[AT] Of the 10 worst tractors, two were made by Fiat. 4 were from brands eventually acquired by Fiat.

[Gene Dotson]

    Farmer, you can’t be the old geezer. You are younger than I am. 

    I mostly based on opinion that most tractors were equally made and should be matched for the job they were designed to do. Another match should be to the operator and his expectations and abilities. I have driven and even owned tractors that were problematic to me. A 560 diesel that dropped a valve at 3:30 in the morning. The Case 1070 I owned that nearly put me in the poor house. Rear end failure twice and twice with cracked cylinder sleeve flange. Broken lift arm that penetrated a rear tire while plowing. Best tractor has been my 1959 Case 700 diesel I have owned since 1972.
     
    Have operated many tractors and other machinery for other neighbors and friends. Some better than others, but as long as they were maintained, I never operated any that would be on the worst list.

Gene


From: Indiana Robinson 
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2019 12:47 PM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group 
Subject: Re: [AT] Of the 10 worst tractors, two were made by Fiat. 4 were from brands eventually acquired by Fiat.

As an old geezer... 
Our information pool was typically smallish and pretty local. What we did know was often quite a bit about the guys that were bad-mouthing a tractor or implement. Many times we knew whether or not he belonged to the club that my father used to refer to as "just being rough on rat's"...  My own statement has long been "He could break an anvil while straightening feathers."  😀  If they were in that club you deeply discounted their opinion. In today's wide open Internet world we don't usually know that about those who express opinions.
By the same token there were those in the area who's opinion we respected very highly.


.

On Tue, Feb 12, 2019, 9:28 AM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com wrote:

  Stephen,

  That was my very first question too.  Looks like he’s just writing article to write an article. He found some complaints and put them on the list.     I owned an MT and could not get rid of it fast enough. It was not a terribly useful tractor.   I don’t think it belonged on the 10 worst of all time though. 

  But this brings up the sampling error prevalent in so many opinions that I hear. It’s becoming very rare to run across the folks like Herb Metz, George Willer, Gene Dotson, Gil Schwartz and others , who were around and using these machines when they were new. They  probably are the only ones that have an accurate picture of what was a lemon and what wasn’t. I’m 57,  so in reality I am only familiar with each models “survivors” - “residents of the right hand tail of the bell curve” if you will, and  clearly not the units that were  lemons. 

  I really like my Ford 861, but did I just get one of the top 10% made in terms of quality and workmanship? If I had bought one new in the late 50s would I have had a 15% chance of buying one causing nothing but heartache and grief? Being this young I can’t answer this question.

  Sampling bias is real, alive, and loose in the world. You always have to guard against it


  Spencer Yost

  On Feb 12, 2019, at 4:37 AM, Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com> wrote:


    What makes that guy the authority on the subject?

    On Tue, Feb 12, 2019 at 12:47 AM James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> wrote:

      Two of the 10 were made by Fiat. Another 4 were from brands eventually acquired by Fiat. Amazingly jd has 2 of the 10.

      Massey Ferguson had a dud. They used a Cat engine. Should have stayed with Perkins.

      http://www.brushcountryfarm.com/2018/05/10worst-tractors-of-all-time-i-enjoyed.html

      https://harryferguson.blogspot.com
      https://www.linkedin.com/groups/5103068/


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