Thoughts while looking at old tractors

When folks go to shows , and see old tractors, everyone thinks different things. Some remember using these old tractors, some it was their dad or grandpa that might have had a similar tractor, and I think of these things too. But I also look at these little old tractors that offered little in the way of operator comfort. And I try to imagine the jobs the tractors did, and the equipment they pulled. And I can tell you, for the most part , I am glad that I didn?t have to farm with a steel lug Fordson, or a cross motor Case. It is easy to think how primitive the tractors are compared todays tractors, but what a step up these old tractors offered compared to doing all your field work following a team of horses. My Dad farmed with horses till 1948 , when he bought a new Case V tractor. The horses stayed till the end of the 50?s .
Imagine farming today with a hot bulb Lanse Bulldog ! Hook that up to your round baler!!

Agree.. a friend of our was selling a MF TO 20. She asked me to move it around and unhook a rotary mower. That was enough for me. Power steering is a must!!

Hind sight's 20/20. It was a different story when they were new and state of the art.

I had 3 old Masseys over the years: A TO-20, MF 35 Perkins 3 banger, and a cream puff MF 35 Continental with power steering and dual remotes. If the Perkins would have been the one with PS it would still be with me. Torque curve peaked at 1000 and that thing would climb a fence post..tried it once.

There is an elderly man in the hay business. He doesn't have steel wheels on his tractors, but he does use open air tractors. Mostly Case. He bales both round and square bales.

About 15 years ago I went for a motorcycle ride in Park county. Amish country. I wish I had a camera. I saw a diesel powered square baler, on steel wheels, a hay wagon on steel wheels both pulled by a team of horses.

What's wrong with old tractors? I use a 1950 Farmall C with a 6 ft mower. A Ford Jubilee with a 6 ft mower. Both open air tractors. Both working girls that are too busy to go to a tractor show. They work year around. I'm pushing 70 and use my old tractors summer and winter. No cab. No AC. No heat.

Collecting old tractors became popular when obsolete and worn out tractors could be bought for their scrap value. There was usually a good reason most of them were headed for the scrap yard.

I also enjoy looking at old cars and pickups from the 1960's for nostalgic reasons. However, there is no way I'd want to drive one every day or have to have to rely on cars and trucks like that today.

I have my Dad's "H" Farmall and I take on rides,however I think about how he made his living with it.

Old tractors are nice to use around the lawn and yard because they are cheap and dependable. I have several and I'm driving one of them for some odd job nearly every day. However, I will never go back to the 12 hour or longer days sitting on a noisy, rough riding old tractor in the wind, heat and cold. No way.

I always think it is no wonder those older fellows couldn't hear or stand up straight ! I also remember how my Dad and Grandpa would spend 2-3 weeks in the fall picking corn, and then another 2 -3 weeks plowing on our original 200 acres using letter series Farmalls. The land was sold to a relative family that are BTOs, and they do all that in 1 day now.

I helped a friend change out his exhibit at junkshow and because the battery was dead we just punched his BF Avery on the trailer by hand. He then commented on who would have bought this thing when it was new! I stated that you have to remember that not every farm was in the same situation. Say Ernest and Mildred had an 80 acre farm with chickens, some milk cows, a few pigs and 2 aging horses. Some pastured and some under plow. Now the kids have grown and old Daisy and Pete are long in the tooth. So Ernest goes to town where Elmer is making the pitch for the new modern BF Avery. It?s the tractor fitted for your farm. Bring your farming practice into the new decade without the expense of feed and vet bills and we?ll even throw in a free hand saw to cut the reach off your horse machinery.
The other thing is technology. The early tractors were crude and simple. (That?s why they still run) The teens and 20?s saw numerous manufacturers in the game. They all had different ideas. Look at the IHC friction drive. It got IH into the game in short order and they built a legacy. Conversely Hart-Parr was much more inclined to engineer, but had their trials as well shown by the vastly different designs they tried in the early years. Then there is the similarity crossing over in that many of these engineers of the short lived companies worked for different tractor companies and brought some like ideas with them or that a competitor picked up on good idea. Here is a leap, but Ford was tagged to a piece of junk built in Minneapolis shearly for market recognition. After that collapse I believe the designer moved on to Happy Farmer where he worked with people who previously worked for Bull. Ironically Bull turned into the Toro we know today.

