My pet peeve

[JGarner]

When I told my wife (city girl) I wanted to restore an antique trcator in my retirement she asked why I didn't just go down to Home Depot and buy one, they weren't that expensive!! Does this bother you "tractor" guys like it does me? I grew up in the country we had real tractors. Smallest things we had were the SC Case and 861 Ford diesel. We have had some large(for their day) tractors, LA Case, John Deere R, 830 dual range diesel Case, gents and ladies of this site, those are tractors!! Why does somebody put an old Allis Chalmers riding lawn mower in the ebay antique tractor site and think anybody will be interested. There should be a categrory in ebay, YT and other sites for these items.

Yes they are collectables. Some of the guys in my tractor club restore them also, but they do know the difference. Does this bother you all as much as it does me? Now to climb down off my soap box...

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sounds like all you need is a good dose of humility and loose some of that pride. Once you realize that everybody is different and has different taste then you can see the true beauty in that little restore lawn tractor. besides maybe that is what fits their budget - or maybe thats what their wife used to mow the yard with!

 

[DAVID in WALES]

Hi Gang;
Collecting horticultural tractors is big here now especially the old walk behind 2 wheel tractors with implements. Even a class for plowing, and there is a monthly magazine.
A few tractor collectors have started to restore older lawn tractors (often with their young children to get them started and interested). We had a few MF & Case lawn tractors here in the late 1960's & early 70's which are rare today and desiarble because they were often styled like the real tractors of that period.
David

 

[Dick L]

A few years back I took 6 tractors to the local tractor show and pull. I bought two pulls each for 5 of them. A cousin that was raised on a farm and I had not seen in several years had called and said they were coming to the show and wondered if we would have any tractors their. We invited them to have a cook out with us and watch the pulls. It was an evening pull. He told me he had taken his tractor to there local show and was excited about attending more shows and restoring more tractors. I ask him if he would like to use some of the pulls I had bought. I had tractors from my Oliver 88 down to a B Allis. His comment back was my tractors were to big for him as it had been years since he had driven a tractor that large. He had said my tractor many times over the past three or four hours. I only knew that it was a Case. And when he said it is really a lawn mower I had no idea what to say back to him. All I could think was (ok)I might have even said ok but not sure.

 

[Dave in GA]

I like how you can go to Home Depot and buy a 20HP "tractor." Gee, my Farmall F-20 is rated at about 20HP overall too. I"d like to see the Home Depot tractor pull a 2-14 plow through hard earth or run a thresher like my Farmall can do.

 

[Sid]

Then you probably will be upset when you look at these tractors.

 

[vitzarus]

JG You are mixing two different topics so it makes it difficult for clear response. A 20 hp garden tractor is a Tractor and that practical female side(notice how it gets real practical about machinery)recognises it may satisy you in a smaller footprint. You've earned the right to bring home anything and if you sell it correctly to her(for after all, she has what it takes to know stuff or she wouldn't be with you)You have to engage her in the history and research about a certain machine. There are historical patriotic environmental concerns about all these wonderous tractors. It may be she doesn't like green big time. Stuff like that too.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Yeah man, I would never put more then 8hpin a garden tractor, afterall, people just get them to brag about them. Those who want one to work buy a real one. I would not put over 5hp in a lawn tractor, not even with a 48" deck

 

[Anonymous-0]

I love REAL tractors, and I work on garden tractors, sell them, and am trying to work up enought for an old Ford/Ferguson or an old Farmall.

I meet someone and say " I work on old garden tractors " I also say stuff like "Man, thats in there good, go get a tractor (garden tractor)"

unlike some of my friends, I realise there is a difference between Garden tractor and Tractor Tractor. When I call mine tractors, I am by no means calling them farm tractors.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have a friend like that.....He calls himself a "Farmer" but has nothing larger then a little lawn tractor, not even a garden tractor. He pulls around an old cultivator I gave him in his backyard, and the thing occasionally reaches an inch down (theres a reason I gave it to him)and the worst part, he DOESNT EVEN PLANT ANYTHING but he also claims he raises animals. A donkey and like 4 chickens. thats it.all on less then an acre. pathetic.

I rarely call myself a farmer without the word hobby infront of it. I have 40 some chickens, 5 (pet) sheep, six acres and a Compact tractor. And I grow vegtables and sweet corn. And I'm causious calling myself a farmer. Look at him. Sick.

 

[Dick L]

n/m
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/tractors.html

 

[vitzarus]

Lanse, I believe the response from eds19 was meant for U. I want you to tell us what 5hp machine cuts 48" and is a rider and you just pick it up and throw it in the truck? The best I've seen are those AYP/nowMTD 12.5 hp 42" types.

 

[John M]

Yep, know what cha mean. Just like someone calling a Yukon, Expedition or the like a truck.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Too funny, good buddy of mine was over with his wife and kids last saturday night. Said he went to an auction and got 2 tractor tires for $25. Wow, what deal. Him not having a farm or even a tractor, I asked what the heck ya gonna do with them make a flower garden, his wife, a farm girl, burst out laughing and told my buddy ya tell Dave what your gonna do with you "tractor"tires. He said he was gonna throw em on his lawn mower. I said them aint tractor tires, his wife said "thank You" and called her hubby a dork.

 

[caterpillar guy]

The horse power is all relative to the torque and RPM"s as the home depot 20 HP is at what 3500RPM and your F-20 IS 20HP at 1500 RPM big difference in what they will do. Just like the old 2 cycle detroits verses the cummins or cat all had about 300 horse just the detroit had no torque, still pulled the same load just not as fast. Now for real tractors if you had asked me 20 years ago if it didn"t have steel tracks it wasn"t a tractor wheels would just spin if just a little wet and lots of compaction still that way to some extent. Now your 40 horse tractor won"t pull 6-16"s either but a D-4 cat will very nicely from the 1930"s top RPM is about 1650.

 

[Katharine]

I have 30+ chickens and chicks, geese, guineas, 2 pregnant sheep and I sell vegetables, eggs and poultry off my 5 acres. I have 2 old Snapper LT's one is a 16hp and the other is 12.5, I'm hoping between the 2, to get one decent one again. They're well over 20 years old and built like 'lil tanks! One broke and I went out and bought a new Craftsman 26hp, 54" cut with ALL the attachments, so called plow, cultivator, harrow, etc.... Biggest piece of &%$@! I ever wasted money on. Took it ALL back, after going 'round with corporate and am now spending the same money on a 1975 Ford 3400 Diesel and getting the other Snappers fixed for mowing round the house.

Had to have a REAL tractor, at least as much as I can afford right now!

 

[JGarner]

Its not a pride thing:
A. The Allis was in the Case site.
B. It was in the antique tractor site.
C. There is a site on ebay called Home and Garden that has an Outdoor Power Equipment site.

I think that the lawn "tractors" belong in this site and would probably get more readership, as the viewers of the antique tractors site are generally looking for something bigger.

In addition I would like to see YT create a lawn/garden tractor page for people interested in these units. There were a lot of farm tractor companies that made these little machines back in the early 60s and later as well as the Wheel Horse and other brandsas well as the 2 wheeled versions like the David Bradley type units. I think each machine has a place, and in my humble opinion their place is not with farm tractors because I think THEY are getting short changed and it would be easier for the collectors or other buyers that are looking for them if there were dedicate places for them to be. I think ebay already has it but it seems a lawn/Garden tractor sub category is all that would be needed.

 

[joe zip]

What does your husband say about that?

 

[Anonymous-0]

you need to get laid man!