First Tractor and How you got into the tractor hobby

I thought I would start a new thread and I would like to hear from our young folks 25 or under.

1st how did you get your first tractor and second what caused you to be interested in old tractors and 3rd what gives you the most enjoyment from your tractor?

Thanks, I cant wait to read.

thanks

It has been a long time since I was under 25 but thought I'd reply anyway. I guess my first tractors were the ones Dad and I had on the farm: a Ford Dexta and a Fiat 450. After we sold the farm, I did a bit of work on local farms. One had a grey Ferguson another a Farmall. I don't know what it is about tractors as I always enjoyed working with them. For many years I was a professional operator before becoming an instructor at an agricultural college. Don't do too much operating these days just enough to keep my hand in. I'll operate anything regardless of color or age, but it's more of an experience with the older tractors, the feel, sounds and smells. They are also an important link to our farming history. The thing that gives me the most enjoyment from tractors is the great feeling you get after a long day in the field, looking back at a job well done.

First tractor was a 4020 I bought and sold when I was 18. I had wanted one since 14 but didnt have the money or know what I want. I really wanted a 2510 or 20 but never did find one yet. 2510 diesel powershift would be my pick.

I'd always had an interest in machinery and on a visit to the UK I ran across an old gent in the village that my grandmother lives in who was out and about in his steam traction engine. After talking with him for a while he invited me back to his place to see his collection of 30 odd vintage tractors. When I came home (Canada) I started researching old tractors and looking for one of my own.

Fast forward a year and a half and I was taking a boat building course on every second weekend. One weekend we took a 'field trip' and went to see the ecoforestry operation where we got our wood from. Upon arrival we went for a walk and in the back of the last building we passed I saw part of an old tractor peeking out and made a mental note of it. That night at summer I asked the owner of the place about it and he said it was for sale at $500. Needless to say I very soon became the owner of a 1953 Farmall Super A with two way ploughs and a 6' sickle bar mower and some of the cultivators.

I had to wait for the snow to melt before I could go and collect it (and didn't the winter just drag on and on . We couldn't get it to start so the seller hitched up his team and we extracted it with a team of Belgian horses and when we got it down to the road we used them to tow start it!

And the rest, as they say, is history!

Sam

I know where there is a 2510 Poweshift for sale. I am pretty sure it is a diesel. Let me know if you are interested. Paul

I'm not 25, but am under 30, so that should be close enough...

Apple orchards surrounded my parents house, so I naturally wanted an orchard style tractor for as long as I can remember. When I was riding the school bus, I was always on the lookout for any 1950's era orchard tractor. They were the most interesting to look at.

I've been tinkering with mechanical things for pretty much my entire life. When I was 17, I started collecting antique chainsaws, because they were affordable. When I was 23, my girlfriend's parents gave us a couple of antique Scorpion snowmobiles. While I was on my way to a snowmobile junkyard, in search of parts for the Scorpions, I recognized a Case DO at our local tractor dealership. It was easy to spot because of the fugly homemade snowplow frame that the previous owner had used. The tractor had lived about a mile from my parents house and I had seen it from the school bus. After some discussion with the new owner, I bought it and was hooked.

Several months later I bought a Case DC parts tractor. The next year I bought another Case DC to restore. The next year my dad let me have my grandfathers John Deere B. The next year I bought a Ford 3000 (I needed a 'modern' tractor). Last year I bought an Allis Chalmers B. I don't have any plans for another tractor this year, but it is only February...

