[AT] Tractor tool box standard items.

[szabelski at wildblue.net]

Come-along and chainsaw, plus a five gallon gas can.😜

Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: Indiana Robinson <robinson46176 at gmail.com>
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Sent: Sun, 10 May 2020 11:32:42 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [AT] Tractor tool box standard items.

During a lifetime of farming my father and I and later my son and I built
and installed a lot of tool boxes on a lot of tractors. Many factory tool
boxes were kind of a joke. The one in the left step/running board of the
new Jubilee Ford was OK for a plow wrench and maybe a few lynch-pins or a
hitch pin but it was prone to fill with dirt and wouldn't keep anything dry.
They built a small box in front of the base of the dash on my VAC Case that
if you want something out of it you first spray it with wasp killer then
drag the mouse nest out of it...
The one on the TO-20 up under the hood in front of the fuel tank isn't too
bad but needs to be larger.
Those things don't matter so much these days but I do need to add some
decent boxes to the three or so small tractors I find useful for daily use
now. Those 3 are my TO-20 Ferguson, an 8N Ford and the VAC Case.
Being smaller tractors it can a little harder to fit in a more useful
toolbox.
I have a list of things I like to always have at hand in a tractor tool
box. The first one is a decent sized ball peen hammer. Not one of those
tiny tappy things but at least 16 oz. or larger. You never know when you
might just feel the need to pound the hell out of something.  :-)  I prefer
2 adjustable wrenches, one about 8" to 10" and one at least 12" and heavy
for things like hitch-balls etc. I also want a very sturdy straight
screwdriver, not something to tighten your glasses frames but something
that will survive using often as a small crowbar or once in a while to
actually turn a big screw. I have also been buying a lot of those fairly
decent but low cost screwdrivers that you pull out the shaft and can flip
bits around to have 2 straight blades and 2 Phillips blades.
I want something in the pliers family, a common pair is OK or water-pump
pliers or Vise-Grips. I'm pretty flexible there, for cutting wire, working
with cotter-pins etc. On Vise-Grips see also "pounding the hell out of
something" above.
A place where the factories failed was log chains, at least a 12' "tractor"
chain. What kind of fool goes out to work on a farm (or on a group tractor
drive) without a chain.
For me a bonus is a spot for a pair of limb loppers, an axe and a box for
rocks.
And don't forget a drink holder.
What did I miss?


.



-- 
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Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com