Equipment you flogged to death and didn't die ?

Any outstanding equipment you've run expecting to crumble but it keeps coming back for more ?

case spreader

yes antique rotary cutter,not a big name brand cutter but top is heavy,gear box mounted stoutly,sharpen the blades n looks like a lawn mower did the cutting. I packed the gearbox full of gun grease

We have a '93 Honda Fourtrax 300 4x4 four wheeler that will not quit. It is not like we are really hard on it, but it will go pretty much anywhere and haul anything we put on it. It is used mainly for checking cattle and hauling around fencing supplies (posts, wire, bars and sledge hammer, and the occasional calf). I have rebuilt the rear end and changed out all the parts onto another frame, and the engine and transmission just keep going. I have had water over the seat crossing creeks, and have hung it up on so many rocks that the original frame was broken in several places. It still looks and runs really well, and I honestly don't know what will ever replace it.
Lon

Have a friend who bought a UB Minneapolis, previous owner had it bored out making 80 h.p. For 20 years it pulled a 4 bottom plow, or an 18' field cultivator. Friend bought it, did more engine work to get it to 110 h.p. for tractor pulls. After a number of years it started jumping out of gear. He switched rear ends, got an offer and sold it. Pretty good I thought.

Douglas 6' finish mower. junkshow has got 2 of them. We don't use them as much after we switched to a zero turn some years back. These old girls have been around since Shep was a pup, actually 2 Sheps. An occasional belt, keep the blades sharp, pump up a tire here and there. They do all the ugly trimming before our show.

Well I generally like to take care of my equipment and not beat it to death. The JD4020 with loader has been used for harder digging than I bet it was designed for. Held together so far ?
JD 750 compact has been trouble free. 1 fan belt a couple of batteries and a spring to center the gear shifter and oil and filters are the only items put on it in all these years. I consider those maintenance items.

I got a list of stuff that had good care and was not ran hard and fell apart ! Top of that list was the 1983 Chevy K10 diesel.

How about this guy?Its not recent picture but it still is being used to this day. Its not mine,it was given to my brother.

Cockshutt 112SP combines; those machines were really tough.

Accidently drove a 72 Land Rover over 60 miles with no coolant during the summer. Never missed a beat. Felt like a real idgit.

Had an old WD Allis Chalmers with a loader that I bought for $200 ran it for about 5 years loading manure it smoked some and never did register any oil pressure but it never failed to start and operate,finally junked it for the wheels and tires and sold the loader.

Our '51 DC CASE comes to mind. It was our main tractor on our 135 acre dairy farm for three decades. Once we installed roto-caps it stopped burning valves. Faithful old tractor was just too small for all the heavy pulling that was expected of it. Still have it. Still ready for a day's work!

Glenn F.

Yep, a couple come to mind. Old case spreader, like was said. Just oil the chains and it keeps on going. Ugly as sin though. Got an old fertilizer spreader the same way, just grease it along and have some (free) bald tires mounted on it once in a while, it never seems to quit. I painted it this year, for giggles. It's not an IH, but I painted it that way anyhow.

Mac

Mitsubishi mini truck. I keep it serviced and blow out the inside every time I fuel it. I have never once had it stuck (and there are chances every day). I've pulled hay wagons with five rounds behind it, I've loaded it with as many cement bags as the big pickup would hold, and I've had it in water deep enough to come in the cab. The thing is amazing. It's so ugly it's a crime, but if I got a new one I wouldn't want to beat it to death. I can't figure out where it gets its determination, but I would be lost without it.

I have a 1949 Bush Hog Model 12 rotary cutter that a friend gave to me 8 years ago. When I went to his house to get it, he was walking around behind his house. I asked him what he was looking for. He said, "Your bush hog!" We found it and dug it out. It had been sitting in that spot for so long that it almost sank out of sight! I took it home and took the old blades off. The cutting edges were so worn back that you couldn't have saved them with a mill press! And the old cast iron-looking drive shaft was broken into 5 pieces. A trip to tractor supply for new blades and a slip clutch drive shaft, and an adapter to fit the drive shaft to the input shaft on the cutter. A neighbor helped me change the blades and we agreed the bearings in the gearbox were okay, but it leaked the 90 wt gear oil out, so we packed it full of grease. Then I welded in a 3/16" patch panel on the back deck,
sandblasted it, pressure washed it, and for fun I painted it flat black. I mow my back pasture, the 100 foot wide and 3/4 mile long pipeline on my hunting lease, the pasture at my son's house, and the occasional odd job for some pocket money. I just pump some grease into the gear box before I hook it up to the tractor.
Great old piece of equipment that was literally forgotten about and sunk in a swampy spot for 12 years! Works good!

Scott

I have an old Lundell green chopper that the metal is so rusty its rotten but it still gets used a couple times a year when the pastures get short. I try to be nice to it but it has to sit out and apparently has sat out its whole life.

Allis Chalmers B

John Deere 1020 that I had a loader on for 33 years.

Our IH300 utility,used to have a loader,u-34,used like a dozer at times.Sold the loader when I bought a CIH485 with a loader.7500+ hrs,still going strong,just lighter duty now!
Also a Woods Cadet72 rotary mower,1964 model.Has had numerous sets of blades on it,but nothing else.Used on a lot of rough mowing(small trees,etc.) as well as clean ground.The metal of the rear of the deck is worn thin at the discharge area.Mark

1951 H Farmall with an IH 33A loader on it. My father-in-law bought it from a neighbor in 1958 and it's been in the family ever since. It's unbelievable what all I've done with it over the years, including backfilling two new houses.

The engine has never been opened up, although it's getting tired now. I'm most concerned about the oil pressure going away when it gets warmed up all the way. I try not to run it that long before letting it cool off.

