tis the season for junk farm trucks part 2

Was with a friend of mine at a farm show; he was looking at a big gooseneck trailer to hook onto his pickup to haul roundbales with. I made the observation that rather than spend 36k for the trailer (new ones are all he can find) to hook it up behind his 55k pickup (which, by the way, will be incredibly overloaded on the brakes, tires, and drivetrain) he could probably pick up an old cabover tractor and flatbed for less than 10k and be able to haul his bales more efficiently and safely.

I'm not saying everyone needs to go out and buy a semi, but I think there's a lot of utility to buying a cheap, retired over the road tractor, even for a small operator. Heck, just think of all the antique tractors you could haul with the thing.

Heres some old grain trucks that didnt go away.The top 4 trucks sold pretty darn good at an estate sale in Sept near Kimball,NE.I'll bet the people that bought them find some parts.

The bottom truck pulled a trailer hauling old Olivers to the recent Ottawa,KS show.

Gravity wagons have never been used in my area.Around here theres 3 ways to get grain to the grain elevator.

1 2 ton grain truck
2 10 wheel grain truck
3 Semi

Try and pencil out a high dollar 10 wheeler or a semi when you farm 320 acres or less.We have quite a few smaller farms in my area that all still use 2 ton trucks.Not all of us farm 10,000 acres and have 4 nearly new semis sitting in the yard.

I haul 12 miles one way and can turn a load every 45-50 minutes if theres no line.With a tractor and gravity wagons I'd be nearly 3 hours because I'm not going to pull one very fast.

What parts can you not get for an IH Loadstar?I have a 1968 IH 1800 Loadstar and a 1969 IH 1600 Loadstar.We havent ran in to a thing yet that we cant get new or rebuilt.We just put a new clutch in the 1800 plus it had an all new brake system several years ago.Granted they are a bear to bleed.A good friend has rebuilt the carbs on both of my Loadstars and they run good.

If I can get parts for an old IH Loadstar then you can still get them for a older Ford,Chevy,or Dodge.I was recently out in central Kansas and cant believe the amount of 2 ton trucks still in use.They arent going away for quite awhile.Not every truck I met was driven by an 80 year old man.

Brakes or no brakes I cant remember the last wreck caused by a 2 ton grain truck in this area.Thats probably why my insurance is only $80 per truck per year.

Maybe the dealership needs to get someone else to work on old trucks since they have you so baffled!! So now if its over 20 years old we throw it away.

There were many more old trucks at this sale.

Rod

A decent old road tractor with a decent hopper bottom is $20,000 plus.Try and justify them on 240 acres.You use what you can afford.

We dont rebuild the engines and brakes on our 2 ton trucks every year.The engines on my old IH Loadstars havent been touched in many years except for tuneups.

Rod