[AT] Proper introduction? (Long...)

Thu Sep 15 03:01:15 PDT 2016

Scott,  I'm going to try to address most of both of your messages briefly.

MF 135 is a great little tractor.   The hydraulics are probably it's weak 
link.
It sounds to me like you are low on fluid but it could be something like
a stopped up filter.  I'm not up to speed on MF hydraulics but some of their
tractors have an issue with a seal between the pump and the input shaft (I 
think).
Fluid can leak through into the transmission case if I remember right.
I think it's not that hard to work on the pumps but not something that 
should be
tackled by a rookie maybe.

24" tires are expensive and hard to come by.  Protect them as much as 
possible and
what you are doing is the best way I know to ruin one (clearing brush). 
You might
want to look into a commercial bush hogging outfit, a company that clears 
power line
right of ways, to do the initial clean up then you can keep it maintained.

Alamo is the brand that the commercial guys often use and that is good 
because they are
pretty tough.  Also, I suspect, expensive to work on and believe me a 6 foot 
flail is
all the mower a 135 can handle and maybe more.  Keep the RPM's up on the 
tractor to
about the "rpm" line on the tachometer and take your time.    You have a 
heavy duty
mower on a light duty tractor.

The next money you need to spend is on a good repair and maintenance manual 
for the
tractor and the mower.  Preferably factory manuals.   They'll be expensive 
but will save
you far more than their cost in the long run.

It will soon be farm auction season.  Keep your eyes open for a box blade. 
You'll find one.

Hopefully others will comment and correct anything I might have said that is 
wrong.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Scott Williams
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2016 1:39 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Proper introduction? (Long...)

I don't believe I've ever properly introduced myself here on the list.

We've got a 5 acre parcel with an old farmhouse, been here since about 2000.
>From the beginning taming the land was a struggle (I grew up in the 
>suburbs,
with a push mower.)  A 1966 Cub Cadet 123 with an oversize 44" Cub mower was
my first tool.  It made little paths through the thicket, but wasn't ideal
for clearing large areas.  One fall it got stuck in the mud WAY out back,
and it never did move again for me.  Wouldn't start the next year.  A couple
years ago I tried to find it and couldn't!

Coming up on 2 years ago, our house was damaged by fire.  We decided to
build a new house farther back on the lot (the old farmhouse was right by
the busy road.)  Now I'm getting to the part that's relevant to a tractor
list.  Now that the house was moving, the "back yard" of our new house would
be the thicket that I'd never tamed.  And so I started watching YouTube
videos on land clearing, tractors, DR Brush mowers, etc., trying to figure
out what I could do, with my meager budget, to clear some brush.  I learned
that I could hire someone with a brush hog, OR, I could get a tractor.  Gee,
hard choice, LOL!

I'm a bit of a Craigslist addict, and I get pretty obsessive when I'm really
hunting for something.  The best deals on Craigslist, most people never even
see.  They're posted, sold, and ad removed before anyone notices.  If you
want to save the money, you've got to put in the search hours, obsessively.
And I did.  I got very lucky (see how luck happens after you spend countless
hours searching?) when I found a 1972 Massey Ferguson 135 vineyard diesel.
This was owned by a local orchard since the 1970s, had 2 brand new back
tires, and I got it for $2000.  It's interesting how compact this "real"
tractor is, being a vineyard model.  It has 24" rear wheels and 15" fronts,
fairly narrow track (about 4 ft.) but over 40hp and weighs over 3500 lbs.
Once I got the tractor, I bought a barn pole (boom,) but what I really
needed was a brush hog (rotary cutter.)  That wasn't going to be as easy to
find.  Turns out these get beat to death before they reach my price range
around here.  I did find an Alamo SHD74 (6 ft.) flail mower in really good
shape at auction by a county highway department, and was able to get it for
$600.  I didn't know if it would be good enough for what I needed, but I
liked that flails don't shoot dangerous projectiles like rotary cutters do,
because I worry that kids and dogs will never be very far from where I'm
working (5 of my 7 kids are still at home, and 2 dogs.)  I suspect I'll need
to get a rotary cutter, too, but the flail was too good a deal to pass up,
and could be used to keep the land mowed, not just clear it.

That was all last year, before they even started construction of the new
house.  I started using the flail, and made a path out back and saw my pond
for the first time in a couple years.  As I was cutting a separate path
back, I found a soggy spot - DOH!  Very quickly got stuck.  Though it was
early December, it wasn't cold enough to keep the ground solid.  I broke
through and was done for.  My multiple attempts to extract myself all failed
miserably, and the tractor and mower spent the winter in the soup.  Sigh.

I tried to get it out this spring with an "8000 lb" hand winch from Harbor
Freight.  I shouldn't have bothered.  The frame started to rack, and the
little ratchet teeth started digging into the cable, but the tractor didn't
move AT ALL.  The cable was so tight that in my exhaustion, I could sit down
on it like a bench and it didn't deflect.

OK then.  Electric winch it is.  I bought a 12000 lb 12v winch from Harbor
Freight, and mounted it to the front of the tractor.  Wow, that sounds so
easy, "mounted it to the front of the tractor", HA!  I had to put the winch
and all the mounting hardware, and the battery drill and other tools, onto a
kids plastic toboggan, and drag it WAY out back, in 90 degree temps and over
90% humidity.  Just a stroll, really.  I could use windshield wipers on the
inside of my glasses when I'm doing work like this.  Wow, it really was
miserable work.  And the toboggan dumped its contents more than once.  How
fun.

Once the winch was mounted and wired up, winching it out was as easy as hook
it to that big bush, pull the bush out of the ground (boo,) hook it to a
medium sized tree a good distance away, and AWAY IT WENT!  You cannot
imagine (or maybe you can) how satisfying it was to get it unstuck.  I did
some mowing, but only did about 35 or 40 minutes when the PTO shaft came off
the tractor.  I drove it home and left it for another day.  Ordered a push
button PTO yoke (sounds simple enough, but first I had to figure out all the
different sizes and types of PTO, and figure out what I needed, and figure
out where to get one) and a few weeks later I got a hydraulic press to
install it, then started REALLY clearing land!  It was SO FUN!  And
exhausting, and filthy dirty, and painful (thorn bushes, anyone?)  I "found"
some old wire fence out there (about 80 minutes with bolt cutters to clear
that out of the mower.)

Now, with money going into appliances, furniture, curtains, etc., I am
scraping together my pennies to save up for more attachments.  I'd like a
carry all, a rotary cutter, and especially a box blade.  The "back yard"  of
the new house needs some smoothing out, and the gravel driveway really needs
some work, too.  One problem I have is I don't have any way to pick up a
rotary cutter.  I have a large van, but it isn't a full 5 feet between the
wheel wells, and fitting a 5 footer won't work.  The box blade I just might
be able to handle, if I can get the seller to load it for me.  Seems like a
trailer hitch and a trailer will be the most economical answer, but then I
think about something that can haul the tractor, and that's a whole
different story (dual axles, ramps, etc.)  Anyone want to volunteer to
explain that I need this to my wife?

I joined the list last year, but didn't have time to really keep up, so I've
been going through all the list emails recently and have learned a lot. I'm
up to about January or February.  Plenty of good reading ahead.

Scott in Penfield NY

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