There's been talk before in GD about old tractors, both for their historical value and using them to farm small plots today.  

Because of that, I thought yall might be interested in checking out of a few of these tractors my grandfather owned and collected.  

The link is to a site we set up for an auction.  We're not selling these online, I doubt more than 2 of you live remotely close to the auction, and I checked with site staff before I posted.  To be clear, the link is advertising an auction, but I'm not trying to see these to yall, just thought they might interest some of GD.  

If you want to see all 20+, feel free to check out http://www.troystractors.com/

I'll put pictures of the neat ones over here for yall.

First up: A survivor.  This John Deere Model D was built in 1947.  It is unrestored and still runs, which I thought was neat.  It also had an electric start and was duel fuel (could run gasoline and kerosene).  



Next a couple of rare birds:

1954 John Deere Model 60.  They made over 60,000 of the Model 60s, but this one came from the factory set up for Liquid Propane (only 3108 Model 60s were Factory LP).  LP was a pretty popular DIY farmer conversion even for tractors that didn't come set up for it.



The other rare one he owned was another 1954 John Deere Model 520.  It had both Factory LP and Power steering...something only 655 out of the 12,970 Model 520s came with both options.



And my personal favorite just because it is such an oddball:
a 1946? Gibson A.  It has a tiller instead of a steering wheel.  I always loved driving this one.  






I have a lot of very fond memories driving many of these tractors in 4th of July parades when I was younger.  Everybody else my age watched the parades or sat in a float.  I got to drive something in them, which for a 9 or 10 year old is about as cool as things can get.    I had a friend of my grandfathers share a really funny story with me just last year about my sister in one of those parades when she was driving the tractor in front of his. (no pics you pervs. She's married anyway.)  

When she was 8 or 9, she was driving a tractor solo for the first time, and the steering wheel popped off the column.  Instead of panicking as an out of control tractor went careening towards spectators, she just popped the tractor out of gear, hit the brakes and yelled for my dad.  He came up, and in Soviet fashion hit the steering wheel really hard back into place.    The guy was very impressed that she kept such a cool head through the whole thing, and it stuck with him.  He asked what she was up to these days, and when he found out she was a pilot, he just commented that it made sense since she's always had a cool head in a crisis.

Anyway, enough of my rambling down memory lane.   Just thought there might be a few others in GD who have some fond memories (work or parade related) of some neat old tractors.

Feel free to share your own pics/stories too.  

Also, I did check with both GD mods and Site Staff and got approval for both this thread and the link before I posted.  Like I said, I'm not trying to sell anything to you guys, just thought yall might find some of these cool.

Farmall or nothing...

Liked.

I love that old machinery. There was a guy when I lived in Spokane as a kid, who had a collection of old steam tractors and other equipment. It always amazed me that he could keep them running. Maybe that's why I'm a mechanic today.

I've always wanted to take a look at one of these... I've seen pictures, I think they are neat.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/1938_Minneapolis_Moline_tractor.jpg

cool thread


grew up a town kid and the only "tractor" I've ever driven was an old Cub Cadet, but old tractors are just neat

For those of you interested, a local town here has a collection of old farm tractors restored. Every year the pull the, out of storage for the fair, pretty neat and some are considered rare as well.

http://www.capa-ga.com/

There's a MM at the link....but its an Avery design built by MM.

Thanks for posting, those are some beautiful tractors.

I love the '38 G! That and the D were the best luggin' tractors you could buy back then.

Tell us about the farm they used to work!

I have to wonder how many people here have actually used a hand crank to start an engine. I've done it on a couple. Thank God for electric start.

Never seen a tractor with a tiller before, that looks kinda neat.

< '38 John Deere A.

I remember the first time I ever saw my dad park it at the top of a small hill at a gas station in town, fill it up, the give it a push down the hill...hop on the seat...open that clutch up...and start hearing her poppin. I thought that was so cool as a little kid.

It was obvious he'd learned that from back when they were still working her every day when he was a boy.

Here is my old girl a '52 ferguson TO30 she lacks a few things the new tractor has but she puts her heart and soul into her work lol.

Me too, it's always a fun one to drive.  

Most/all of these tractors were restored/bought in the 90s, so I'm 99% sure none of them actually did any work on our family's land back in their prime....although I do remember my granddad using one of them (maybe that G) to help plant a few rows of sweet corn for his garden.  

As for the farm itself, my grandfather moved to Hale County in 1950, and farmed there continuously until his health deteriorated to the point he couldn't get on the tractor.  His son (my uncle) is currently still farming the family land, and my grandmother is still living in the house they built on the farm by herself at 81.  He was one of those guys that always said "I'll retire next year"...until the doctor made him retire.  They grew wheat, corn and other stuff, but if you'd asked Troy he probably would have self identified primarily as a cotton farmer.  

One of my favorite stories about his cotton farming is the time some stranger kept giving him odd looks in a public place and he didn't know why...he finally figured out that the guy must not realize that the "stripper" my 60 year old grandfather and his friend were talking about that he spent over $50,000 was a "cotton stripper" and not one of the female variety.  

