This fall /winter project

The cowling tins are in need of some love, gas tank looks fairly new, radiator is yet to be tested.
The genney and starter are there but as yet untested also.
Rops is a good idea to work on, as for the aux. trans it will be given an annual inspection along with the main.
At present she is on hold until I get my Acra mill up and running, that should be next week I hope..................... :encourage:
 
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If you want a toy the v8 engine would be fun. If you want a useful piece of equipment ,keep it as is. The V8 will use way more fuel and if the operator isn't careful the drive train can be destroyed
 
For many years I used the 8N to run a small air compressor. The engine can be tuned to idle at 300 RPM and then its easy to lean out the fuel mixture. With these settings it is BY FAR the most efficient gas engine to run an air compressor. This machine was designed 90 years ago and they still cannot beat it today. Of course today the concern is how cheap is it to buy, not how durable and efficient is it.
 
Old tractors are very cool to have around and restore. Like many have said, the simplicity of their design and build makes them reliable and easy to work on.
With that being said, I find rear wheel drive tractors with loaders to be nearly worthless even with weights. I grew up on a large farm but at age 18 I left as fast as I could. 35 years later I bought my first 4wd Kubota BX2380. I was floored at how much that little tractor could do compared to the much larger rear wheel drive tractors we had.
Oh, and just for fun, here is my brother & nephew's corn planting rig...
 

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While I didn't grow up on a farm, I grew up in dairy country, town population was 1800, very small community and the county seat. Many of my friends families owned diary farms. For summer work, I worked on one of them milking and bucking bales. Drove tractors at 13 years of age, semi at 14 years of age transporting loads of hay to other farms, something you only can do in the country. Had access to dynamite (1/4 sticks) for blowing stumps.

You learn at an early age when you grow up in the country.

Farm work is very dangerous. I have lost a few friends growing up to machinery accidents on their family farms. But to be honest, I love the country and can't wait until retirement to get away from crowds and back to a small town. I know it won't be the same, but I intend to make the best of it for the time I have left on this earth.
 
My grandparents on both sides were farmers. There is very little you can do in the Central Valley of CA that is not AG related. 75% of all the work I ever did was either for farming or fruit packing. I prefer small towns and truly break out in a sweat having to think about going into LA or SF. I am a country mouse by nature and am lucky to live in a town of 14,000. Which is half the size of the towns I grew up in.

Only a couple of shops I worked in were enclosed and I hated it.

It breaks my heart to see what’s happened to family farming. But thanks to the popularity of farmers markets small farmers do pretty good around here. All of them keep these small tractors working and in demand.
 
Please be careful when putting a load in the bucket. If the grass is wet or you are on a downslope one can quickly lose braking capacity as the rear wheels unload.
 
While I still lived in the Bay Area, it was sad to see the amount of land in the San Juaquin Valley destroyed by the salt water brought up by the wells to feed the farms. Once the land gets that white salt look not much good for anything. Hard to believe that they could pull so much water out of the wells to pull salt.

I dream of being back in the country and a small town.
 
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