Amish Jubilee

[warbaby]

An interesting conversion on Facebook marketplace in Monroe, Michigan for 3000.oo

 

[Bern]

So the Amish can?t use rubber tires, but they can use rubber hoses and belts?

 

[Fordfarmer]

There are amish not too far from me, so I have been to a few auctions on amish farms. There gets to he some pretty grey areas on what is of isn't allowed. Different congregations have different standards, according to what their bishop tells them. Rubber hoses and belts are ok, and generally, so are hard rubber tires or rubber tread bolted to steel wheels. Some can a tractor or implement with air-filled tires until they go flat... then they have to change them over to steel. Some also incorporate a rubber cushion between the spokes part of the wheel and the rim/tread.
I was at an auction 10-12 years ago with about 1/2 a dozen Fords, and most of them on steel... 5200, 8600, 8210, 7710, maybe a smaller TW... They still had the rubber tires and rims for them, but you had to bid on them separately!

 

[warbaby]

I grew up near many Amish and Mennonite farms and yes, depending on how the congregation wrote the rules, you could have rubber treads on steel rims, but not true pneumatic tires with air in them. Some groups allowed tractors to be used in the fields, others could only use them as stationary power units.
Some farms could even have a telephone, provided it was in an out building to keep the kids and wife from using it to gossip....

I guess they have recently relaxed rules even further as I now see Amish guys at auctions talking (German/Dutch) on portable telephones!

 

[Fordfarmer]

Found this picture from the sale I mentioned.

 

[Michaels Dad]

Saw this in NewYork. Also saw a young man on a riding mower. Wheels on it looked similar. When I asked him why all he could say was the church says we have to do it. He said they have blacksmith shop that makes and does the conversion.

 

[Steve Metcalfe]

The Amish that I have talked with about that say that you can't contain the breath of God which is air. That's the reason for no pneumatic tires. When I said something about the pneumatic tires on their bicycles I just got a stare like they hadn't thought of that!!

 

[Sean in PA]

More likely Mennonite than true Amish. I live about a 30 minute drive from Lancaster, PA, one of the true Amish hubs in the country, and the true Amish do not allow any modern technology in terms of motorized equipment or even electricity from the grid. Most tractors around here that have thoise style steel wheels are owned by Mennonites, which is similar to, but not exactly the same, as the Amish beliefs. The Mennonites that I have talked to say that they do not have any rules against rubber tires, jut that they are very frugal and would rather pay once for a set of steel wheels than several times over the life of the tractor for replacement rubber tires. They all either have welding shops on their farms or have a neighbor who does, and can get a steel wheel repaired if it gets damaged while keeping all of the money within the Mennonite community, but with rubber tires they have to pay money to the "english" which is what they call all of us non-Amish and non-Mennonite Americans.

 

[steve19438]

and cell phones. their beliefs are full of holes.

 

[Jimmyjack]

They have a lot of saw mills around here, and many cut timber and pulpwood with chainsaws.

 

[Tim PloughNman Daley]

We have a good Amish community all over Michigan. Mennonites are not the same, but similar. The Amish were a religion originally based on not using modern conveniences like phones, electricity, motors, cars, etc. Over the years they have relaxed many of their practices. I've worked with many of them -sawmills, blacksmiths, carpenters, farmers, and they are all friendly and good people. I don't think they have to pay taxes but that may have changed now too. When my uncle passed in 1997, the family farm was sold to an Amish family and I still visit them often; they have done a great job with it. I once asked a father how they got by with living a simple life with no modern conveniences with no TV, radio, and now, computers and cell phones. I asked, "what do you do?" He said why do you think we all have such large families... : > )


Tim Daley(MI)

 

[John in Mich]

Ability, parts and desire. To each his/her own.

 

[Leroy]

Thoseusing phones usually will have hired a driver and van to get to the auction and the phone will belong to the driver.