[AT] Tractor treatment ramble - (was) No tractor talk this morning

[Robinson]

	OK, here is something to talk about. I hope I'm not
stepping on too many toes with this... I looked at the
Massey Ferguson 40 that Tim posted. Notice I didn't
call it a Massey Harris Ferguson.  :-)
	I see an awful lot of tractors that look like that or
worse and I can't help but wonder when I see one what
kind of mindset was going on to get it to that stage.
The grill is damaged and that can happen and it can be
an expensive part to replace but the head light is
shining on the tree tops (I doubt it works at all) and
the plow light is trying to light Mars (if it had a
bulb in it). I see a lot of tractors at sales that I
look at in awe of how badly they have been treated.
Scott and I constantly look at tractors and say "how
in the hell did they break that?"
	Don't get me wrong, we often joke about my old rustys
and everything I own needs work of some kind. The
difference is that my stuff has worked regularly for a
long time and still has not been broken up, badly
dented or seriously abused. A number of you have seen
a few of my tractors and some that have visited have
seen more. I've never been much for fancy but I still
try to take care of stuff and make it last. My MM-R
and my little Allis C have both been to Portland with
new paint. I like them painted but I never shoot for
fancy show quality work because I know that I am going
to bring them home and put them back out to work. They
will get scratched and dirty all over again. I am
actually more proud of the condition of several of my
original rustys. My CUB and my Super MTA have both
been to Portland and while the finish on both needs a
whole lot more than turtle wax they are both good
original tractors that have done a lot of very hard
work with out being beaten half to death. My MF
165D-HA is down with a broken internal driveline
breakage but the outside of the tractor is in better
general condition than many tractors that are just a
few years old. The engine runs perfectly. The internal
breakage BTW was not due to abuse but from finding a
RR cross-tie that somehow got into a grassed area and
was buried in tall grass with a 6' bush-hog. The shear
pin failed to shear so something inside did. Time
permitting it will be going again before summer.
	I would be slow to bid on one like that one on Ebay
just because it screams out to me "I don't give a $#!t
about this tractor!!!". If they treat them like that
on the outside how much oil changing and greasing have
they done. It would be OK to buy to restore for show
but I would expect one treated like that to be a money
pit. I would be slow to by a tractor for field use
that had been treated that way.
	I would be quicker to bid on a Farmall M, Deere A or
Allis WD-45 etc. that had been treated that way than
something like that 40. If they needed innards you
could go to almost any tractor salvage yard and get
parts. I don't recall seeing any of those 40's in the
yard I go to. That would call for a lot of parts
hunting or new part$.


"farmer"

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Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net