[AT] 1970's farm equipment

Thu Oct 24 23:45:00 PDT 2019

Farmer,

Regarding the JD A.  I don’t know if it is a special version or not but if it is known as a Plain Jane A. and not a tractor that has some special attachment be careful how much money you put into it if you would like to break even on it someday.  Plain Jane JD A’s and B’s resale value has dropped significantly over the last few years. It is quite easy to put tires on an A that have over half the value of the tractor.  Unfortunately the guys like you and me who were around when these tractors were new are starting to be reduced in numbers quite rapidly. And as a result the resale value has dropped along with those unfortunate events. Low production numbers and unusual configurations seem to be holding up quite well. But……. Every time I get my new Two Cylinder Magazine of Green Magazine I am struck by how many auctions there are of significant collections. Quite often estate sales.  I think the so called “rare” versions will continue to hold their value.   My only hope is that the prices will stabilize soon where the younger crown will buy them just because they are reasonably priced and kind of neat to own as something different from the typical city toy.  One heck of a lot less expensive than collector autos or trucks. I’m still waiting for a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible with a continental kit on it that has had a frame up restoration that can be had for $5K.  But I also think I’m going to be 17 again soon.  😊 I’ve been told that I will reach a point in my old age that I might need diapers again.  Won’t I have to go through 17 to get to that age? 

Dean VP

Snohomish, WA 98290

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Indiana Robinson
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2019 11:50 AM
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] 1970's farm equipment

Connecting accents to old tractors... My 1947 Farmall Cub tends to mumble badly when l ask too much of it. I'm not sure what it is saying and I'm not sure that I want to know...

We have a diverse collection of friends, many with accents. Many years ago I became friends with our county extension agent who came from India. All of the time I knew him I had a little trouble understanding him for the first 5 minutes. After a bit I would pick up on his speech patterns and then I was fine. We have had Chinese friends for quite a few years and they are not bad to talk with since they seem to be very careful as they speak. We are now friends with a Greek couple (and their family) and we all do pretty well. Sometimes she struggles to find a word or two and I struggle to even remember their last name. "It''s all Greek to me".  :-)

Back to old tractors.

My Ferguson TO-20 is my most used tractor and it is still away from home on display duty at the Super Kroger's over in the next county west. I loaned it to them last year but it came home after a long weekend. It's been there for several weeks now and I'm starting to miss it a lot. I use the little Case VAC a fair amount but it doesn't have a 3 point and about everything else needs something fixed... I guess I need to call somebody. Maybe next time I will send my Allis C. Not only does it not have 3 point hitch it is awkward as hell to get off and on. I could send my MM-R but they need to move them around to set up the display and that jumpy hand clutch could kill with somebody inexperienced at the wheel. I have a Ford 8N that only needs about two days of work to be usable but I can't seem to get to it. This has been an awful weather year to get things done. I felt really sorry for my still farming neighbors this year. Many couldn't get stuff in the ground, a lot of stuff drowned out and then the dry weather hit with all of that heat that had a lot of crops in serious stress.

Amen Stephen... I like to think that a lot of us long timers have become much more than list members thanks to a fair amount of off topic discussions.

Spencer has long given a piece of advice that I adopted to some groups I managed. Basically it's "If you don't care for the current discussions don't complain, start a discussion that does interest you". It always seemed like very good advice. Moe pretty much did that with the mention of his tractor in his message. My own John Deere A is in a kind of sad state right now. Needs tires and needs the engine gone through. It's not really all that bad. If I can get part of my shop more empty and part of it closed in to where I can actually heat it I should get a lot of stuff caught up. Heating and a lot more light will make a big difference.

More on that Deere A later.

We  had an inch of badly needed rain yesterday, greening up already.

.

On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 12:41 PM <szabelski at wildblue.net <mailto:szabelski at wildblue.net> > wrote:

Just finished plowing the garden, now I have to rototill all the ruts In the back yard that I made earlier in the year when I was trying to connect the mower to the tractor. I’m probably going to have to do some filling in since they were deep enough then to require a tow to get the tractor out of the mud. Just love those two months of constant rain.

After that I’ve got to run around and cut the branches on all the trees that kept knocking my hat off all summer. Most require me to duck below the steering wheel in order to keep my face from being ripped up. My fault since I haven’t trimmed them in three years. Should be able to get it done in two or three days.
----- Original Message -----
From: Moe Fretz <tubetester at gmail.com <mailto:tubetester at gmail.com> >
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com> >
Sent: Tue, 22 Oct 2019 10:36:34 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [AT] 1970's farm equipment

Tractor related?????????

Some how we've gone from Antique Tractors.
To discussing (bragging) about all
the engineering courses we've taken or should have.
To offshore manufacturing quality.
To the help line accents.
And now we are into computer IT stuff we know about.
Could have, would have installed. up grading, what have you.

Not much tractor related stuff in the last few days.

My 1936 John Deere AO qualifies as an antique.
It does have any software needing to be upgraded.
No help line available or needed.
And you don't need to be an engineer to figure how it works.