Each tractor has a story to tell. I enjoy learning about the life it lived before I acquired it as much as actually using them.

speaking of which, you should be getting a package in the next few days

Well, I'm over 25 by a few years, but not many, so I'll give 'er a go! I have always loved old tractors as far back as I can remember. Played with tractors when I was old enough to crawl. When I was born, dad and grandpa only had two tractors on the dairy farm. A D-14 Allis Chalmers and an 860 Ford, both are still in our machine shed today. The Ford mowed hay with a 501 mower and baled with a Ferguson #10 baler. The D-14 did everything else on the farm. Dairy cows left in 1980, and by 1983 it was time to move into the era of round bales for the beef herd. Grandpa bought a Hesston 5600 baler, 4x16 Case plow, and a 12ft. Case disk. Dad bought a late model 830 Comfort King dual range transmission with a cab and new Allied loader. I remember the day the trucks delivered all four items at once. I didn't know machinery that big exsisted! Still have everything but the baler. In 1988 I got my first tractor, an Allis B. That sealed the deal. I have loved old tractors ever since. I used that tractor primarily raking hay, but for anything else I could think of too. In 1990, grandpa bought his last tractor. A 1970 Allis Chalmers 170 gas with a loader and cab. He loved using that tractor in the winter to feed cattle and plow snow and in the summer he used it on the 9ft Hesston PT10 haybine cutting hay. That tractor and haybine were the last things he saw of his farm. He died from heart attack complications he got while pulling a plugged up wad of hay from the haybine, in 1993. The 170 is still here, the haybine sold off about 10 years ago. The farm kinda of floated along while I was in high school and college, always had a few beef cows, but things weren't kept as they should have been. I finished college in 2001, moved back to the home place and started improvements, with my dad and brother helping. Built the beef herd up to 50 pretty nice cows, rebuilt miles of fences and built all new corrals, also built a new cattle barn and machine shed. We now do our farming primarily with a 1970 JohnDeere 4020 Diesel, a 1980 Farmall 686, and a 1985 Allis Chalmers 6070. For old tractors we have:
Farmall- 200 wf fh, 230 wf fh, W4
Allis Chalmers- 170, D-14, C, RC, HD6 crawler with blade.
Ford- 860, 3500 Industrial with loader and backhoe.
Case- 830
John Deere- AR styled
Massey Harris- Pony
I have also bought and resold about 50 tractors in the past 10 years.
That's my story on old iron!

Always thought I would like a small tractor having grown up on a farm,now I live in a summer village so in 1997 a neighbor 2 miles away told me about a small JD he had picked up locally,I didn"t even know what it was but it ran like a top so I bought it for,drove it home in November of that year.Turned out its a BR. It was a local tractor that a retired gent from town hobby farmed with. He passed away within a year and by then I had started to redo some of the tin and gave it a professional paint job.Thought I would do a nice thing, I showed to the widow of the previuos owner,she was not impressed.Maybe she did not ap[reciate his hobby farming. True story. Still have the tractor though. Dan (over 25)

I'm a young and dumb 19 year old, but I try to hide the ignorance. To answer your first question, I can't really say that I've got my own tractor, but I generally consider one mine.

It's an early 1950 Ford 8N, without all the fancy new features that came out later that year. My dad bought it around 1995 to work on his newly purchased 15 acre pecan grove just north of Oklahoma City. That wasn't my first exposure, however. Now don't get angry, this was a long time ago but I've got a picture of me riding on my grandpa's lap when I was 3 years old while he was out mowing his lake property at Lake Texoma. That's a 1960 Ford 631, an old highway tractor. My uncle has also got an old Massey 135 that I got to ride occasionally.

Then my grandparents started getting older, and they decided to sell the lake house, but ended up keeping the Ford. My uncle (the same with the Massey) runs a construction company, and hauled it up to the pecan grove, where my grandpa still gets to use it when he's feeling well enough (he's 78 now). My dad died in 1999 due to heart problems, and I got to learn how to use the 8N with grandpa. Since I'm one of only a handful of people who know how to run it (or start it), I generally consider it my own while it legally belongs to my mom.

I really wasn't interested in old tractors until I came across this website looking for help, I guess that was around 2004. I generally had an interest in tractors, as my dad and I would go to the big farm shows at the state fair grounds. My favorite was always the big articulated four wheel drives, because I could sit down inside the tire rim.

What gives me the most enjoyment is having the tractor start up, even though it's almost 60 years old and has been sitting in the barn for months. That, and I just can't stand burning half a day to drive out there and not have the machinery cooperate. I always find something else that needs to be done, but it just feels so good to "see if it'll start" as my grandpa puts it.