Per other threads, I'm in the final stages of overhauling the trans on another H, and if that turns out good I plan to swap the loader onto it and restore this one that's been in the family. It's earned retirement.

Oh, one more I thought of! An old eight foot drag disk, no name. Wood bearings still going even though it carries eight concrete blocks per gang. I've pulled it into twice hooking an eight foot spring tooth behind it and running 3rd gear on the M and later the 300. It sat probably 30 years on a flat blade rock before I bought it ($25) I pulled it home 2 miles down a county gravel road and the blades held up for a couple years after that. Replacing them cost me more than the disk, but it was worth it 18" notched on the front and 20" plains on the rear. It probably needs a rest though. It's tired.
Mac

53 case dc that has been in the family since 55, was not new but dad was the first owner, it was a loaner for the dealer before that. Has always been the yard tractor and had a loader on it til I got it in the 90's. Was used most every day but not much for hard tillage work. Hauled and loaded a million loads of manure, ground several loads of feed every week, loaded silage off the piles, and too many other jobs to count. Wouldn't want to guess at the hours on it.

I don't abuse machinery however I have witnessed plenty of abuse. Back in the late 60's my next door neighbors had a Massey 65 diesel they flogged and it kept going. It was the one tractor they could not destroy. I gained a lot of respect for those little Masseys because of it. Another one was the Minni ÜB Marilyn's family used for a chore tractor. It was either being lugged down on the grinder mixer or beaten around pulling the feeder wagon over frozen ground or through deep mud. The lights were beat out so they were always driving around in the dark doing chores. I can still see the red manifold glowing in the dark when they ground ear corn for the dairy cows. Another tractor that impressed me was the Deere 8420 front assist we had on the grain cart in the harvest. Those young bucks driving it would pull a 1000 bushel grain cart as fast as the tractor could go across the wheat stubble all summer long without it breaking. That power shift was darned near indestructible. They did have the power shift overhauled at 6000 hours of severe abuse the drawbar broke at 7000 hours and the Pistons started flaking at 9000 hours so it finally did break down but in my opinion a lesser tractor wouldn't have made it near that far.

A 1958 Farmall 460 we bought used in 1968 It was the main hoss on the place for 20 years, it plowed the ground, it disced, it mowed the hay, it baled the hay, it picked the corn and hauled the wagons. When it was 42 years old, in 2000, I think I noticed the TA slip a bit one time I shifted up too gingerly. It wore out 4 sets of tires, had an engine overhaul once and just kept on keeping on. Did I say it chopped the silage.

yep ,,. THe DC CAse's I own guikly comes to mind , Pop's 51
DC, was probably run to the moon and back before we got the Ol Gent' In 1971,,. then I run it again to the moon and back discing , raking baling, (yes all My D Cs will run very well a 847 n holland round baler with no more strain than pulling a plow )../ planting , and grinding5 ton of hog feed twice a week b y the lite of the glowing straight pipe and the lite of the moon. a good tuned DC would keep constant pace with a 4 inch auger on a 22 inch mill,.btw that old 250 dollar KNOEDLER MILL x mixer definitely qualifies as a poor old flogger .. I run it until my senior yr in hi school , patched it greased it often oiled and flipped the hammers to the final corner and put a nice artsway paint job on it . traded it on a new masey grinder mixer that was same style as the artsway knoedler, and promised dad I would put up half for the grinder ,.. dad gave me half instead because the paint job commanded a good trade in price, 15 yrs later I gave my half to my brother because he helpt do the paint workon the old Knoedler and some other oddball trading to make boot , I didn't need it and he did ,. funny thing I was able to find 2 grinders artsway for 50 bux , and a rusty nice equipt farmhand for a 185 ,. all they need is a little shade tree luv , and oil, then paint . I also have a ford disc that I hook onto occassionaly at the other farm,,needs a lot of expensive bearings and blades , after that it would be worth 100 bux less than the repairs I give it ,, my 400cyclo planter is well kept, but it qualifies as taking a beating and keeps on planting ,I destroyed the casting ends of a very wornout bushings of Oliver tandem cultipaker that fought me while loading on a trailer,,i drilled holes for the axles in maple guide blox 5 ft long and pull with a X set of chains to the 3 hitch point,, turns great and rolls great ,and, quikly loads easily farm to farm on the bale forks ..

randy , how in the world did you ever get satisfactory service out of a doggie deere1020 , or even a 2010? those durn things liked to miss like their 2 cylinder ancestors , til they got good and warmed up,.

Surprised nobody brought up any Fords. I have seen a few of those that just kept going and going, and are still going. My Dad's 2000 diesel to name one, and we've got two 6610s that have been used by different hands every summer for over 25 years now and still go every day. Neighbor has raked, baled square and round, shredded and fed with a 3600 for over 30 years and he services nothing.

The 2010 if it was a gas tractor had a very good engine, The base engine was first started to be used as an indrustrial before the 2010 was thought of and a slightly redesigned engine was used on the 45 self propelled combine for years amd by putting a smaller bore deck plate in was used in the 1010 tractor and 40 combine, later combines the deck plate was increased in bore to 165 cu in and I am not sure the model tractor that was used in 2510?, 2020? Had 2 combines with the 145 cu in size and one with the 165 cu in size. Never a missing problem. And uncle had a 2010 deisel that he could not kill even tho he tried.

Ferguson TO-20. Bushhogging very heavy brush, dragging logs, pushing snow....in general doing way more than it should be asked to do. Had it 22 years and use it for lighter duties now. Runs perfect

Minneapolis Molina G1000 dad workedat Molina dealer mom went there to see new tractor said where is it while standing up on a transmission housing dad told her she was standing on it. That was1970 I believe one clutch 2 hydraulicpumps and tires still in use today