Something is Missing...

When we got home from class this past Saturday afternoon I decided it would be a good idea to go get a little wood to keep the house nice and toasty as we got what I hope is our last little dash of winter cold, wind, and snow. With that in mind I plugged in the tractor to get it warmed up and went to finish up some chores and get my wood cutting supplies. After about thirty minutes I came back to the tractor, put everything in the loader, and hopped on ready to go do some manly wood cutting. What happened next was not part of my plan...

I put the tractor into second gear and let out the clutch while turning the steering wheel to the right so as to avoid the van parked in the drive. There was one major problem ... the steering was not working and before I could get the tractor stopped the van stopped it for me! This pretty well sums up my last few days. After backing away from the crunched van I was able to muscle the steering wheel the other way and head out to the timber to get my wood. Needless to say, the steering never came back and I found a puddle of fluid underneath the front end of the tractor.

Since I purchased this tractor from the dealer it has a 50/50 90 day warranty and yesterday morning I decided to test it out. I called up the salesman I bought it from and he said he would have a guy out there after lunch. I was not able to be home then because of the back load of work in town (did I mention it has been a tough few days), but when I came home the tractor was gone. Thankfully the took it back to the shop to check it out and get everything working.

Now, I need to decide if I'm going to bite the bullet and pay them to fix a the tach and the temperature gauge. I suppose I will at least call and find out how much it would cost. Hopefully things will dry out this week and I will get the tractor back when I'm able to get some work done. Whatever happens, I'm just glad I ended up with this dealer and at least a partial warranty! It is nice to have them helping out because I know it would have taken me a long time to fix this ... if I even could.

"Oh for Two", or "How Not to Buy a Tractor"

That is my score right now when it comes to finding a tractor. Of course I have been looking for another Farmall 450 or at least a good complete engine, but so far I have yet to find any that I can look at right now or that fit my bill. In the meantime I decided to look at a few other tractors. Specifically I wanted to look at tractors that I could buy and use some of the stuff from the 450 if I wanted/needed to. I'm talking about swapping over my brand new tires, the three-point hitch, the wide front end, or even the loader.

My most recent tractor search took me to a very nice looking Farmall 560 that had a narrow front end and a loader. I drove the tractor and really liked everything about it (except there was a little hydraulic leak up front). The only problem is that with all of the projects we have coming up (plus the need of a new washing machine) and taking into account the problems I have already had I was a little gunshy and didn't buy right away.

I looked at the tractor on Saturday and by Sunday evening I decided that it was a good enough deal and something that would work great for our farm. So, I called up the guy ready to tell him I wanted to buy ... except someone had already decided to buy it earlier that day. Yep, I was a bit disappointed.

As soon as I got off the phone Sunday night I started scouring TractorHouse.com, TractorShed.com, and IronSearch.com (this was like the 400th time I had scoured those sites). In those searches I came across another 560 with a loader and a wide front. It seems like this tractor had been listed forever as I had come across it quite a few times, but I thought I would go ahead and try and find out more about it.

Since I didn't figure the dealer was open at the time I sent an e-mail. After not hearing back all day I decided to call in the late afternoon. Yep, you guessed it ... sold that day (pending pick-up)! I couldn't believe it...

Now we are back to square one ... last evening I searched those same sites again looking for tractors within a 250 mile radius. I didn't really come across anything in our price range, so I guess I'm going to keep looking.

On the plus side, I did find some large round bales of grass/alfalfa and I'm off with a friend from church to pick them up today. Sorry for the rambling post, but just thought I would give a little farm update.

Oh, for a Tractor...

...My kingdom for a Tractor! Well, maybe not my "kingdom" for a tractor (if I gave up the "kingdom" I would have no need for a tractor). But, there sure are plenty of times that I wish my tractor hadn't given up on me (probably from user error) and that I had it to help with chores. In fact I was just thinking about the humor in the fact that way back when I wrote, "What is a Farm Without a Tractor". At the time of writing that we barely had a house plan let alone livestock or fencing work on the farm ... now, we've got cows (the pigs are all gone) and plenty of work to do!

