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From an Old Farmhand

6

60 acre hillside

Member
A few days ago I posted about how to safely operate an old tractor without live PTO. Some responded that the tractors were not right for the job many decades ago. A farm hand , whichI was for the first 30 years, had to operate whatever he was hired to operate. He had to find the best means of operation and had no control what the boss had to work with. Tricycle front was the norm and most moldboard plows had a mechanical lift with a rope you had to pull to lift the plow. Seldom did I get to operate a diesel. I thouroughly disliked the LPG but I drove whatever they had.even drove an M on distillate. Most who post just know about the few tractors they personally owned. The two row mounted picker on an Oliver 88 was my favorite rig. It did not have power steering but with single rib fronts it drove easily.It has been fun to talk to you. I appreciate you all!
 
Amen brother! We non-green fellows muse from time to time about the safety and inconvenience of the hand clutch but people adapted. I've seen older guys handle a green tractor with the precision of a surgeon's hand. We didn't have a tractor with live PTO until the 80's! We developed the skill to operate PTO driven equipment without the benefit of live PTO or overrunning clutches. You work with what you have and most times have no idea that there is anything else. It bothers me to hear a fellow who owns one trailer tractor be critical of other tractors of different colors; they all have strong and weak points.
 
I could not say what tractor was the best because the varius farmers I worked for had far different levels of maintenance and some could perform better than others. I guess my favorite just from my own experience would have been the row crops like the Oliver and Farmalls and the least liked would have been the utilities such as the 600 -800 series fords and the 300 - 350 IHC. I thought the U molines were clumsy but would turn out a lot of work. My days were quite long 10+ hours and could not be a reasonable comparison the the typical work with an utility. The transmission cases of the utilities created a lot of heat and the low profile put the operator in the dust and bees.
 
Yep I agree a lot of people who post here are color blind and only have green or red or gray etc. Me I have and have had all the common colors and still do and as long as I own tractors will have. Right now I do in fact have Fords, MH, JD, Allis, Case, Farmall, Oliver, Cletrac, and MM. And I bet I left something out LOL. To me each has it's good and bad points and each can be a big pain in the back sides once in a while.
 

I think it was what you grew up with. We had several tractors setting under F10 Farmhands. None had power steering and only one had LPTO. I worked for a fellow one summer who had 2 Standards and 2 row crops. He had 1 deisel,1 gaso and 2 on LPG. I liked them all.

steveormary
 
been there, dun it.. but I wont put my kids on a tractor with out a orc. Especially as dumb as my kids are.
 
We (my brothers and i) with my dad farmed four family owned farms plus farmed ground we rented. This was during the 50s 60s 70s for me. We had JD B's, A's, 70, 4020's, Farmall C, M, MF 65, 165, Ford, Case ???, 800, 1070, 1370. As for equipment i don't think there was a brand that wasnt used over the years. Dad always pushed safety. I do agree that tractors and equipment of today is better as far as comfort and safety features but "all" is only as safe as the operator.
 
Got to say the same . "Its what you grew up with"
Dealerships back then were further apart. some other brands may have bee 10 mile further down the road and Dad for obvious reasons dealt with the closest ones.

Dad may have retired that old F 12 and bought an "H" that would be the best tractor in the world. so it was locked in our mind that International Harvester Farmall was the best.

I'll have to say the best tractor then, or now is the one that does the job satisfactorily, with best parts and service availability.

Sure beats a pair of Mules that have a mind too.
 
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