My neighbor just brought me the remains of one of those planters yesterday! He picked it up for free and figured I might be able to use parts off it. I think Im Going to salvage what I can and turn the frame into some sort of wood hauling tool.
I'm actually thinking about hooking up the little cultivator tonight after work and doing a few passes over my newly opened up patch for next year. Gonna get rain tomorrow and it's finally try enough for tillage tonight. Good thing my lights work. Couldn't get any cool pictures though at night really. Maybe I'll try though.
Gotta love that Super A! Many years back when all the truck farmers moved out of the Renton valley my then landlord bought a used Super A in great shape, a small disc plow , spring harrow and a drop blade all for around $1400 bucks from Puyallup Tractor. He had 6 acres in Parkland and I cleared it all. You could back up to a bunch of Salal or Huckleberry, drop the harrow and walk away with the whole shootin match, roots and all! What I wouldn't give for some acreage and a couple of tractors!
Nothing like some 93 degree day hand to hand combat with an old 13.6 x38! This ones off a 65 international 504 hi clear.
A couple of my recent snags. Old 6' woods brush hog and a set of pull style discs, made by Dunham. $100 for the brush hog and the disc were free. I have them sitting on my two old wagons I have. Everything needs work, but I'll get to it eventually. Fixed up a set of Ford discs today with my buddy. Now I gotta find a tractor, sold both of mine! Ha, I think I'm gonna go with a white, moline or an oliver. 50 to 60hp, 3 point, gas or diesel. Any opinions?
I use a different method now, but when breaking down tractor tires I found a jack worked the best. It is kind of hard to describe, but by using a some framing lumber, a jack and a chain, you can put tremendous pressure on the tire to break it free from the rim. What happens is, as you jack against a chain attached to the rim, it forces framing lumber down on the tire and gives it pressure in four points.
That worked well. My method now is a bit easier, but I recognize not everyone has one, and that is a log loader. I just stand the tire up, then pinch the tire as close to the rim as I can. I then rotate the wheel around and keep pinching the tire and eventually the bead breaks down on the tire. You can do one side by laying it flat, opening up the grapple to the rim diameter and using it to break down the bead that wat too.
My neighbor had the exact tractor you have, it was all original and ran like a top after he worked on it for a while. He had it for about 3 yrs before he passed away. I'm not sure, but i think his son sold it for 500 bucks. I should have bought it just because Vern owned it and we were fast, close friends, we were almost 25 yrs apart in age, but, we sure had a good time. I still miss the old guy, he and his dad horse logged a long time ago, and actually when he was young, they had Indians that came through and camped on his dads place. Vern was a neat old guy.
I do as well, though I really want a flail mower. I had a guy mow my fields with his discbine and I told him, "you want to lift the discbine up a little bit", but this is the same guy who backed his trailer into my brand-new barn after I yelled 3 times for him to stop. He drove through my newly sown hay field after a rainstorm and instead of stopping, swung around in a big arc making the ruts even worse. And has yet to get a crop of hay where it did not get mowed on. In other words, he does whatever he wants. So he dropped his mower to the cutter bar and then complained when he hit rocks and stove his knives up saying to "keep the cutter bar up makes it harder on the hydraulic cylinders". Really? How did your $160 in new knives make out? I think this will be his third and last year of haying on my farm.
A few times a year I have people showing up wanting me to sell my "junk" to them. They looked surprised when they find out I actually full time farm with that junk, but with sheep farming, and the profit margins as slim as they are, how could I ever make it buying new equipment? Using old equipment and making homemade equipment is how I survive. Use your head and hands and not your checkbook I say!
My luck with flat tires is so bad, that I blew a tire on a bulldozer even. It is true... While out bushogging with my Kubota one year, I hit an old bulldozer track half buried in the dirt slashing my tire!
No joke, I was so tired of flat tires that I went out and bought a John Deere 350D with brand new tracks no less, yet the VERY FIRST problem I had...was with the front idler (which is essentially the front wheel on a tracked machine). They were $2000 to replace (apiece) so they were never replaced, just rebuilt. That just goes to show you my luck with tires. I cannot even get it right on a bulldozer!
Bump to bring this one back! Let’s see some! It’s spring time so I know there’s got to be a few out and about!
I got a new tractor, a big M! I grew up farming with M's and H's. The first tractor I bought when I got my own farm was an H and I've always wanted my own M. It's just a plain old bareback M, but I'll put it on the rake and probably even the small square baler. Will be nice to keep the 1206 hooked up to the hay conditioner and the 504 on the roundbaler. Big time operator now.