While the tractor is out of commission the handiest tool on the farm has become the combination of my power and our garden cart. I've used it to haul hay to the heifer calves that now have a place of their own, to clean out the indoor pen where I put animals when they need it, haul wood to the door, take trash out to the road, and so much more. Those are all things that I had used the loader for at various times ... now it just takes a little more time.

Probably the biggest place that I miss the tractor is when it comes time to move in a new big round bale. I have to wait until the ground is frozen so that I don't get the truck or the bale stuck (it has happened). As spring comes on in greater force this is going to be a bigger problem, but we will just go to plan "b" which means feeding round bales by hand over the fence into the round bale rings.

I have been working on a tractor solution though. So far my cousin has been able to figure out that he can't find the exact cause of the engine problem. It is stuck that is certain, but nothing seems out of place or torn up. I guess this could be a good thing, but I'm still looking at plenty of other options.

I have located a few Farmall 450's that range in price from "doable" to "you've got to be kidding me". One nice thing is my search for another 450 is I think I have found that if I got a completely different tractor I could part mine out for at least a salvageable amount of money. Another thing I'm doing is scouring the classifieds and the online places looking for used tractors. So far I have found a couple candidates in the form of an Oliver 1855 and 1750 along with some smaller John Deere's. But, we will see what happens.

The biggest problem though is it just isn't a good time to have to go tractor shopping. There are so many things on the farm that need done and they all cost money! I might just end up seeing how long I can go without a tractor, but then I would have to figure something out for hay...

What Good is a Farm Without a Tractor?

That is a question that I asked on the Epi-Log a while ago. At the time I was just getting a tractor for our farm and I really didn't ever have to find out what life on the farm would be like without a tractor. But, now I am going to find out ... through personal experience! Yep, our tractor is officially broke and as of yesterday it is officially off of the farm. We are now going to assess the tractor and then figure out what step is next.

The worst of it all is that I was just really beginning to get the full winter potential out of the tractor because of the bale spear we bought. That spear really helped with the winter chores and would have been even more helpful as we transition from winter to spring. It is just so much easier to lift a bale off the ground and haul it rather than dragging it through the mud with our Expedition.

Anyways, this is what I know is wrong ... the engine is stuck ... really good. We have taken the pan off and checked underneath and now that the tractor is off the farm (it is at my cousin's where we can work on it inside) we are going to be able to really tear into and hopefully find a problem. If all goes well it won't be the worst case scenario and it will be something that can be fixed for less than $1,500. But, it could be really bad!

So, this is what I have come up with for possible solutions:

• The engine is stuck, but things are torn up so much that we can do a partial rebuild and not spend our lives away.
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn't worth fixing so we find another Farmall 450 engine and put it in the tractor. There are a couple other engine options we could look for also (400, M, etc.)
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn't worth fixing so we find another Farmall 450 tractor. Preferablly we find a narrow front tractor with a drawbar. That way it may cost a bit less and then we can swap over the wide front, three-point, and the loader. Eventually selling off our current tractor bit by bit.
• The engine is stuck really bad and isn't worth fixing so we borrow my dad's Minneapolis Moline M5 and pray that the loader and thee-point can be cobbled to fit it. I would have to swap the hydraulics ever time I wanted to use the three-point or loader, but it could work. There is a little bit of mechanical work still to do on the M5 though.
• And finally, the engine is stuck really bad and isn't worth fixing so we cut bait and run ... errr ... we just by a completely different tractor. In buying a new tractor we piece out the current Farmall 450 and sell everything by the part. The wide front, three-point, and loader are all worth more by themselves than the complete tractor would be.

So, there you have it. Tractor problems abound on our farm. I will keep you updated on life without a tractor, but for now I have to jump in the SUV and go take a bale to the cows...