Farmer fixes....

Eldon (WA) · Jun 21, 2018

On a job 60 minutes from home and lost a wheel on the Bush Hog. Threads stripped on the spindle and pushed the nut over the cotter key. Cleaned up the bearings, regreased, had a rubber strap with the S ends that I turned one into a cotter key to hold the nut on....needed a washer to snug up the bearing a little more and found the right size on a wheel bolt. Back in business for the rest of the day. Probably last till the end of the season LOL! What is your farmer fix that is still working??

SVcummins · Jun 21, 2018

Good job I can?t think of any of mine right off hand but I?ve had
to macgyver things like that in a pinch before

Janicholson · Jun 21, 2018

Thick flat washers in a shredded driven disk clutch to keep on going (even though I had to start it in gear). Jim

Ian Beale · Jun 22, 2018

Jim

Along those lines.

You've probably never heard of the Birdsville mail run from Maree in South Australia to Birdsville in Queensland. Seriously desert country and seriously isolated in those early days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Back_of_Beyond gives some idea.

One of Tom's predecessors on that run had the clutch disk of his truck fall apart somewhere in the middle of that - i.e. isolation ++. It was a 24 volt truck and he carried a 32 volt drill. Which helped reconstruct the clutch disk out of the ends of 44 Imp gallon (55 to you) fuel drums that got them out.

FBH44 · Jun 22, 2018

16d nails instead of cotter pins. Nickels with hole bored in middle for corrosion-proof exterior washers.

M-MAN · Jun 22, 2018

Back about 40 years ago I cut pulpwood. One
of the guys pulled in the yard and had
brake fluid running down his front tire. No
problem he said. Reached in the door pocket
and pulled out a roofing nail. Took the
line off and put the nail in the end and
put it back. Told him he was crazy & he
just walked over to another truck and
opened the door. Reached in the pocket and
pulled out some roofing nails. Said half
the trucks on the yard have them. These
were trucks from the 50's and 60's.

John Achmann · Jun 22, 2018

This is so funny! Saw this yesterday on one of the job sites.
That?s a pipe bushing with a 16d nail holding the wheel on a
rubber tire packer.

fixerupper · Jun 22, 2018

When a reel finger pipe on a combine platform wears thin and breaks at a bearing surface I would slip a smaller pipe inside the two broken pieces, drill four holes for bolts to hold things together and keep combining. It’s quicker than welding, doesn’t set the stubble on fire from sparks and lasts longer. My record is about fifteen minutes from the time the combine rolls up to the service truck till the time it heads back out to the field. I’ll admit the combine driver was good and quick and helpful running tools and parts from the service truck to me while I worked and I had the splicing pipe pre cut and ready to use. Time is money.

mrslesq · Jun 22, 2018

A bearing went out on a frame mounted coulter on my JD 7000 planter one evening. Having no replacement I used several different sizes of plastic/conduit to bush it up and threw a little oil on it just the first time to make it fancy and it went several more years like that with no problems. My family has several generations of fixing things to get by or making things to make things a little easier just to save a little time or money and we are not the only ones.

Duane WI · Jun 22, 2018

The real test of an old school farmer is do you officially repair the temporary fix the next day or do you leave it until it fails. I look back growing up on the farm and shake my head thinking about how much time got wasted fixing stuff that broke down in the middle of using it when it could have been fixed ahead of time. V drive belts that where obviously cracked and shredding never got replaced until they broke. Of course this meant running to the parts store in town in the middle of the afternoon. Get it fixed, run it for an hour and then repeat the same thing the next day on some other belt or part. I learned to hate combining season.

Determined · Jun 22, 2018

New Holland bar rake, almost done the field when it quit turning.

Something piled up in the ratcheting mechanism and it blew out a chunk of the drum.

Had a rusty old pair of pliers and some wire on the 600 so I stuck the pliers handle into the hole in the drum and wired them to the wheel hoping to jam it into engagement long enough to finish up.

You guessed it that was 5 years ago and the stupid thing is still working.

rrman61 · Jun 22, 2018

Not a tractor but here goes.while going duck hunting in flooded timber,I hit a stump with my 20 HP
mercury outboard.when the motor kicked up it broke the fuel line connection At the push and turn
fitting where it threads into the hose.A spent shotgun shell with the brass cut off,2 ft of nylon decoy
anchor line half hitched around the"splice" and some electrical tape I stole off some wiring got me
back to the landing.of course it leaked like a sieve but I didn't have to paddle 2miles!

