I purchased my 1973 Ford 3000 23 years ago from a citrus tree grower in Melbourne. Only 1500 hours. Always stored under cover. It's still immaculate. I use it for slashing grass.
Safety suggestion...If you'll use low range and reverse that tractor will just creep off that trailer nice and easy. Works so well I let my teenage grandson load and unload my 4000 Ford by himself. Usually Low range and 1st or 2nd gear will load it nice too. That way no need to slip the clutch to maintain a safe ground speed. Otherwise, you've bought yourself a very durable and competent tractor. In my opinion, the Ford 3000 and the Massey Ferguson 135 are the best tractors for small farms and homesteads. You'll find that their weight and balance allows them to do more work that comparable horsepower 4WD compact tractors.
Please put some jacks on the rear of your trailer or put some blocks under the rear of the trailer when you load and unload the tractor so the trailer tongue will not lift the rear of the pickup so much. Without jacks or blocks, the weight of the tractor on the rear of the trailer pushes it down and picks up the tongue of the trailer and can pull it off the hitch and cause it to ram into your truck. Ask me how I know this.. uggg.
The 3000 is a solid little tractor. Mine is a 1968 and pretty much the same as yours except you have the better transmission (8 forward, 2 reverse?), which gives you live PTO. I have the PTO transmission, with 4 forward and 1 reverse and the PTO stops with the clutch. I do have a front end loader on mine. I think I heard you say you had rocks - careful you don’t have people too close, especially going away. Those blades throw rocks a long way.
Nice trailer , when I bought my 3000 it shifted kind of hard, I put fresh lube in the transmission & glad I did because the old lube was milky from water getting in it (was stored outside by former owner) she shifts like butter now
That's a gas burner so you might want to try half choke til it warms up. Also try running in a lower gear while mowing to prevent your engine from overheating.
You might want to get a tripod. There are several inexpensive ones for video. Or if you are going to do a lot of handheld stuff, then a Steadi-cam. They have some lower priced models and there are some generic copies. Maybe some image stabilization, either in the camera or in software.
