"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...

A Love/Hate Relationship...

That is the kind of relationship that I have with my Farmall 450 tractor. When everything is working great I absolutely love the thing. I love the sounds it makes, I love the power that it has (enough for us now), and I love the time that it helps me save. As you can see from the picture above the new bale spear on the back helps get the bales up to the Dexters quite well. Before I had this bad boy I was dragging them up with a chain. It got the job done, but most of the time it would take a couple tries (and a couple times of flipping the bale over) to get it where I wanted it. The downsides were that I couldn't set them end to end like I have now (for a windbreak) and that the twine would get torn up and I would spend a while picking up the hay that was left behind.

But, there I times when I hate that old Farmall. So far I think I have replaced about half the hydraulic hoses and the same amount of hydraulic connectors and fittings. The lights don't work, from time to time the float sticks on the carb, I think my starter is beginning to be suspect, there is a like in one of the loader cylinders, the battery box (which the seat is attached to) is rusting out, a couple of the gauges don't work, and the power steering still isn't up to snuff yet.

Although, I can live without the lights, a tap on the carb and the starter usually fixes that problem, so far the leak isn't too bad on the cylinder, the battery box hasn't fallen apart ... yet, the oil pressure gauge and the battery gauge does work, and I can muscle the steering around. Those are just things that I have on my spring/summer repair list (remember that I said one of my goals was to become more mechanical).

Really though, it is just part of the life when you are working with 50 plus year old equipment. A newish tractor would be nice, but there is only so much you can afford at one time and I'm thankful (most of the time) for the tractor I have. In fact I think I'll go to bed tonight and dream of spring garden work with the tractor... At least that will be a warm dream!

A Quick Tire Update...

Well, things are flying out at the house now as we are down to just a few more days (to be honest we aren't close to ready, but everything will happen anyways), so I just have time for a few words. I thought I would give you all an update on the tractor tires since you had so many good suggestions.

After writing the post about my tire problems I realized that I had a hole in the tube and while one of the tires could serve us alright the other was a cracking tearing mess. So, since I new the tube needed to be replaced I decided I might as well just do the tires at the same time and be done with it for a long time.

That is what I decided to do today and the local tire guy came out to the farm to switch them up for me. Just one problem arose ... at some point these tires had fluid in them (as many often did) and as usually happens the fluid causes rust around the valve stem when it leaks out. Well that rust led to a major hole in one of the rims so the tire guy ended up just taking both of the outer rims to the shop for repair. Hopefully I'll have tires tomorrow ... but the tractor story doesn't end there...

**No picture yet today ... I took one of the tractor without it's shoes, but I haven't had the time to load it yet. I'll get it up as soon as possible.

"I Need New Boots" to "I Need New Tractor Tires"

I was out working on the tractor tonight (I had a chance to do that because we shot the texture today so I had a break while it is drying) and I noticed what pitiful shape my rear tires are in (front ones also I guess...). They are cracked, balding, and at the moment a little low on air. All of those things add up to very little traction and don't give me much hope for pushing a little snow this winter. So, I think I have decided that I need to break down and buy new tires.

And as I approach the two year anniversary of this blog this is a subtle reminder of just how far we have come ... My second post way back on September 28th, 2006 was about boots and my need for a new pair. Now almost two years later I'm still wearing the same boots I bought after that blog post, but I'm also looking at buying some stinking expensive tractor tires. Oh, and I thought that I should add that I didn't receive any comments on that second post ... of course I'm not exactly sure anyone ever read it either :)

That is just a taste of the progress we have had in two years. In the next few days as The Beginning Farmer reaches it's two year anniversary I'm going to try and take a look back at how far we have come, but above all I want to thank all of you readers how have encouraged, enlightened, and taught me for quite a while now!

Now, I'm off to look for tires...

Driving Into Town...

I would like to say that I have my tractor out sitting in the shed or at least that it is on the farm, but all that I can say is that my tractor is in the drive way. And, I'm glad it is there! As you can tell from the picture above (it looks like I'm going fast) I was pretty happy to have it home.

