eric

[Lavoy]

Parts are more available for the 420 if it will be a long term thing for you. If you are only interested in doing a job and then selling the machine, if the 1010 is ready to go, that may be your best bet.
No rubber tracks, but you can put street pads on them. In most dry conditions, a street pad will do pretty fair, not in mud or snow. With street pads, if you do not turn on the grass, you will only leave an impression for the most part. On concrete, you may see a scuff mark, but that is it.
Lavoy

[Gil]

I agree with Lavoy, street pads, also called snow pads, will work as well as rubber on grass. Either will tear up the sod if you brake one side completely and turn sharply. Try to keep both tracks moving and make sweeping turns.

As far as crossing your driveway, I keep two or four sheets of old roofing tin around to run across. This allows me to cross even asphalt without leaving a mark. Plywood would work too, but it gets chewed up worse over time.

[Lavoy]

When I say street pads, I actually mean the flat street pads. Snow pads are a grouser pad with a pressure relief hole in them, they would tear the grass up, and are real hard on cement unless it is a good hard cement. The pad I would recommend is a two bar semi-grouser on a two bolt chain, or a three bar semi-grouser on 4 bolt chain. We have a 1010 with 3 bar semi=grouser on it, and it pushes well except for lots of mud, or ice and hard packed snow.
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

I have to cross a concrete bridge deck on a county road to cross from one portion of my property to another. I used 2x10 lumber with my 3-bar semi-grousers and it works pretty well. I left some impressions in the gravel approaches and the boards themselves, so I wouldn't recommend crossing asphat or concrete without something substantial in between.

[Lu47Dan]

Crossing asphalt or concrete can be done with old tires , line up the tires with where you want to cross the surface (drive over them) . I have done this with excavators up to a Cat 320 and not left marks on the road . As for tearing up the grass just use one path and then fix it when you are done with the major work . Western NY is kind of hilly so I would steer clear of street shoes if you have slopes on your property . You will have better traction on slopes if you have a pad with a tall grouser instead of a flat ones . When I was on the pipe line we changed a Cat 561 Pipelayer (sideboom) from street shoes to a regular shoe and it was better at climbing hills after that . JMTC Dan