Hope I wasn't too long winded.

Kevin

I am still slightly under 25 and have always loved tractors. I loved visiting both of my uncles dairy farms back when I was younger and they both still had their farms. I fell in love with tractors.

My dad had a Ford 8N and I loved going for rides with him on it. Then I was driving it by myself. I always enjoyed going to tractor dealerships and then one day as a little boy I spotted an IH 434 that had been traded in, so the old Ford was traded for that. We kept the 434 for a few years, then traded that one for an IH 484 with a loader. My dad bought me a 1951 Farmall Super A from an auction, and that pretty well started the old tractor madness. My grandfather enjoyed working on these tractors with me. I bought a 1946 Farmall H that was just a piece of junk and my grandfather worked daily on it with me all summer and got it ready for the local tractor show in August.

Grandpa was a retired dairy farmer, and had a Farmall H, so his passion was in part fueled by the memories of his old H from back then. I think the tinkering on those old tractors made my grandfather last a few more years. Now unfortunatly he has passed away, but the old tractors remain.

To replace the Ford 8N that was traded years ago, we bought a Ford 641. Its a toss up between the Ford 641 and the Farmall H that are my dad's favorites. Currently, I am not interested in owning any [u:654c4848f0]more[/u:654c4848f0] tractors and I would like a bigger tractor, however, dad and I, can't agree on which one to sell!

Now that I am in college, I don't know what the future will bring. It might lead to the selling off of all our little hobby farm and I'll end up living in the city, I just don't know. I do know this area has potential to start a company, and badly needs some kind of business to open its doors to employ people in this area. I just don't know if I have what it takes to major in business, get some experience, get an idea, and then do it. There is a strong part of me who wants to do this badly, rather than just become an employee for someone else.

I have two career interests, business and computers. I have been told I have the mindset that would be perfect for an engineer too.

I am not 25 but when I was under 20 I lived on a farm, I drove tractors when I was about 6 or 7 years old, shuttling equipment from field to home, first a Farmal C, later my dad bought a TE-20 Ferguson, I loved that tractor, It was mine for all practical purposes. I was about the only one to drive it, I did everything with it, Mow, rake, pull a field disk, pull a go-devil (see if anyone can remember what that was) , plow on occasion. I spent many hours in the summer on that tractor. When I grew up decades later I bought a 2 acre home lot, I needed something to help with landscaping and brush maintence, I bought a used Kubota with loader/brush mower, about the closest thing to the Furguson as I could get, but about 2/3rd's the size. My wife now won't let me sell it, as she knows I would miss it if I did. Not exactly an antique, but I follow the old antique forums closely. If I had room/money yes I would buy restore old tractors.

I'm no longer under 25 but I started when I was. For me, well I always loved tractors. Played with toys when I was a kid and was around them on my grandfather's farm. When he passed away my dad started to sell equipment. I told him to hang onto the Farmall A, which he did for me. I later regretted the 200 & and the BN being sold as well and ended up buying the BN back, I might try the same stunt with the 200 as well at some point.

Now I own the farm so it's nice to have those oldies around. I've added a Super M to the stable so I've got a pretty decent collection now.

The trick now is to make them earn their keep. A local farmer hay my field but doesn't take second crop. That seems like a good honest (OK, Play) crop for me. I just need to find that baler at the right price now...

K

I still have my B with Yakima hitch that my dad bought me when I was about 10. I think it is funny when people sell their first tractor (like a common unstyled B) because it was not worth much and thought they only wanted to collect RARE tractors but now they want that common unstyled B back a FEW years after they sold it.
It is a different story if it has been 20-30 years since they sold and now want it back. I hope those people find their old tractor; that is kind of like getting your dad's or grandpa's tractor. Good reunion after many years...

I am way over 25 but here goes anyway.

The first tractor I drove was an F-12 Farmall when I was 9.

The first tractor I owned was a Farmall 706 ger. diesel.

steve

Where are you located?

I'm way over 25.

My first tractor was a Super M-TA.

