Old 'junk' machinery

[DeltaRed]

Got to thinking,I've had an awful lot of equipment over the years.I started with nothing,a 'shoestring'.I would Buy some old something,or they would give it to me to get rid of it!Buy the junk at the sales that nobody wanted to use.Cant do that anymore cause of the scrappers.Then'fix' it to use.Use it for a couple years or so,then sell/trade it for something 'better'.The neighbors all had their junk piles/fencerows,etc raided.I'm sure they were vastly amused....I guess to an extent I'm still doing that.But over the years I built up a pretty decent complete line of machinery. I learned a LOT about improviseing,makeing do.That has been a good thing.I made a list of some thimgs I need/like to have/update(Selfpropelled swather,newer stackwagon,better cornplanter,another 100+ horse tractor,bigger grain truck...) the list is really kind of short,as I'm pretty satisfied with my current lineup. sorry,just rambleing... Steve

 

[ericlb]

did the same thing myself, started with basicly nothing and borrowed a tractor, then bought a piece here and there that the other folks either couldnt fix or didnt want to fix,fixed what i could, even made some of the parts myself and made it go for awhile now i have most of what i wanted, still need a few pieces, [ dont we always!]

 

[Jim in Ma.]

The skill of improvising, making do is becoming a lost art. Most people just park things and get another.

 

[Bryce Frazier]

I read something the other day that said:

Things used to be made to break, and be fixed, now they are made to break and be replaced.

Too true, as sad as it is! I was reading in my new Super C ad from 52, it says:

You can expect the reliability of 10 to even 15 years that Farmall Tractors have built in them.

Well, more than 50 years after it rolled off of the line, it is still firing on all four, and is still goin down the road, I would like to see a new tractor do that... Bryce

 

[crooked rows]

When we were starting out we had a saying..."when you can't buy new...buy two" that way we could usually have one in working order.

 

[DeltaRed]

I saved my money in high shcool and bought a JD730 diesel.(2500bucks).I only had about half.'Financed' the rest.Wish I still had that tractor.pd it off,bought a second tractor(EARLY 706).Biggest POS I ever owned.After about 3 years I traded for a BRAND NEW JD4040.That broke me.Still got the tractor I started over with (A superM) Later bought the 706 I still own.Best tractor I ever owned!

 

[Mike (WA)]

Improvising and making- do is becoming a lost art because on newer tractors, it just won't work!

Had an injector pump fuel shut-off problem on an old IH 504. Diagnosed it immediately, because when I pulled the knob, it wouldn't shut off. A new $6 choke cable and 15 minutes later, I'm back under way.

Had an unknown "no run" problem on 2005 JD 4010 compact utility. Tried to diagnose it from the manual, no luck, mainly because they didn't show the correct amperages on the fuses, which were not labeled, so you couldn't tell what circuit was blowing. Finally had to get the tech guy out. Turned out to the be fuel shut off solenoid. $500 and 2 weeks later, I'm back under way. All so that the fuel will shut off when I turn off the key, and I'm not put to the excruciating bother of pulling a knob like in the old days. And you couldn't work around it, because tractor wouldn't run without a functioning fuel shutoff solenoid.

I dunno- I guess that's progress. . .

 

[Anonymous-0]

Yes its a lost art alright , I have no faith in the younger generation. I would rather fix something old and broke before i would buy something new. Only thing i found i cant try to fix is a broken heart. If you are not fixing something you aint doing something right. LOL
Like the old saying If you cant fix it with Duck Tape its broke

 

[Dick2]

When my brother took over the farm, he knew that he had to find a way to cover the ground by himself so he bought 2 field cultivators, 2 drills. two corn planters and made his own tandem hitch for them. I bought him an HD7 crawler so he had the HP to pull the larger implements. It all worked out for him and he's retired now.

 

[Trkr]

Steve,my main transportation is my 93 Dodge W350 Cummins pickup.Bought it new.Everything mechanical,no computers.Would not trade it even up for a brand new 2014,honest.When something goes wrong(rarely)can diagnose and fix easy.You guys can have the new ones.

 

[bison]

All i ever did was buy fixeruppers wether they be tractors veh or implements, i still do. I have now a whole pile of tractors loaders implements and vehicles for the price of one new tractor.
Only thing i ever bought new was a 24' aluminum stock trailer last december cause a good used would be nearly the same price.

I picked up this 24" grain roller mill for $350 at an auction last summer.
It was i rust bucket when i got it.
A little cleaning, a new bottom auger a better axle and a can of paint made it look like new for a tenth of the new price
.

 

[47fivewindow]

my dad had a 45 combine that was so rusted out that after every days use new holes opened up that I would braze shut. I use to joke that he was going to have the first solid brass JD combine.

 

[Paul from MI]

I grew up on a very small poultry farm, with very little new machinery. Everything we had was old and pretty worn. I learned to patch, repair, weld, braze, make-do. As I look back on a successful engineering career of 45 years, most of what made me successful was what I learned on that little farm(which I still own). THANKS, DAD!

P.S. I'm still farming with old wore out machinery.

