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Re: My goodness!!! Why do these little dudes sell for so much?
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Posted by BlueLight on March 28, 2001 at 16:34:23 from (206.172.218.18):
In Reply to: My goodness!!! Why do these little dudes sell for so much? posted by Poppin' Johnny on March 28, 2001 at 15:30:59:
Because the think tanks of the small tractor
industry got it all wrong. They were supposed to
make big bucks by trying to fill the needs of
the homesteader. Well it didn't turn out that way.
The days of the tough dependable JD 2 lungers and Ford N's and massey harris's 20-44 have long gone. But it turns out that people still needed
them. Evidence the export of these fine machines to third world countries who's farming needs are
similar to agriculture north america of the 40 and 50's, and the less-than-a-hundred acre landowner
of today.
The Kubota's and Branson's(Bradson?) of today were supposed to fill that nitch. Someone forgot to tell them that most of the people buying them were trying to cut corners. At 30 or 40 grand apiece, it's no wonder the oldies are still popular.
The homesteader doesn't have many options. He
can go to the common garden variety sears tractors
for 5 to 7 grand. But the poor machine would drive
a guy nuts going full tilt at high revs plowing
3 acres, and take a couple of weeks to boot. These
machines are made for gardens only. Then we have
the fill-ins, the Kubotas and Branson's that can
do the job. These rate 25 to 50HP at slightly lower RPM's of the garden tractors. Made of aluminum alloys and steels with very little heavy cast iron down low where it counts. Since these
haven't been around for awhile, we'll have to see
if they can do 50 years of service like the old
reliables. Which brings me to the next point. The
oldies were designed for the farmer to repair easily, whereas the fill-ins were designed for
the regular sit-and-wait service bay.($$$$) From 50HP on up we have the real work horses for the serious farmer, way out of the price range for most of us.
Its strange that no one as thought of taking
the old cast forms of the oldies and simply re-building them. Mfg would be less as the engineering as already been done. A lot of other
MFG cost advantages I imagine also. Half the machine is cast anyway, foundry MFG is one of the lower costing processes. All one would have to do
is find the old molds and talk to some of the
older engineers. The patents could probably got dirt cheap relatively speaking.
Buy a brand new MH22 clone for 8 grand? You bet I would. I don't need any bells and whistles on it either so leave off the umbrella and heater.
Just don't change anything like they did the volkswagon. My 2 cents,
Blue.
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