While it’s not a restomod muscle car from the 1970s, or a dusty barn find, I hope this Late 1970s/early-1980s Case 446 Tractor with a 44″ mower deck is at least somewhat as interesting to a few (thousand) readers as it is for me. This tractor would sure come in handy for plowing our driveway right now. This little multipurpose tractor can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in Clintonville, Wisconsin, and they’re asking $1,800. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Lothar… of the Hill People for the tip!

Growing up with two acres of land to goof around on wasn’t a lot compared to farms with hundreds or thousands of acres, but it’s 1.75 more acres than we have now. I’d sure love to have some land again to be able to really enjoy vehicles like this little tractor. A nice pole building on two acres would work for me. It was enough to have some trails in the woods that we created for riding motorcycles and snowmobiles, and my brother and I even built a little bridge over a creek for the trail. A tractor like this Case would have come in handy with a plow for keeping the driveway cleared, rather than shoveling it, which is what we did back then. The 44″ Case mower deck has three blades and a hydraulic lift and would make our current mowing chores more fun than chore.

The J.I. Threshing Machine Company was founded in 1842 (!) by Jerome Increase Case in Racine, Wisconsin. After 1928, it was called J.I. Case Company, or sometimes, just Case. Ownership changed hands several times until Tenneco bought the company in 1967. In the mid-1980s, Tenneco bought International Harvester’s ag business, and the company became Case IH. In 1999, Fiat purchased Case IH (what don’t they own?!), and I’m sure things will keep shuffling in the volatile and ever-changing agricultural equipment marketplace. Ingersoll Equipment bought the Case garden tractor division in 1964, mainly for its innovative hydraulic drive system, so that company was in the mix as well. This 700-pound tractor is from the Case-Ingersoll era and is in the 400 Series family of big wheel tractors, with 32″ six-lug rear tires with 16″ rims. The seller says it’s wearing new wheels, so this $1,800 asking price is really seeming like a deal to me.

The Case 446 was made in two generations, or iterations: the first from 1972 through 1976, and an updated 1977 through 1988. The later version shows graphics as seen here, and without any serial numbers or any other data info, we don’t know for sure what year this 446 is from. We do know that they were powered by an air-cooled Onan B43M, a 716-cc twin-cylinder with 16 horsepower, and it starts and runs great, according to the seller. It has a two-speed hydraulic transmission (“HY-Driv”) sending power to the big rear wheels. There was an 18-hp 448 tractor introduced in 1980, and earlier 442 and 444 series tractors with different engines and configurations. From what I found on forums, $1,800 is a pretty reasonable price for a tractor with these capabilities. Would you have a use for this nice little tractor?