I'm uploading a few more pictures of him/old tractor stuff to share that isn't on that website.  

Thats some great family history

Great pics old the old workhorses.

Thanks for sharing....

I do a lot of work for a guy who collects JDs.  I'll tell him about your auction, I don't know if there is anything he'll be interested in but you never know.   He has two 8020's sitting at our place now, my dad is restoring one of them.

He may have done it once or twice.

no 3 point hitch. My family owns 7 of them. I mostly use the 1020 John Deer and the Fordson major diesel

I like to think so.

I've been very fortunate to have such a strong support system and fantastic people to call my blood relatives, and I know how blessed I am to have them.  I'm closer with my first cousins than some of my friends are with their siblings, and very close with my entire extended family.  I'm 26 and married, but still talk to Mom and Dad 3-4 times a week and my grandmother at least 1-2 times a week on the phone.  I couldn't ask for a better example of how to live your life well than my grandfather, who was an inspiration to everyone who knew him, especially his sons and grandson.  Like most farmers have to be, he was bright, hard working, and very positive at all times.  

If I manage to be half the man to my own family that he was to his, I will have done more than any reasonable man can ask for in life.  

Now that I've been sappy, how about some more tractor pictures?





Amazing how far technology has come, isn't it?  


Oh, and if you like family history, I'll be posting something soon (probably early next week) you might enjoy.  It is about something I inherited from my grandfather that will NEVER be for sale at any price.  

Tag for later. I learned clutch, shift  and backing  up a trailer on an antique farmall h and cub  , long before I was old enough to drive. Pics later, Gramp and his old tractors still work every day

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I grew up using my Grandpa's old Ford 8n. Was a great little tractor. He taught me how to drive it and we used it for all kinds of things.

My bastard family sold it for peanuts after he died along with pretty much everything else he had. He was a Ford parts man for 50 years, and never made a whole lot, but he had some old treasures like that tractor and his 60s Ford pickup that they sold as if they were nothing.

Fuckers.

I still miss him every day as I am sure the OP misses his as well. If you still got your grandparents and they are worthy make sure you spend as much time as you can with them. They won't live forever.

+1

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Im only bright and hard working when I have to be and never positive.

Great pics and history man, glad that other people in our generation appreciate and give love to the old iron horses.

He is my grandfathers little "creeper" as he called it. His shitbird grandson has it for sale as we speak wish i had the cash to get it

So very very true, and you're right.  Miss him every day.

The good news is we're not selling all of his tractors.  Some are staying with the family and some have been donated to the museum.

Unfortunately, the ones we are selling are located in a barn in town.  Used to be a nice area, but its surrounded by low income rentals now.  We'd love to store and keep them all, but the barn on the farm is used for work and doesn't have the room.  At this point we will be happier knowing people are enjoying collecting or using them instead of waiting for some crackhead to steal parts to sell as scrap or bored teenagers destroying things for fun to come break in and damage them.

Growing up , we had a JD A , JD D, JD G JD M, 420 , 620, 730 diesel'
Still have the A , 420 AND 730
The G unfortunately had a bad carb and back then in the early 70's it cost more
than the tractor was worth for a new one , so it was scrapped.

Would really like to find an JD H or 70 to restore.

Real name is a crawler. Nice 40 crawler

4 sale? what does he want ? you know?

I think he is asking 5k for it i am hoping he cant sell it and i can get it for the 3k i have offered.

i got the ferguson and he got the deere.


I know its a crawler but my pops always called it a creeper not sure why.

Awww man

Thanks for posting, some really cool old tractors! I have a '45 Alice WC model that I'm restoring. It's a fun little tractor. 200 posts woo-hoo!

Bump for the day crew.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1231557_Tractor_pr0n.html

Big thread

Neat.  First time I've seen that one or I would have just contributed to it.  

Thanks for sharing, lots of cool stuff in there.

As Dad has been pulling stuff out of the barn and cleaning it up, he took a few videos of a few of the tractors driving around/starting.

If nothing else, the Gibson without a steering wheel is fun to watch drive around.  

I think so.  I've heard my granddad refer to one of his tractors  as an "unstyled L" and that one looks like the one he was talking about?

Pretty sure that is an L

My dad's got one of these. him and my grandpa used to run it in tractor pulls.

I always wanted a JD model R.

<---------- Check my screen name.  

You like muscle cars and tractors?

Nice nostalgia OP.  I still have a JD B and a MM ZN out back.  We farmed for years with the both of them and they were both still running when parked.



They are great in hindsight, but I still remember when they delivered the diesel JD 3010 with power steering, power brakes, live PTO, and (shazzam!!) a cab.



It was like going from beating your clothes on a rock down at the creek to a Whirlpool.

Forgot I had mentioned that in this thread, just saw it after posting the videos.

Link to thread if anyone missed it/is interested:

My Grandfathers Rifle

Thanks for sharing.
I like the Oliver 60. I have a soft spot for Oliver tractors,my neighbor when I was a kid was a dairy farmer and he had many Oliver tractors.
I had a Ford 8N that was kinda mine, Dad let me drive it around when I was a kid. I took that thing for many a joyride.

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