I have a canopy for shade on a few tractors I use but no real cabs.The new stuff is real nice until it needs repair then the bill for what would be a simple repair on an older machine
can run into more $$$ than I can buy a good older tractor for.A bale of hay is a bale of hay as far as I can see if its made with $100,000 worth of equipment or $10,000 worth of equipment
its all the same to the cow that eats it and the cow's calf is going to bring the same money when its sold.Heck if I could back 40 years with my tractors and equipment I'd be the envy of every
farmer in the area.And we all got a long farming just fine back then and in many ways better than today.But I'm glad all these folks want to spend the mega buck$ on modern tractors and equipment so I can buy good quality tractors and equipment for about next to nothing compared to what new would cost.

(quoted from post at 04:02:54 08/09/18) When folks go to shows , and see old tractors, everyone thinks different things. Some remember using these old tractors, some it was their dad or grandpa that might have had a similar tractor, and I think of these things too. But I also look at these little old tractors that offered little in the way of operator comfort. And I try to imagine the jobs the tractors did, and the equipment they pulled. And I can tell you, for the most part , I am glad that I didn?t have to farm with a steel lug Fordson, or a cross motor Case. It is easy to think how primitive the tractors are compared todays tractors, but what a step up these old tractors offered compared to doing all your field work following a team of horses. My Dad farmed with horses till 1948 , when he bought a new Case V tractor. The horses stayed till the end of the 50?s .
Imagine farming today with a hot bulb Lanse Bulldog ! Hook that up to your round baler!!

Click to expand...

At shows I think an H, another H, another H, another H.......OH! A B and and a B and a B and a B..........

I have a neighbor who raises draft horses. Sells 20-30 a year trained to drive. Mostly sells to the Amish. So when I think of those old tractors I think of what an improvement they were compared to a horse.

Rick

I helped a friend change out his exhibit at junkshow and because the battery was dead we just punched his BF Avery on the trailer by hand. He then commented on who would have bought this thing when it was new! I stated that you have to remember that not every farm was in the same situation. Say Ernest and Mildred had an 80 acre farm with chickens, some milk cows, a few pigs and 2 aging horses. Some pastured and some under plow. Now the kids have grown and old Daisy and Pete are long in the tooth. So Ernest goes to town where Elmer is making the pitch for the new modern BF Avery. It?s the tractor fitted for your farm. Bring your farming practice into the new decade without the expense of feed and vet bills and we?ll even throw in a free hand saw to cut the reach off your horse machinery.
The other thing is technology. The early tractors were crude and simple. (That?s why they still run) The teens and 20?s saw numerous manufacturers in the game. They all had different ideas. Look at the IHC friction drive. It got IH into the game in short order and they built a legacy. Conversely Hart-Parr was much more inclined to engineer, but had their trials as well shown by the vastly different designs they tried in the early years. Then there is the similarity crossing over in that many of these engineers of the short lived companies worked for different tractor companies and brought some like ideas with them or that a competitor picked up on good idea. Here is a leap, but Ford was tagged to a piece of junk built in Minneapolis shearly for market recognition. After that collapse I believe the designer moved on to Happy Farmer where he worked with people who previously worked for Bull. Ironically Bull turned into the Toro we know today.

I remember as a kid running a neighbours 1085 Massey for him baling square hay. The seat wasn't bolted to the floor anymore, the door was gone and the muffler was broke off not to mention no brakes. It only took us 3 hours to pick up his hay and I remember getting sick after getting home from breathing in the fumes all afternoon.