My First Rant On [A].com

[Nebrfarmr]

Faust, it sounds like we'd get along pretty good.   I like the old, mechanical (instead of electronic) stuff, and I REALLY like parts interchangability.

Had a neighbor with a 1066, who 'lost' the range shifter.   Was stuck in low range, if he put it in reverse, it was immobile, in Low, Neutral, or High, it stayed in Low range.   He was worried about what was wrong with it.

I fixed it, in 15 minutes, with a $1 roll pin (if you ever had a 1066 do that, you know just what I mean).   We have had 3 66 series tractors on the place over the years, and still run two of them.   About every other year, one or the other, needs that roll pin.

Now, we had a neighbor, with a 2 year old tractor, that lost the 3 point control.   Seems a mouse ate a wire to the computer, and it cost him $1500 to fix.  Some of this new stuff scares me, not so much because it is unreliable (in reality, it is probably as good as most of the old stuff was, when it first came out) but in that to fix the simplest thing, you need to plug it into a diagnostics computer, that costs thousands to buy, making all but the most obvious repairs, something you have to call the dealer for.
I don't have a lot of money, but I have some extra time, and I use some of it, to upkeep older equipment, and keep it going.

[Faust100F]

ECI - I think OBG must own most of South Dakota now, I did like his laid back life style though when he posted a picture of the OBG ranch house on the Rez on the other site a few months ago.   It screamed "simple life".

I was depressed and sick and tired of all the nit wits in my area, so I decided to raise my standards, socialize with a better class of people, and take my son to Alabama to pick up a diesel pickup he bought down there. and expose him to the way the other half of the country lives. I immediately noticed how much more intelligent they were in Memphis, Tunica, Burmingham, Alabama and Nashville.  

I mean when we went to dinner we even had a table cloth and napkins , crystal glass from which we could drink house water, or bottled water, and the Coors beer was great in those tall glasses, cloth napkins, and very nice cutlery to eat the beef filet (which was so good we did not need steak sauce to kill the taste) which could be cut with a fork about two inches thick, and the twice baked potato was wonderful, the fresh baked bread with the butter and honey was just great . . . I turned down the "grits", because I thought that might be going a bit far . . . since I am not a citizen of Mississippi or a member of the good old boys club down there . . . I noticed one thing about the fine restaurant in which we dined . . . there were no cell phones ringing, no hard rock music playing, and it appeared few of the patrons endulged in the latest  "tatoo" craze, or nose piercings.

I am sure all the BTO's in Iowa eat at these places every day, you know . . . that is where they call the co-op to do their farming for them.  LMAO!   John 

[Faust100F]

Nebr - I think my problem is I had that type of equipment so long, that I can fix it, it is just much easier taling to my guy at the salvage yard who knows everything about fixing this vintage equipment, and has the parts right there.  

The last time I dealt with the John Deere Dealer I had to drove to three different store locations to get all the parts for a throttle cable, and one part had to be ordered.  

I mean we have catalog stores here in Iowa we do not have inventories here of parts.  We also have no one with historical knowledge of how equipment works.  A trained monkey could do what these JD dealerships do.  

Case IH is no better. I made one trip to the parts warehouse in Cameron Missouri to pick up a disk axle when I started to put it in it was the wrong axle, so it had to be reordered and a salsman drove down and picked it up and delvered it to me.  The original one ordered was wrong. Sooooo it only took three axles and two trips to Missouri to get the right part.  What a joke! John

[Nebrfarmr]

I'm with you.   I got concaves for my combine, from one with a blown engine, for $250, and they barely had the paint worn off.   The guy redid the guts of the machine, only to have the engine blow, in just a few hours.
Got some like new elephant ears, for another $75.

I can remember raking hay on Dad's 766 when I got big enough to drive it myself.   I thought I heard a noise, so I flagged dad down, and told him.   He started it up, and said 'This tractor has made that noise since before you could talk, so don't worry about it."

When one owns something long enough, they get 'in tune' with what it does, and anything odd, is easy to recognize.

[rswfarms]

No Faust, all the BTO in Iowa live in the Twin Cities. We needed a much higher-class Country Club than Iowa has, plus all the Gated Communities in the Twin Cities to pick from. We have to live someplace that has a guard at the front-gate to keep the rif-raf out. Glen Oaks Gated Community in Des Moines doesn't have high enough standards, so that is why we move to the Twin Cities, there Gated Communities are much higher-class than Glen Oaks!!!!! LOL

[Kay/NC]

What can I say? i have to do something quiet about that time of day, while my grandson is napping. The statement does point out a commonly held fallacy about debt, though...more than one has crashed and burned while trying to spend their way out of it.

[Faust100F]

rsw - I agree with you on one thing about our only gated community in Iowa.  There is alot of riff raff out there (with the exception of your mother in law of course).  I mean two  of the riff raff have been charged with bank fraud out there, one pleaded guilty and will probably testify against the other riff raff who was his partner.  

Guess they will each do the perp walk, will not be flying around in private jets anymore, or driving the RV to Vegas to rub elbows with their West Side Gang Buddies.   They are an amusing bunch.  They just did not know their limiations, and I will say it again . . . and I know, I know, it is getting old . . . but John Wayne once said "life it tough but if you are stupid it gets alot tougher." LMAO! 

Lota loyalty between friends and business partners in West Des Moines, where the West Side Gang resides. LMAO!  I guess they will not be borrowing money any more with a felony on their records, since it is my understanding that loans cannot be made to convicted felons from Iowa.  But . . . i could be wrong!  Have a great day. John

[rswfarms]

Pretty funny Faust. My brother lives in Glen Oaks. One time we went to visit him, about 100 degrees outside and we had an old Dodge mini-van with a broken AC and a big dent in the front fender. (I drive my cars till they drop dead). The kids were hanging out the windows to keep cool and we had some suitcases tied to the roof. We looked like a bunch of rif-raf ourselves. Boy, did the guard at the gate of Glen Oaks came out of his guardhouse really quick and stopped us from getting in Glen Oaks. He called my brother to make sure we were allowed to visit him!!!! Also there is one mafia guy that lives in Glen Oaks too, that is what my brother tells me. A short little Italian guy, he says he made his money on owning vending machines, but that isn't true. My brother pointed out his house at Glen Oaks, looks like a castle, must be well over 12,000 square feet. Anyway, we are still very, very, dry in NC Iowa. If the drought continues I could see a 105bu/acre Iowa State average yield in 2013, Iowa got a 141bu yield state average in 2012. It should be an interesting 2013 crop year.

[idalivered]

http://ritewaymfg.com/

[cowfarmer]

I love your post, my newest tractor is a 7130 MFWD, we still run 2 1086's a 1066 and an 856, and we get along just fine, we are running a 2144 combine, I just recently bought a different planter, but we run kinze that are mechanical meters no vac stuff, they are simple and easy, I dont play these games, I just believe that at some point the speneding habits of some of these fellas that trade every year is gonna have to catch up with them.  PS that roll pin is a pain I drilled out a bigger hole on our 56's and 66's and put a 5/16 roll pin in.