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<p>In the old days of the MF 50 Diesel, the tool box was in the side
of the fender. We had a 12in crescent wrench about 50 years old,
a pair of water pump pliers, a 10in pair of common pliers that Dad
had bought at a discount store, and one of those dog bone looking
wrenches that had 4 hex sizes on each end. It was a Power Kraft
from Montgomery Wards way back when. I found it last year. I
noticed that tractor supply had a pair of them with Metric and SAE
and bought them last year. Then there was the odd bolts and
hitch pins and hairpins and lynch pins in the box. When Plowing,
we had a big John Deere Box wrench that had the size of the plow
coulter nuts and drawbar nuts to adjust the plow. We found the
wrench in the field about 4 years after a custom operator had
disked the field with John Deere Equip. By that time the poor guy
had tried to beat a train across the tracks and failed. Dad said
he left it for us to remember him by...<br>
<br>
I read a shop trick in Farm Journal as a kid about welding a 3/4
in bolt into a pal pein hammer head to use as a hammer and as a
hitch pin to carry in the tool box. The first lick I hit with it
as a hammer nearly broke my hand!! I found a piece of rubber hose
to put over the handle and pulled it off when I needed the pin.
I don't remember it getting much use as either!! <br>
</p>
<p>I can't begin to count how many hammers we have planted in this
country. You would think that with enough fertilizer they would
sprout!!<br>
Cecil<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/10/2020 11:55 AM, Doug Tallman
wrote:<br>
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<p><font size="+1">We need a box bigger than the tractor! :-)
Doug T</font><br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 5/10/2020 12:45 PM, <a
class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated"
href="mailto:szabelski@wildblue.net" moz-do-not-send="true">szabelski@wildblue.net</a>
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:1435082528.21563656.1589129110604.JavaMail.zimbra@wildblue.net">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">Come-along and chainsaw, plus a five gallon gas can.😜
Carl
----- Original Message -----
From: Indiana Robinson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true"><robinson46176@gmail.com></a>
To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com" moz-do-not-send="true">at@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>
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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