Ariena,
You and I know that the REAL Canada ends at the Manitoba border. :sidelaugh: There's no accounting for the warped minds that live in the flatlands west of Manitoba so try to ignore the Western rudeness that just flowed in my direction. My advice applied to YOU because I often have to drive past your front door to reach my next tractor. :lol: :lol:
As you may have figured out by now, there are two distinct series of Case garden tractors. One is the 200 Lo Profile models and the other is the 400 Big Wheel units. What the mouthy Scotsman :lol: :lol: is forgetting here is that you are just looking for a "project tractor" to conduct a fun restoration on. As I understand it, you don't really intend to rototill your garden, mow your lawn or blow some snow. Therefore, net HP is of little concern and any problems that face the decrepit consumer of single malt liquor when it comes to mounting a Big Wheel model don't really figure in to your criteria.
Another thing that was overlooked by both of these guys is this. You don't have much of a selection to choose from here in southern Ontari-ari- O. When I saw your thread, I clicked open another TAB and pulled up the Buffalo C/L listings, followed by Rochester and Syracuse just to show you SOME (not all) of the listings within an hour or two from where you sleep. If Canadians want ME to spend my money in this country, then they better start offering tractors at competitive prices. :lol: :trink:
The argument over SWB (short wheelbase) vs LWB is pointless. All 200 Series tractors are SWB and all 400 Series tractors built before the 1980 model year are also SWB. Stewart has a preference for his 224 and is therefore heavily biased but he has ruined more than one keyboard due to uncontrollable drool when seeing some of the Big Wheel packages that have been snapped up by members in the USA.
I am not going to persuade you to choose a Big Wheel over a Lo Pro or a Sunset model over a Power Red/White model. That decision is up to you to make. For years, I beat the bushes trying to find tractors within a 100 mile radius of the Greater Toronto Area for reasonable prices with no real success. Sylvester Calzone lives 20 minutes from me and he too ran ads on Kijiji (e-bay Classifieds in the USA) for over a year and wasn't able to find much of anything that met his needs. He ended up driving 4 plus hours into Michigan to retrieve his first Ingersoll and I don't think that he regrets doing that. Prices for these tractors are considerably higher in Canada once you leave Ontario and especially out west. I used to track prices in Alberta, Sask, BC and Quebec but I had to stop because I was getting brain damage from all the head shaking those listings caused me. :sidelaugh:
Take your time. The more tractors you look at, the better. Eventually you will form a preference for a colour combination and a Series. As you continue to look at the prices, you will also realize the smokin' deals from the overpriced and that will allow you to pounce on something that is too good to pass up. Collecting should be fun and part of the fun should be the adventure of driving to places you have never been before. If you have to make a trip somewhere, plan it out. Look for interesting places to see along the way so you can stop and smell a few roses. :thumbsup:
