Tractor you bought and never used.......

Kow Farmer

Well-known Member
I got to thinking about how many people may have bought a tractor(s) overtime and never used it for some reason or another. I can
think of a couple of circumstances where this happened in my neighborhood. I had an old neighbor that died of nasty colon cancer a
few years ago. The last fall he farmed row crops he traded in a nice FWA Case 3294 for a newer bigger hp Versatile FWA tractor.
Sad story is he purchased the tractor in late winter and he died weeks after it was delivered only to never see it used on his
farm in the field. The tractor was used in his funeral procession though. I thought that was an awesome tribute to a life long
farmer. I had another neighbor that was a hoarder real bad. he bought 2 Case tractors and never ever used them. 1 was a 400 (401)
diesel and the other was a 600 (611b) rowcrop, which I bought later. These 2 older Case tractors sat for years under roof
thankfully, but the guy never farmed. I know he just liked to have things, just to say he owned them. Any of you know of the same
type of thing happen to them or someone you know? Just wondering how much good old iron is out there like these. Kow Farmer Kurt
 
My Uncle who is from your neighborhood bought an 1850 Oliver back in the day. Before he ever got to use it he was mauled by a bull. He survived but never got to drive the tractor. He is totally deaf from his injuries. Know who I mean?
 
Bought an allis g that was butchered electrically and had a wood splitter mounted to the front (don't ask me), wanted it to toe some hay wagons around with and tool around the yard.
Got her running pretty good and realized it is not a machine to pull hay wagons around with...so there she sits, with no job.
 
Hi I think i'm like some other guys from their comments. I got lots here i picked up over the years with issues and some that run for my collection. out of 15 or more tractors I got 3 I have actually used regular. 2 for grass cutting and my County 954 4wd has been used over a few wet years to tow stuck tractors out, before we added another tractor to the farm. I got more that run but never used them for anything.
Regards Robert
 
I know where there is a JD 4455 2wd 15 sp. PS that only has 250 hours on it. Right at 200 of those hours are just blading snow off a lane. The tractor was bought new in the summer of 1991. The farmer was fighting cancer and his old tractor,a JD 4440, had a nasty cab. No interior left and the AC was toast. HE loved to keep his pastures and such mowed. He was mowing them with no AC and sweating his butt off. His wife came into the dealership I worked at and bought the JD 4455 just for her husband to use mowing that summer. He died right before Christmas that year. The wife rented the farm out and sold all the rest of the equipment. She kept the JD 4455 as that was the only tractor they had ever bought "New". She came in when the tractor was a few years old and bought a "new" 10 foot rear mount blade. She wanted one that she could use herself. It had all hydraulic controls. She also had us install snow runners on the back so she would not plow the gravel off the lane. The draw bar has never had anything hooked to it. He mowed the pastures with a ten foot three point mower. She still has that and the rear mounted snow blade. I go over each spring and service the tractor for her and put the mower on. She keeps the barn yard and drive way mowed with it. I go back in the fall and put the blade on for her. The "wife" is 83 years young. LOL

PS It is kind of funny to see her blading the lane in the winter. She gets some looks as people go by. LOL I don't think she is over Five foot tall anymore. You can barely see her in the cab.
 
Nothing good! I paid too much for a Farmall M. I used it once to grind feed and by the time I was done I could tell just how shot the bearings were. It was banging like the hammers of he77. I took the head in and had it done and went through the engine stem to stern. I got it done and fired it up only to see the oil pressure was miserably low. Just dribbles coming out of the guage line.

I was so mad at it I walked away for a month. Then I found a dirt cheap M with bad tires. I paid nothing for it and was going to put the engine in the other one. I got it home and hooked it to the grinder and worked the snot out of it and it purred along. I looked at the live hydraulics and power steering and just swapped the tires and shoved the one with the brand new engine in the back of the shed.

I did go back and fog the cylinders on it. I'd like to swap the heads out as the M that I use is starting to blow a little smoke at startup from valve guides. That thing has never used a drop of oil or failed to run. I've never even cleaned the points or checked the plugs. It's spent 100 hours or so a year on the grinder for no more than fluid changes. I've got a really big expensive paper weight in the shed if anyone needs it.
 
(quoted from post at 19:48:31 04/28/16) I have just under 100 tractors here no way I can use them all
cnt

Same here....I need to move the off color ones, a JD 4020 LP and a MM Jetstar. The rest of the AC's I do not use I at least saved from China.
 
Joe is my cousin. Mom was one of the youngest of the 16 in that family, and I am the youngest grandchild out of all that, so most of my cousins have kids older than me, and it really don't know some very well, such an age difference and so many of them.

Anyhow I guess we are inlaw cousins then? :)

Just saw joe and Dottie at a birthday party Saturday.

There were several Oliver collectors in that branch of the family, one has/had 27 of them I think?

Paul
 
I have a great uncle that use to buy stuff and resell, he bought a 442 once, had his brother drive it home parked it in the shed and it sat there for many years, he never drove it. Sold it a year or two before his auction for 14,000.
 

I can't afford to keep a tractor that isn't used. Some of them may only 50 hours of use a year but they have a job. I doubt that I ever retire but if I do, there may be a couple that I keep for sentimental value.
 
I've bought lots of them and never used them at all. Resold several and parted out others. I still have several that I barely used and a few I occasionally use like my loader tractor. Barely use it but when you need to move something you need it.
 
I have a 52 DC Case adwfront with a bad radiator , that came from Michigan, pained it up ,put tires on it all around , started it up serveral times and fixt the hydraulic lines ,, seems to be in good condition ,, but until I swap the radiator out it cant go 15 minutes without a big drink ,,. it has been here 2 yrs ,.
 
To answer your questions, I'll only buy a tractor after I have a use for it. Mine never sit around. They are working pigs.

I've painted all my tgractor. Then I've decided painting a tractor is like putting lipstick on a pig. After the paint job she looks beautiful. After a year, the pig has been in the mud, dipped oil and she looks like the same pig before I painted her.

So what's wrong with us want to put lipstick on a pig?
geo
 

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