Neil from Messick's here today with a Case IH Farmall 70A. Today we're going to have a conversation about why somebody might actually consider, in 2019, buying a two-wheel drive tractor. Many guys have the impression that as the tractor industry has grown and companies come out with new models that the complexity of this stuff only grows and grows and grows and in order to find an inexpensive tractor, you have to go to a company importing something from overseas or from India or a place like that and it. 

Believe it or not, you can actually find a lot of really simple tractors from your mainline tractor companies. In this case, the 70A, this A series, it's case is more basic line of tractors and this machine is going to be a basic no-frills machine. This tractor is even offered in two-wheel drive, which has becoming a little unique among some companies now where you're not seeing a lot of guys selling turbo drives. 

A lot of guys have even started to drop them from their product lines just because the demands is not out there for them. There's a good reason for that. Most of our small tractors anymore are sold with loaders on the front. Loader tractors perform much, much better as four-wheel drives and they do in two, and so because of that 90% attach rate or so that we have four loaders on small tractors, it's just not become a very popular thing anymore.

There is the elbow some very good times that you might actually want a two-wheel drive tractor in Case New Holland coming with their farming heritage. We'll still continue to offer these models because there's a number of guys where this is actually something that might be worth considering. If you're a operation, let's say it has several pieces of equipment, you may need a 70 horse utility tractor to go out and do some work, but you're not going to put a loader on it. 

You really just need a good powerful engine on a tractor to get around and you don't need the traction that four-wheel drive is going to give. You can actually save quite a bit of expense. The big heavy axles that are for a four-wheel drive, the propeller [unintelligible 00:02:02], and stuff going back through the inside add significant cost to a tractor. A machine like this 70 horse Case is going to price in the range of a 40 horsepower four-wheel-drive machine. You can get nearly double the engine horsepower simply by dropping that four-wheel drive feature. 

Even though this is a more basic A series tractor, Case is still giving you the more deluxe features on the back end of the machine here. Again, knowing the guy that's going to buy this, there's places that it's okay to be a little frugal and some places that are really going to cause yourself some frustration. This tractor is still going to have extendable wind farms on the PTO on the three-point hitch and sway bars in the back and farm buckles back here. They just make this an easier three-point hitch in order to make your adjustments on. 

It's also going to come through standard with one rear hydraulic outlet on the back. Again, expecting at this tractor is going to go into those agricultural applications that gives you the standard. We're remote back here in order to say operate transport wheels. 

[unintelligible 00:03:01] on a tractor like this is an engine from FPT, Fiat powertrain, CNH's parent company. It's a good modern tier-four compliant engine that just simply the machine like this is not going to give you a whole lot of headaches. This is the tractor that likes to get out and run a hot and hard and while you see and hear of emissions issues in some other machines and on-road trucks and that stuff, not something we tend to see a whole lot of issue with in a tractor like this because you are running the tractor hard. These emission systems work best when they're under load and they're running hard and this is the application at this tractor is going to go right into. 

Sitting up here in the operator's station, this does feel like a throwback tractor. The control layouts on this are definitely a lot more basic. The shuttle up here is mechanical. Your levers for all of your shifting and stuff are long levers that go down through the floor. You don't have nice control pods up here on your right-hand side. It would have conveniently located levers. It costs more to engineer and to build a tractor that way so these companies do continue to offer these more basic machines. In our area, the Northeast tends to sell a lot more of the deluxe machines while tractors like this are a lot more common down near the Southern States. Don't get into your mindset here where the big name tractor companies only have these big expensive products. We continue to have machines like this with this older technology that can be bought for a really good price point. 

We're talking about shuttles from a simple operational perspective. On the left-hand side is where my forward and reverse shuttle is, and you'll see this one very clearly says press clutch pedal. A lot of the shuttles that we have on newer tractors now don't require you to, they are hydraulic shuttles. That will clutch for you. On this one, when I want to switch between forward and reverse. I simply push the clutch, pull the shuttle, and then slip the clutch to ride the other direction. Now, know in a shuttle type like this, if you're doing a lot of direction changes because you're sliding on the clutch every time to change directions, you will wear that clutch plate out over time. In a loader application, when you're in and out of piles all the time, this is not a transmission that you want. 

More than likely you can figure down the road, 1500, 2,500 hours, somewhere in that neighborhood, you're going to be splitting the tractor do to a clutch job. Then all the money that you save buying the cheap tractor is out the window because of that. Keep that in mind. Synchronized clutches like this are fine for applications where you're not changing direction all the time. It's not for loader work. 

As I'm driving around here, like we had the conversation about this being a mechanically simple tractor, there's a difference between being mechanically simple and just simply not refined. While it's a mechanically simple tractor, it still has a fully synchronized transmission in it. I can shift between forward and reverse and shift through my gears down here on my side and not have to do things like double-clutch or stop the tractor or do something like that in order to shift. The rest of my gears here are fully synchronized so I can go from first to second to third while I moving. 

When you get into some tractors that are in this entry-level category, these simple designs, you'll sometimes find somewhere your first and second years are not synchronized. What that means is that you can't throw those gears while you're driving. You actually need to roll to a stop before you're able to shift. While this is a more basic tractor, the transmission is still fully synchronized, which is not common among all entry-level economy tractors. 

You'll hear me complain sometimes about long shift levers like this. I tend to like the shorter throw levers that are up high at your armrest. The way that this one is gated is really snappy. It's very easy to find the shift position. It's not-- sometimes you'll feel that these are a little sloppy. It's hard to find where you want to be. This one is really nice. They laugh at this but let's sit here and keep talking about how this is a basic tractor and all my dash, there's USB ports, a place to plug in and charge your phone. Down here between your legs, there's actually a little pocket in order to put it which is pretty cool. I'll place the storage charge your cell phone on your economy tracker. 

Drive this around here. It's a fine driving tractor. I don't have any trouble making gear selections. The clutch is really nice and easy to operate. It feels like a good tractor. It drives nice. Like I said, the big appeal on a machine like this is going to be the amount of machine that you can buy for your money. If your primary use goes into things like brush hogging or pooling simple hay tools and that stuff again, this is a 70 horsepower tractor for the cost of a more deluxe 40 horse, four-wheel drive machines. There's an absolute place in the market for it just to understand what it is and know what you're buying. 

That's just a little bit on the Case Farmall 70A tractor and the fact that it can be had in two-wheel drive. If you're looking for a tractor, just keep in mind that these two-wheel drive options are out there and it can save you a lot of money. Just make sure you're thinking through your applications that you're putting this machine into a chore where it doesn't need that four-wheel drive and you're not going to be wishing that it was there for loader applications in that stuff. 

If you're going through the buying process for a tractor and we can help, if you have parts of service needs for a machine you've already got, give us a call at Messick's, we're available at 800-223-373 or online at messicks.com