WGM · Jun 22, 2018

Some of these are worthy of being in Farm Show
Magazine

oldtanker · Jun 22, 2018

(quoted from post at 21:07:13 06/21/18) On a job 60 minutes from home and lost a wheel on the Bush Hog. Threads stripped on the spindle and pushed the nut over the cotter key. Cleaned up the bearings, regreased, had a rubber strap with the S ends that I turned one into a cotter key to hold the nut on....needed a washer to snug up the bearing a little more and found the right size on a wheel bolt. Back in business for the rest of the day. Probably last till the end of the season LOL! What is your farmer fix that is still working??

None. I may do a farmer fix to finish something up but then I repair it the way it should be. That way I don't have to worry about it.

Rick

PopinJohn · Jun 22, 2018

We bought a used Volvo station wagon back in the '80's and started out from Houston toward New Orleans. Got about half way across the Atchafalaya basin when we
noticed the transmission was making some noise. It was a 4 speed and I thought it sounded out of oil. Stopped at a rest area that had a convenience store, they had
no oil, but had Mazola cooking oil. I bought that and a bottle of something that had a pump, and pumped that Mazola into the transmission. Transmission got quiet
within a few minutes, stopped in Houma the next day and had the Mazola drained and replaced with 90weight. Kept the car several years and never had a problem.

Janicholson · Jun 22, 2018

Mine was on a 1968 SAAB Monte Carlo Model 96. We were on the north rim of the Grand Canyon, about 60 miles from The nearest town Colorado City (a story in itself) We pulled the engine and set it on a rock (about 120 pounds aluminum 3 cylinder 2 stroke) and fixed it. We refused help from the Park Service (he said we were nuts). We proceeded on to 245 more miles of vacation. No issues. Jim

buickanddeere · Jun 22, 2018

(quoted from post at 10:26:06 06/22/18) The real test of an old school farmer is do you officially repair the temporary fix the next day or do you leave it until it fails. I look back growing up on the farm and shake my head thinking about how much time got wasted fixing stuff that broke down in the middle of using it when it could have been fixed ahead of time. V drive belts that where obviously cracked and shredding never got replaced until they broke. Of course this meant running to the parts store in town in the middle of the afternoon. Get it fixed, run it for an hour and then repeat the same thing the next day on some other belt or part. I learned to hate combining season.

I agree 100% . One of my Grand Fathers never had time or money to fix anything right because all his other patch jobs were breaking and needed fixed again. .

dhermesc · Jun 22, 2018

Imagine making real repairs on 40 years of "fixes" like that. My son has learned a lot about his grandpa with the work we've done on the Allis D17 and mower we bought from his estate. A while back I remember him commenting "I wish Grandpa never owned a welder...?"

showcrop · Jun 22, 2018

I knew a pair of brothers who milked cows. Their motto, that they lived by was never do today what you can put off until tomorrow. One way that they saved a lot of money was to not replace the glow plugs on their Case skid steer when they quit working. They would crank and crank and finally a cylinder would start to fire. Then they would keep on cranking until all cylinders started hitting. They were able to burn each starter out while they were still under warranty, so they kept getting replacements no charge. check the oil and replace the starter.

K Effective · Jun 22, 2018

I started baling the field in front of our house last Thursday, the hay was just ready, rain on it's way, and I had to be at work by 5:30. No kids to help, so I had lined up my old partner (76yo) to drive while I stacked. Before he got there, I started the first round to get everything checked out, and about 3/4 of the way around, the baler quit tying. Broke a spring that pulls on the knife parts of the knotters. WHEN I finally found it, I just bent the last two loops of the spring open to form a new hook.

We finished baling that five acres, broke the spring one more time (or, it slipped off the hook) and we got all the hay up on wagons and into the barn, even had time for a shower!

Ordered a new spring, even though I probably have three or four that would do the trick, hope to pick it up tomorrow and replace the repaired one.

Northvale PA · Jun 22, 2018

Sure, baling twine, tie wire, duct tape, electrical tape, etc. all in a pinch. But, after spending the last 30 years being a weekend hay farmer, I?ve
learned to also replace all broken parts with new, go over the machines carefully, grease all the bearings, tighten bolts, etc. I?m knocking on
wood right now but we rarely have field breakdowns even though all my equipment is bought used and reconditioned by me. Doing it right is the
way to go.

SVcummins · Jun 22, 2018

How about a custom 56 new Holland hay rake hitch
extension because ever rake hitch needs a steel stake on it. I
bought this poor thing about 10 years ago paid 100$ for it the
guy I bought it from said his dad tried wrapping the rake
around the tractor cab and I guess that?s why we needed to
make the extension I?m going to cut the hole mess off and
build a decent hitch for it

SVcummins · Jun 23, 2018

I?d like to see the picture of that one

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