Will those tractors actually RUN???

Been having a rough week, best weather forecast for June haying in about five years, but I can't seem to keep anything together. Added to this my younger son is graduating from high school today, so both he and his mother have been "distracted" = useless, all week.

So Wednesday afternoon I started mowing, made a round and a half, and the reel drive hub on my Hesston 1091 broke, AGAIN, no new one easily, or quickly available, borrowed a Kuhn discbine and tractor from a neighbor, the PTO shaft came off the mower, the rear half flew half way across the meadow, the front half grabbed the control rope for the swing tongue and tried to rip the seat off the tractor. I shut it down real quick. NOTE, I don't tie anything to the seats on my tractors.

Well I got everything back together and finished mowing, took the tractor back to my neighbor's and was waiting for a ride. The neighbor's young, (early twenties?) hired help gave me a ride back to the farm, as we pulled in at the shop, he looked at my fleet and asked "Will any of those tractors actually RUN??".

"YES, and we have put up between five and eight thousand bales of hay with them every year."

I am not sure he believed me.

The tractors are, in order of reliability:

1943 Farmall M (Went swimming in tropical storm Irene last fall, only three inches of the smokestack was above water}

1949 Farmall C (Dad's first tractor)

1952 Farmall Super C

International 404

1973?? MF 175D bought as a basket case, keeps trying to revert.

Farmall 560 D another swimmer, not recovered yet.

Farmall Super C, tire issues

International 330 broken, crankshaft.

Also JD 1010 crawler, not used for haying, although when we only had the one tractor I used to pull a hay wagon (slowly) with a JD 420 crawler.

I run all old or used equipment too. But I have made a point to always buy new parts when available and keep the machines in top running condition. I also have 2 big tractors, 2 haybines and 2 balers, because breakdowns happen at the wrong time. Takes a little more time and money up front, saves a huge amount of time, money loss and stress during the season.

Sounds to me that you have a whole off season of tractor/equipment fixing.

Vito

Not real sure if you guys are bugging me about preventative maintenance or not. No real off season repairs for me, as the larger stuff won't fit in my shop, and I don't lie in the snow to fix things. Shop and I were both occupied with a truck rebuild for three weeks this spring. I also have other work/responsibilities in the winter.

Everything except the wagons was cleaned up, serviced and checked last fall. Tractors that run were gone through this spring, tractors that don't run are waiting for those that do to finance repairs. There was two solid weeks of work just cleaning up and re-lubing the hay equipment that went swimming. All wheel bearings, cleaned and repacked, gearboxes drained flushed and re-filled, cornstalks hay and God knows what all else pulled, washed, blown, and scraped from all the little nooks and crannies where it collected. I still expect some sealed bearings to give up at some point. Fortunately there was no physical damage, even to the wagons that floated away.

The 330 with the broken crank is waiting for money/parts. The 560 swimmer is waiting for time to work on it, have most of the parts. Second Super C is more of an organ donor.

I will admit to not being nineteen years old any more, and I am trying to cut back, (labor, land availability issues as well), but it is kind of catching up to me.

I would expect a 21 year old to say that. Figure he was born in 1991. Your MF175 looks like a relic to him, everything else he probably thinks should be in a museum somewhere.

Once he has to spend his own money on equipment, I bet his outlook will change drastically.

I started out with equipment that had sat since 1959 in a field. Tackled one piece at a time, and slowly upgraded as time and money allowed.

I like your comment on the 175 "bought as a basket case, keeps trying to revert." I have a few pieces around here like that. A couple more times of fixing and they will meet the torch and plasma cutter.

Rick