I recently responded to an ad and am getting one of these. Can't wait. Been sitting a few years but the guy said it worked when last used. I'm a "young" dairy farmer in my area. I'll be 40 this year. Most of my machinery and tractors are antiques. Can't afford to buy new and big. I love the old stuff. NO COMPUTERS!!!! And you can fix most, if not all of it yourself!

We just bought a 494A yesterday! My Dad one used one when I was a kid and a few years ago we bought his old 720 back after being out of the family for 28 years!

There was also the 494AN. Not sure what the difference was. Might have been row spacing. The 94 series was replaced with the 1200 series.

Gotta love ole classics

just picked one of these up myself and very green to any and all things farming.. how do you raise and lower it for planting without a hydraulic cylinder?

Can't wait to see it change

Didn't the 494A come out in the1960's? The 494 was earlier of course. Didn't realize they had the shoe runners on the A models . My dad's 494A had the disks only. Must have offered both types. Great planters! Thanks for sharing.