Call Mark Heitman Tractor Salvage. 715-673-4829, Wisconsin. It's not my tractor. Mark knew I collected 2510's and 2520's and found this one. The only problem is I had already spent my money on a 1971 2520.
Paul

I am 21 and the first tractor I bought was a 1937 Allis WC a month after graduating from high shcool. I now collect McCormick Deering 10-20"s, hopefully I will bring my eighth one home next week.

I got interested in tractors when I was very young. Ever since I was three my father took me to the annual antique tractor show in Chilton WI and I can remember going the the show in Newton WI also. My grandfather quit farming in 1988 and kept an Allis WC, wd-45 and a ford 9n. One thing led to another in the last few years and now I have over a dozen tractors.
Matt

Well, I'm almost 40, but was 27 when I bought my first tractor, a CA Allis-Chalmers. I bought it because the price was right and in '97 that was the first year for The Great Iowa Tractor Ride. I couldn't get the time off to go the first year, my truck got totaled a week before the second year. Almost didn't make the third. I had restored the tractor and was still putting it back together when I got called to work what would have been my regular day off. Talk about a marathon assembly session. It was Noon the day we needed to be in Webster City Ia that I got it put together and loaded.
I now have my Grandpa's Oliver 60 restored, and recently I found a D17 Allis-Chalmers diesel.

I'm still 25, and my first tractor was a Kubota M7040 bought last year. Actually my first bought tractor was a Kubota MX5100, but I traded several months later for the 7040. Not enough power.

In the summer of 06' my wife and I moved from the city on to 135 acres. It was a chance opportunity to get that kind of land 15 minutes from the city, and the only reason we stumbled upon it was because our apartment lease was coming due. And in 07', I touched my first tractor, then drove it. I haven't regretted anything since. We both grew up partially in the country, but neither had any experience or knowledge about farming. I never paid attention to all the hard working going on around me.

Now I take great pride in being a farmer. She does the horse breeding, I take care of the crops and maintenance (all the hard work?). I hope to pass everything I learn on to my kids one day.

And now I'm in the market for a second tractor to start ploughing, discing and seeding the land. Something over 100hp that has all the features my Kubota doesn't... 4wd, cab, power, weight, duals, etc. Best of all, I've already got the wife's approval on this one.

I'm over 25 but here's my story anyway, first tractor I bought was in spring of '94 at the tail end of freshmen year in highschool, I grew up working on the neighbor's farm from 4th grade through seinor year, dad and grandpa had a farm years ago so tractors were in the blood already. When everyone in school was buying a car, I paid for and brought home a 720 john deere deisel. I still have the 720 and since then I bought a few more tractors, the latest I bought was the '55 massey harris my grandpa bought brand new in 1949, it's good to get it back in the family.

well iam a day or two over 25 but a 520 john deere was my first tractor my grand dad loaned me the money we worked on it together i was hooked have owned countless tractors since i wish i had him and that tractor back

I think I was just made to start out life on an antique tractor....the day I was born was the day my dad was going to an auction to work and to buy a MM Z to do his pig chores with (needless to say I screwed up that plan). I can remember and pictures do exist of this, when I has 5 or 6 helping dad grind corn with a WD-9 and a Gehl 95 grinder for our pigs. I can also remember riding around on an MM M670 spreading liquid manure. Now that I'm 19 I do alot of the farming as my dad is gone alot for work and one brother isn't old enough to do it by himself and the other works for other guys during the summer. The really cool thing is the two tractors I mentioned above are the two that I use to farm a quarter of dryland wheat with!

The first tractor I can remember being bought specifically for me is a '45 MM UTS and its in the going back together stage now. The first tractor I can remember buying on my own when I was about 13 I bought a MM RTU for 100 bucks! Now my collection has grown to: 2 MM UTS, 2 MM ZTU, 2 MM RTU, 2 MM GVI, MM G 707, TC 21-32, 2 MM GTB, MM GB, unstyled AC WC, McCormick Deering 10-20, Farmall F-20 and Regular, 2 Case LA's, an Emerson 12-20 frame, and loads of equipment and of course those good ol'e combines!