[AT] Spam> Re: Fuel prices and old tractor activities.

[Ralph Goff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Nadeau" <ajnadeau1 at verizon.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 2:13 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] Spam> Re: Fuel prices and old tractor activities.


> I'm not sure I agree with what Ralph said.  Unless you're working an old
> tractor several hours per day how much fuel do you really run through one 
> in
> the course of a year?  Gas and diesel both come out of the same hole in 
> the
> ground so until a true replacement for diesel can be grown we'll see the 
> two
> prices linked at the source.  The biggest economy of the diesel is the
> inherent economy in the design of the engine.  Diesels will continue to be
> the cheapest to run in the fuel cost category.  In an old gasser that may
> see 50 hrs of run time a year, and a lot of that at light loadings, how 
> much
> does it cost for the fuel annually?  With the amount of money involved in
> owning and maintaining these tractors I don't see a $100 a year in 
> increased
> fuel costs keeping them silenced.  I think a bigger factor will be the
> expense of towing them to the playground with a suitable, gasoline 
> engined,
> truck.

Your right about the transportation cost Alan. I give that a lot of 
consideration when looking at auction sales, not just the cost of getting 
there and back but the possible added expense of having to make a second 
trip to transport a purchase home.
Since I don't have any "show quality" tractors (yet) I don't have to think 
about transporting the tractors I own now.
I usually look at the cost per gallon and the approximate gallons per hour 
the tractor will burn for the job I have in mind and end up picking the 
diesel tractor which will burn less gallons per hour of cheaper fuel.
Of course there are days when  a guy just has to say "@%& the expense, I 
want to run that old gas tractor for a while.
I had the Uncles old JD AR running last week as it was in the way of the 
swather at the back of the machine shed. No idea what it's fuel consumption 
is but what it burns in the half hour or so that I run it is not going to 
make or break me. Sometimes I guess life is just too short for everything to 
be about the money. That old two cylinder beat sounded good. :-)

Ralph in Sask.