On Saturday afternoon my dad stopped by after spending a day working on a tractor at my uncles to unload some fence posts for us (nothing like getting hand me down posts!). Since he had to go South and could easily swing past my other Uncle's farm where my tractor is I decided to hitch a ride and then bring home our new (to us) Farmall 450. The tractor was about 23 or 24 miles away from our home and it was getting late so we took off right away (only stopping to get some gas for the tractor).

Once we made it down there we cobbled up a holder for my slow moving vehicle sign and I took off. I was going to take some back roads home, but after the WET weather we have had lately the gravel roads are a bumpy mess. So, I ended up driving on the highway and enjoying a nice leisurely ride on a cool evening. I suppose in some parts of the country this would have been a weird sight, but in Iowa it is just par for the course. In fact our state hosts two major tractor rides (WHO and WMT) that are all about riding old tractors just for the fun of it.

Now that I have our tractor here in town I'm going to use it to clean up a couple of trees that need some limbs pulled out still from this past winters ice storms and then I will take it out to the farm to get to work mowing and pulling out the old fence. I will keep you updated on my tractor skills :)

The New Tractor

In my last post I wrote just a little bit about the tractor that we just purchased. As I mentioned it is a Farmall 450 with a wide front end. According to Tractor Data they were produced between 1956 and 1958 and there were over 25,000 made between gas, lp, and diesel (with gas/lp leading the way by far). The 450 is around a 40 to 50 hp tractor (it varies between the drawbar and pto of course) and should be perfect for our farm. One interesting thing about the information listed on the Tractor Data website is that they give the original list price. For the Farmall 450 the original price was $4,100. Now, a fully restore (similar to new) could cost at least that much and maybe more! I guess that is one good thing about older tractors, if you keep them running well and taken care of they shouldn't drop in value.

Anyways, on Friday afternoon my dad drove up to meet me at our house and then we took off about 60 miles north to the home of the Farmall 450 we were interested in ... and about 50 other tractors this guy has! Needless to say, this guy loves old tractors and the color doesn't seem to matter. There were old tractors, there were loaders, there were implements, and then there were more old tractors! Some were fully restored, some were a work in progress, and some were just waiting for their turn in the shop. Anybody with an interest in old iron would have loved a walk around this place ... of course it would have helped if it wasn't cold and rainy.

Because of the wet and chilly weather he had pulled the 450 into his shop so we could take a good look at it. The tractor was painted a couple of years ago so it had a decent coat of paint and the tin is in pretty good shape. After first glance it looks like ... a red tractor! This particular Farmall 450 has a Paulson loader with one way hydraulics (hydraulics takes it up, gravity takes it down) on the loader and two way on the bucket. This isn't the best case, but it works fine for our farm. Another add on is the three point hitch. The original 450's either had a straight drawbar or 2 point IH fast hitch. But, there are plenty of different three point after market kits out there and this tractor has one. Having the loader and a three point hitch will be a great help around the farm.

After talking about the tractor and giving it a once over in the shed we took it out for the test drive and tried to put it through some paces as best we could on a rainy, muddy, and cold day. Things seemed to work well except for one little part ... the BRAKES! They weren't completely gone, but they were gone enough to cause concern in hilly Southern Iowa. The brakes weren't a deal breaker though because it is a relatively easy fix and we have a pretty good idea of what the problem is. In fact the tractor is already on the way to getting fixed.

Speaking of getting the tractor fixed... Things actually worked out pretty well, because my cousin just happened to be taking three tractors up to my Uncle and was in the area to pick up our new tractor and take it to his place for the repairs. Now the tractor is in the area (within 25 miles of the farm) and waiting to get a brake job done. Once the brakes are fixed we will have plenty of work for it to do ... mowing, pulling fence, putting in fence, spreading gravel, and on and on and on!

Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will be able to share so tractor work pictures, but for now I'll just enjoy the picture of the tractor on the trailer ... close to the farm.