[Tim Hancock]

I have a '41 9N that I bought about 8 yrs ago or so in awful shape. I bought it cheap (about $1000 IIRC) and had to split it to fix a badly leaking rear main seal that was soaking the clutch in oil. The steering sector box (the early ones were aluminum) was all cracked to hell so I had to get a used newer cast iron one. I also bought a new radiator, a new grill, points/plugs/wires, a carb rebuild kit, battery and a new muffler.

Since the initial repairs, I have had to have the starter rebuilt and I replaced the 6 volt battery once or twice. Other than that, I just change the oil/filter each spring and abuse the hell out of it.

I use it to mow approximately 5-6 acres (my grass runway) using a three point PTO driven 6' finish mower and staggered behind that is a self engined Swisher 5' finish mower (about 10 1/2' total). I have a back blade that I use to plow snow with, but after the first snow, with ensuing drifting, it does not do very well once the plowed edges freeze (I now mainly use a 4 X 4 ATV with a plow on it). I have an old three point disk for it that I use to work the garden in the spring and I borrowed a small plow once to rip the side yard up to put in a motocross track (it worked OK, but in our clay ground with established sod on it, the little FOrd got a work out).

I always intended to put a front bucket on it, but others told me it was not the best tractor to use a bucket on due to the lack of power steering which makes it VERY difficult to steer when the bucket has a load on it. If you end up getting one and using a bucket, you really need to add a separate front driven hydraulic pump so that you have hydraulic power while the clutch is depressed, without the full time hydraulics, working the bucket in a pile becomes difficult. They make them and basically it involves replacing the front pulley with one that a pump can be driven off of. I ended up buying an old '66 Melroe (Bobcat) skid loader for cheap and that obviously takes care of my occasional need for a front dump bucket.

Someday, I will sandblast the old Ford and make it perfect again, but for now, I just use the hell out of it. I actually can't believe it still runs as I never touched the internals of the engine and it was beat when I got it!