[AT] Too many tractors

Dean Vinson dean at vinsonfarm.net
Mon Mar 27 04:05:54 PDT 2017


I've got three tractors (four if you count the little Kubota) and I don't do
any real farming, just mowing, hauling stuff, grading, plowing snow, etc,
and a few times a year helping rake or haul hay--and I enjoy the heck out of
not having to hook up/unhook all the time.   And as Greg mentions it's also
mighty nice to have a spare tractor if one breaks down.   I'd like to have a
dedicated loader tractor, too, 40 or 50 horse, to handle stuff bigger than
what I can do with the little Kubota.   

So four tractors for a working farmer?   Not even close, in my opinion.   

Dean Vinson
Saint Paris, Ohio


-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Greg Hass
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2017 1:35 PM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Too many tractors

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have four tractors for my 110 acres.
Some guys at the coffee shop have told me I am crazy to have so many for so
little. I have them for several reasons. First off, they are all over 28
years old so its not like I have hundreds of thousands invested in them. In
fact if I sold them all I would only get around 50 thousand for them all.
Second; as others have mentioned, with my bad back and being older, I can no
longer keep changing equipment all the time. I can put things on a tractor
and leave them on for the season without changing them every day or so.
Third and maybe the most important; due to our changing times, no one will
help you out anymore. 
If a tractor breaks down you are ------- out of luck. First of all, it takes
one to two weeks to get anything fixed where when I was younger, unless very
serious, you had your tractor back in a couple of days. I had my IH 856
first for many years before I got the JD 4255. However, I still pull the
same equipment so if the 4255 should break down the 856 will still handle
the equipment. Same with the IH 574 and the JD 3020; both are about the same
and can basically be interchanged. You will get no help from the dealers, at
least not around here. Years ago it was a lot different. For 3 generations
we have used red equipment until IH went out of business. In the late 50's
my dad had a IH Super C and pulled a IH 45 hay baler and also did custom
work with it. One day the end of the drawbar broke so he just shortened it a
little ( mine you I was under 10 at the time so I remember a little of it
but was told some of it) . What he didn't realize  was that he also
shortened the distance between the pto shaft. A couple of days later he went
through a deep furrow and the pto bottomed out and bent the tractor pto
shaft inside the tractor. Because this was a real odd thing to happen it was
going to take at least a week to get parts. Without my dad even asking, the
dealer pulled the complete pto unit out of a brand new tractor and installed
in my dad's tractor so he could keep baling; at the time that was the only
tractor my dad owned. Today the chances of this happening are several miles
south of zero.
             Greg Hass
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