The new to us tractor

Yes, this is our new to us tractor ...

the one we just traded for ...

Actually it is a good thing. This is one of the reasons for buying a tractor locally instead of 2 states away.  When we bought it we knew there was a sensor problem.  The speedometer was giving an error code.  It was agreed it would be fixed before delivery.  They got it in the shop and found a couple oil leaks that needed replaced, so they tore into it to fix the leaks before delivery.

I'm sure if I had bought it in Ohio the leaks would have come with the tractor.

So we are progressing.  The augers are all repaired, waiting on the weather before we reinstall them.  We got to looking at the ones needing repaired.  The long one was OK except for the first foot or two of flighting being damaged.  So we cut it off the same length as the short one.  Fixed that!

Then we proceeded to replace the screw in the other one.  I'd gotten an ...as ebay calls it NOS (New Old Stock) ... auger screw from Robin at Bunker Hill.  We found the tube was rotted out under the motor mount.  And the bearing was bad.  So we thought "Maybe we ought to just replace the whole thing with new."  So we wondered up to Oakland one day and talked to them about it.  No problem! Got one in stock.  $600 and change.  One problem, (well, two if you include the $600) it is a totally different design motor mount.

We came home, talked about it, got a of a couple feet of old auger tube from Dustin, dug a new bearing out of the drawer (it is now the same bearing as a JM rolling basket, a Hagie male cutter wheel, and a Do-All pulverizing wheel), got a new bearing mount at Rural King, and Aman put it all together and squirted some aluminum paint on it.  Did it for about $400 less cash outlay than a new one.

Dad would have liked it ... except he'd have found an old auger someplace to take the screw out of.

Goodbye Deere friend

 WE DID IT! I took a deep breath and traded off the old 8630 today.  That's the tractor Zack was disking with in an earlier entry.  We traded the old green thing for a pretty red one.

It wasn't exactly what I wanted, but there are about 193,000 reasons we didn't get exactly what I wanted ... and they ARE all green.  This one I think I can cash flow without borrowing any money.  And if I do have to borrow a little it won't be nearly as much or as long.  At the same time we traded the old 4800 field cultivator we hadn't used in 3 years for a 24 ft 496 disk. (this is a stock photo of a 28 ft 496, but it will be similar)

I know, we just bought a Sunflower a couple years ago.  We still have it and will use it ... a lot.  But the Sunflower is too heavy and too valuable for disking in ruts.  And we have a couple hundred acres of ruts.  We discussed buying a cheaper disk, even found a some.  One old Krause we could probably have bought for $2000, put $3000 of blades and bearings in and still had a $2000 disk.  Another one was a Deutz Allis disk we found along the road for sale.  Imagine this disk painted orange ... not factory orange but painted orange by a machinery jockey. With a little lime green showing through in spots. 

For some strange reason the front center blades were new.  None of the other blades had been replaced, but those 2 sections had.  It might have been OK ... it was a lot closer to my plans than the $2000 Krause I looked at.  We talked it over and decided if we were going to buy a disk, buy one that when we got done using we could probably sell.  And if we decided to keep it, get one that would amount to something.  The orange painted DA would have been here until Vern cut it up for scrap.

I really had not planned on trading tractors. But the old 8630 turned over 7000 hours shortly before we finished this year.  And every time we would discuss it with someone knowledgeable of Deere's they would say something like "It still has the original engine in it?" We ran it for several years with very little cash put into it, but  our feeling is we were running on borrowed time.

One downside to this tractor is no PTO to run a grain cart.  We will either need to get a hydraulic drive for it or use the 7120 to pull the cart.  But that is a future decision. I've made enough decisions for one day.