First post, found this place a while back while searching for info about several old tractors..
I've decided to dedicate a more of my back yard to growing my own veggies next season and
I can't imagine tilling it all now with my tiny walk behind tiller.
I pretty much want what my one neighbor used to have.
His set up was a Bolens tractor with pedal control that pulled a shaft driven tiller.
I did make the trip to a few dealers and looked both green and orange tractors but the sticker shock and reality that they cost more than I paid for my truck and car combined just for the tractor alone.
I found a red and white Bolens tractor with Wisconsin motor with a huge rear tiller for sale but have no idea what a fair price on something like that would be. The guy wants $850 for the tractor, two new rear tires, and a rear tiller that's at least 3' wide. The catch is that it don't have spark. A mechanic buddy went to see it and said the motor seems solid and it did fire on a 'spark box' for him. He thinks he can make it run for fairly cheap vs buying the $150 ignition the seller said it needs. It does have two brand new rear tires and a spare set of front tires that come with it, I figure the new back tires have to be worth at least $200 alone. The seller says he values the tiller at $350, and the tractor at $300. The seller is firm on his price and will not take less, I tried. So far after three months of searching this is the only Bolens that's complete and has a tiller. Does that sound like a fair deal? I've basically set aside $1500 to find a tractor and rear tiller and if I'm lucky, a snow plow. I figure for $850, if I can fix the ignition and make it run again for under a grand I'm doing good. I figure that even if I had to swap in a different motor to make it run I doubt it would cost me as much as a new machine.