 

[JD Seller]

Steve: The first tractor I personally owned was a JD "G". I gave $400 with the motor locked. I was 14 years old (1964) at the time. I tore into the engine and got it running. Then when I was in the last few years of my Army service I bought a Ford 6000. So when I had my 10 years in (1978) I started farming with that JD "G" and the Ford 6000. We had livestock on five farmsteads and had 150 acres of corn in eight different fields. My implements where all stuff I had boughten well used and repaired or made bigger.

Then in 1981 I had lined up a good bit of custom work, mostly tillage work. I bought a new IH 1486. We had saved a pretty good down payment and the rest worked with the custom work I had lined up.

My wife and I really looked forward to that tractor being delivered and being able to work in a comfortable cab. Man did that not turn out to be true. LOL The first job I had was running a field cultivator over 400 acres of chisel plowed ground. I was so sore after the first day that I just about cried when I had to run it the next day. That was the roughest riding tractor I ever owned. My wife usually ran the tractor while I did the livestock chores morning and night. She refused to run that tractor on rough ground. Told me she did not own a heavy enough bra to be able to ride in that thing on rough ground. (That is exactly what she told me!! LOL)

Sold the IH 1486 after owning it just six months. A couple of neighbors started the rumor that we could not afford it and had gave it back to the dealership. They looked foolish when we bought a year old JD 4440. I still own that tractor. It was the main tractor all during the 1980s.

In the 1980s I sold the JD "G" and Ford 6000. I had many tractors after that. I would buy one that needed work and fix it an use it for awhile. I would then advertise it for sale. People liked being able to see them work. I would tell them to come on out and they could run it in the field. A true ride and drive.

So over the years I was able to work up to a pretty good line up of machinery.

I bought three new tractors. None of which where JD. They where "deals": AC 8010 MFWD after Duetz bought AC, a Duetz-Fahr DX 3.5 and a Duetz-Allis 6275. I did not keep any of them over 2-3 years. I usually was made an offer to sell/trade them.

 

[Pair-a-dice farm]

36 years ago I started with nothing and still have most of it. :lol: Seriously there are a couple of things I'd "like" to have but don't really need. As I get older another piece of equipment that needs repair doesn't have the same appeal that it once did.

 

[notjustair]

I really enjoy working on equipment. I hate it if I am in a time crunch and I need it to work right away, but I really like buying stuff that needs a little work. There are some things that you have to have in good shape - like a drill or planter. That's not something I do that with. Having fun tinkering in the winter is not worth a bad stand of grain. I prefer to use my old stuff for all other things, though.

 

[Bryce Frazier]

Hey, all you dudes see what I do. I certainly can't afford to walk into JD, so I make the old ones work! I love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you have taken something, be it a tractor or an implement, or even a car, and actually BOOST it's value by just putting a little love into it. I think that if everyone did something like this with older cars, trucks, and even phones, or simple things, we would probably live in a MUCH better world...

You ALL have encouraged me to keep truckin along, and I encourage all of YOU to do the same thing, keep saving stuff from the scrappers, and make it look, or at least work like new! Bryce

 

[T in NE]

You must have a 5 speed?
It's easy enough to swap in an the old MOPAR voltage regulator to take that function away from the PCM. Usually no AC/no charging is a bad crank sensor.
I've got a 90 auto, but like you, the dealer'd have to pay me to take a new one home.

 

[Anonymous-0]

The wheel base is too short on that IH, same problem on our 5288. Doesn't hurt the pulling but makes it easier on the trailing implement because on rough ground you can't drive fast enough to tear anything up. You want to drive something real bad try a stiff or solid hitch four wheel scraper.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Great if you afford the time to do the repairs. Friend started farming with cheap, tired, older stuff, and found he and his father were constantly making repairs when they should be doing field work. Both good mechanics. Each held down a good-paying, full-time, off-farm job which was necessary to pay for the purchased dirt. Within a couple of years they were buying newer/better stuff then we used on the family farm, although anything we had was nothing to brag about.

 

[Bret4207]

I'm kinda like the OP, started on a shoe string. The difference is a lot of what I got I paid good money for and it was still junk! :x The only good thing about that is that you tend to figure out how stuff works because you tear things all apart fixing them. I've been gifted a couple of half way decent pieces, tractors that needed tire$$$, engine rebuild$$$, stuff like that. They work once you put the money into them, but it's sure not fun getting them there.

 

[Bret4207]

(quoted from post at 21:45:45 04/02/14) Great if you afford the time to do the repairs. Friend started farming with cheap, tired, older stuff, and found he and his father were constantly making repairs when they should be doing field work. Both good mechanics. Each held down a good-paying, full-time, off-farm job which was necessary to pay for the purchased dirt. Within a couple of years they were buying newer/better stuff then we used on the family farm, although anything we had was nothing to brag about.

There isn't a man in the world that can afford the time. But time is easier to come by than money. I have a new neighbor that has more money than time it seems. He's buying, buying, buying and what he's buying makes no sense on our type of land. But, they allegedly have several million to play with. The dealers aren't complaining.