Cultivator Attachment - What Should I Do With It?

[coreystone11]

I’m starting my first restoration of a Model BN. I’d share the year but I’ve yet to find any serial plates, engine serial plates/stamps, and/or any casting markings. Perhaps blasting or doing some spot pressure washing will reveal something, but besides the point.

The tractor I’ve “inherited” to restore has an attached cultivator at the moment. Is it worth restoring this with the tractor? Or should I consider finding someone who might be interested in it and/or just removing it and forgetting about it. All linkages and raising/lowering gears (sorry for the lack of knowing if there is better, more appropriate terminology)…but they all move freely and it seems to be in pretty good shape aside from rust and a few places where some tightening and TLC is needed. I’m not partial to it in any way and am simply wondering if there is added value/benefit in keeping and restoring it. So in short, should I restore it? Find another home for it? Or scrap it and forget about it?

Thanks guys and cheers!

[Cub-Bud]

Restore it along with the tractor.

[outdoors4evr]

Cultivating is one of the Cub's strong points. Its small size and culti-vision setup makes for a most pleasurable experience doing dirt-work.
Besides, once you buy the primer, what are you going to do with the leftover? May as well spray it onto something. Oh yea, then buy a little Blue color.

I honestly don't think you get more or less by selling items separately or together. The buyer of a tractor is typically looking to do something with it. I'd rather buy a tractor with a useful implement than gamble on parts.

[Barnyard]

Cultivating is one of the Cub's strong points.

Yes, but this is a BN, not a Cub. Somewhat of a difference.

I honestly don't think you get more or less by selling items separately or together.

It looks as though he onlty wants to sell the cultivator and keeping the BN.

[Don McCombs]

How do you plan to use the tractor after restoration?

[Gary Dotson]

The tractors look nice and display well with a nicely restored set of cultivators attached. Those same cultivators, however, can make the tractor clumsy to handle, haul and store. Only you know what your priority, preferences and intentions are. I would restore the tractor, then decide which way to go.

[SamsFarm]

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT SCRAP THEM!!!!!

Surely there is someone out there that would give you scrap price (but probably pay better than scrap price) to have them in their collection!

[Eugene]

Model BN. I’ve yet to find any serial plates, engine serial plates/stamps, and/or any casting markings.

Internet search for IH B serial number location. Search shows pictures of the questioned locations.

Understand you want to keep the tractor in the family. Great.

I would make the tractor useful, not a full restoration. Remove the cultivators and store inside.

[BenjaMINN.]

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT SCRAP THEM!!!!!

Surely there is someone out there that would give you scrap price (but probably pay better than scrap price) to have them in their collection!

I agree that if nothing else, the cultivator should NOT be scrapped. It's worth probably 100 times the scrap price just in parts (consider that USED original cultivator shanks, shovels, spring teeth, clamps, lifting levers, etc go for $20+ a piece on ebay).

To the right collector, a complete working cultivator is certainly worth a fair amount too. Personally, I think mounted implements are easy/fun to restore and use, and make a tractor a heck of a lot more interesting at your local threshing show. I sometimes get bored with the rows and rows of restored antique tractors at shows, but I will certainly stop to look at one with an attached implement.

Of course, you might not be planning on showing your tractor, but there is bound to be someone out there who is looking for a BN cultivator, which are much harder to come by than the Farmall B versions (records indicate only about 3200 BN cultivators were produced...I think they were used mainly for edible beans). If I owned a BN and was close enough to you, I'd pay at least $200 for such a complete mounted cultivator (unfortunately, it won't fit my Farmall B though). Just put it up on Craigslist, or else put it in the barn until you decide that mounted implements are really neat. It can always be restored at a later date (just don't loose any of the parts in the meantime).

[SamsFarm]

So in short, should I restore it?

Plant some corn and put them to use!