$-------&
Moe F.

Ontario, Canada

On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 9:55 AM ustonThomas Mehrkam <tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net <mailto:tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net> >
wrote:

> In the 70s we all had to take corporate value engineering classes. "How to
> engineer all the value out." Some people did not have enough sense it
> ignore the BS.
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
> <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature> &c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>
>
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 7:08 AM, Thomas Mehrkam
> <tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net <mailto:tmehrkam at sbcglobal.net> > wrote:
> Windows 10 convinced me it was time to retire.
>
> I developed software mainly for Unix and Linux with some Vax VMS?? DX10
> one of T.Is systems and many real time OS for Motorola 68000, TI 9900,
> Power PC etc.?? Much of the early work in machine language. With some
> Windoze thrown in. XP and 7 was ok.?? Almost great compared to XP.
>
> XP convinced me it was time to retire. The worse of Microsoft's crap
> OS's. Even worse than writing assembly and Cobal for Univac 1108
> systems. :-{?? We built a Seismic Acquisition system that could record
> data from 40,000 stations at a 2MS sample rate.?? XP brought that to a
> stand still. The network stack sucked we went down to maybe 5,000
> stations. :-{
>
>
> On 10/21/2019 11:45 AM, Phil Auten wrote:
> > I usually need to write stuff like that down, and I am/was a
> > computer/IT tech. Now, where'd I put my pencil?
> >
> > I've been out of the computer biz,except for fixing my own, since 2011
> > and I am amazed how much it has changed since then. I have two working
> > computers, both laptops. The one I am on now is the newest and it is
> > running Vista (yuck). The other one is about a 2006 model and runs XP.
> > That one I need to redo and load Linux so it will keep up.
> >
> > Phil in TX
> >
> >
> > On 10/20/2019 11:39 PM, deanvp at att.net <mailto:deanvp at att.net>  wrote:
> >> James,
> >>
> >> ?? Every time I go shopping at the local Costco I marvel at how many
> >> foreigners we have here in WA?? I'm sure driven by the High Tech
> >> industries
> >> like Microsoft and Amazon. It used to be the Oriental's that were
> >> predominate. Now it seems to be East Indians. I'm sure much of our
> >> technical
> >> knowledge is eventually ending up back in India.?? However, that
> >> doesn't seem
> >> to apply to those who work in the technical support groups we call
> >> for help.
> >> I have completely given up on calling any kind of help line for
> >> anything.
> >> First because they really don't know very much and secondly their accent
> >> combined with my loss of hearing makes understanding them almost
> >> impossible.
> >> I will work Google search until I find the answer I'm looking for. I
> >> just
> >> went through that recently.?? Some time in the past I changed from
> double
> >> click to single click file opening on my mouse. Long enough ago I had
> >> forgotten how I did it.?? For me the obvious place to look was on the
> >> setup
> >> of the mouse. Wrong.?? I put up with the change far too long and
> >> finally I
> >> had enough.?? But couldn't remember how to fix it. Google came to the
> >> rescue.
> >> In Win 10. one has to get into File Explorer, view, options, change
> >> options
> >> to get to that setting.?? How in the hell I found that the first time is
> >> beyond me?? But all is now cool again.???? Simple but frustrating.
> >>
> >> Dean VP
> >> Snohomish, WA 98290
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com <mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> > On Behalf Of James Peck
> >> Sent: Sunday, October 20, 2019 11:18 AM
> >> To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
> >> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com <mailto:at at lists.antique-tractor.com> >
> >> Subject: Re: [AT] 1970's farm equipment
> >>
> >> I worked for a GM division a little in the late sixties. The focus
> >> then was
> >> on making all components so they ended their life at 10 years. The items
> >> that lasted longer were made too well.
> >>
> >> [Henry Miller] The 1970s when efficiency experts ruled every thing
> >> with the
> >> bean counters. Cut cost and quality were number one. The auto world
> >> had it
> >> worse than most because they suddenly had to meet emissions rules
> >> that they
> >> didn't really know how to do and so rube Goldberg contraptions were
> >> designed
> >> to that standard with predictable results.
> >>
> >> Modern just in time is often very inefficient, but the cost savings
> >> elsewhere make it vastly more cost effective. Consumers have also
> >> caught on
> >> to the idea that quality is sometimes worth paying for. Where the above
> >> doesn't apply is a race to the bottom that we can't win. China, like
> >> Taiwan
> >> and Japan before them is starting to drop out of the game. Africa is
> >> probably next in my opinion: Vietnam and Pakistan play a bit but they
> >> are
> >> not large enough and to beat China and they are not far behind China
> >> into
> >> getting out of that hole. India could win for a while, but they have
> >> a lot
> >> of smart people who know how to make quality (training on the job in
> >> the US
> >> or Europe) and would rather skip the cheap junk period.
> >>
> >> .
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> http://lists.antique-tractor.com/listinfo.cgi/at-antique-tractor.com
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> >>
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-- 

-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com <mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com> 

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