Ge-e-e-z!...that's no way to talk about Yard Man stuff!
Here in the heart of farm country,the red-green argument over the decades has caused everything from taller,sturdier fences to fights behind the bleachers at school. Maybe people should just buy the one that gives away the best looking winter hat with ear flaps. And THAT would be JD. I don't think the other guys even HAVE hats,do they?

I think, red or green would show up equally well, in plowed field, but not a lawn.

Yes, but just the good ones!

I've got a couple of stories related to the "big green" tractors, which after 50 years are humorous to me.

We started out with the horses and an old Ferguson tractor. As a kid, I used to allow the tractor to coast out of the shed, down a little incline. After which, my father or uncle would start it up and put it back in the shed. Then I got to drive it and steer with the brakes, as the front end would be off the ground, with a trailer full of hay, behind.

Then we moved to a JD "A", with a hand clutch. While this "A" wouldn't do much more than tow an implement, as opposed to the Ferguson with three point hitch, it was a power house. It had the JD trailer plows, which needed to be tripped at the start and finish of each furrow. This reaching back for the trip rope, operating the hand clutch and getting around a corner was a real challenge. (My uncle put 'er over the wall once, while trying to manage this juggling act.) Also, we had an Allis-Chalmers rotary bailer which required live PTO to work, as intended. The JD didn't have live power, so after each bale was done, the tractor had to be stopped, taken out of gear and the clutch re-engaged. Then pull the clutch back, put it in gear and take off again.

Next, we got an older JD "B" with fly wheel start, as a second tractor. I wasn't hardly tall enough to reach the flywheel, so would coast it back the same small incline as the Ferguson, in hope of either catching it in gear or getting it to the road, so that I could coast down and catch it in gear. Sometimes, it would be found at the bottom of the hill by the stop sign. Other times, it would be in the small ditch between the barnyard and the road. Many times, I had to (quoting one of the other guys) "bust my little nuts" getting it started using the flywheel.

These are good memories of bad times.

It's not just the paint COLOR, it's the SHINE...

-gh

Ha! That was a funny post.

I have an orange tractor that is very visible. I painted one of my plywood canoes a burnt orange any my sister-in-law's trowel the same color as the tractor so she'd quit loosing it in the dirt. My wife is starting to hate that color. My next tractor will be red. But I'm also not afraid to paint one a different color. Is this some kind of big faux pas? People will change the color of their cars, but they don't seem to do that with their tractors.

I forgot to mention the JD 4010 (I believe it was).

This was all modern! Power steering, live PTO and (finally JD saw the light) three point hitch.

The problem with this beauty; it had "select-o-matic" shifting or what ever it was called. It was like shifting through a maze! You never knew what gear you were going to be in or whether you were going to be going forward or backward. You got so you let the clutch out slowly. I believe, there may have been a couple gears we never found.

tmajor, you haven't been taking your medicine, have you? Tsk, tsk. Of course lawn tractors should not be green. They should be experienced. How else could they do an acceptable job? :^)

LOL

I was getting bored. It's raining here and I'm just waiting for the brown spots to turn "green", so I can get some seat time.

tmajor-We had a 4010 and a 4320 that we used as loader tractors for silage and hauling round bales. Talk about a pain in the @ss, constantly going from forward to reverse and back. Makes me really love the hydrostats!

It's been so dry here in Tennessee this season. I just came inside a half hour ago after cutting my lawn. The last time I cut it was in mid-June. Most of it didn't even qualify to be cut today but, you know, "It's the law." I told my wife that if we don't get a good rain soon, I may not need to cut again until 2008. So how about it all you Texans, stop hogging all the rain and send some our way. Thanks in advance.

"Shine"?!!
I just pulled up a picture of a JD "B" (foreground) and a JD A (background). Notice the flywheel on the "B". This had finger grooves on the back side for a better grip.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:336632}}

Yes they should be. Always insist on fenders made from recycled soda bottles...

Oh waitaminit...not that kind of green...

The farm I worked in the summers of my college years had an old Case an International and a MF I believe. Mowing pasture fields was a cake job. We didn't get to do that very often. Riding the wagon and stacking square hay bales as they came off the chute was the hardest job. You'd cough up green stuff all evening. But the nastiest job was pulling the New Idea manure spreader through the fields. Seems like there shoulda been a BETTER idea than that! It's hard to steer and cover your head from the sh@# it was slinging 20 feet into the air. AH.........them were the good 'ol days!!!!

Almost forget.....well in fact I did forget (must be getting old or sumthin)...............the BEST tractor/mowers are ORANGE !!!!

That might have been a Sheppard diesel. One of the neighbors had one of these. It had some kind of ripper on the back, which would tear up anything!! ... rocks, tree stumps. What a tractor!, in it's day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sheppard diesel

The 4010 and 4020 shift pattern was a little complicated at first.Trying to figure it out.When ever the IH neighbors borrowed a John Deere they were always a riot to watch trying to figure out the shift pattern.Left them a little green around the gills with a group a John Deere guys rolling on the ground lauphing at them.Trying to find the right gear.

enjoyable post- thanks everyone docRx

Heck tmajor... those aren't lawn tractors!! I don't even see any paint left. You gotta stop rubbin' em. They aren't genie lamps! ;^)

-gh

tmajor, those were some nice posts. I spent MY jr high and high school years on a dairy farm. The livestock did the pasture mowing, while I was assigned a push mower to cut arround the house. I used to look with envy at the neighbor kids out on their family's tractor.
When I grew up and got my own place, the first thing I did was go out and buy me a used 1969 JD 112 garden tractor! It wasn't much but I had many enjoyable times with it for 37 years.

Good morning guys. I don't have much for an encore, but glad y'all lightened up a bit and enjoyed the show.

I had a great time on the farm, as a kid ... tractors to ride, good places to play hide and seek, fresh tomatoes out of the field, with some of the cow's salt sprinkled over them. I would "play" on the tractor 'till dark, plowing or harrowing.

Of the tractors we had, I liked the Ferguson the best. It was small for a farm, but a great tractor, with three point hitch for many attachments, even though, much of what we had to farm with, was modified horse drawn implements. I suppose, that's why I have the '53 Ford NAA, now.

I've got to get the Ford out and do my brush hogging ... very soon!

Here is a link that might be useful:

"which I would see sitting in the partly mowed yards, with the hoods up, for several days."
"and I suppose, the service guys couldn't find them."
Question of the hour...How is you saw them and the repair main didn't?????

They were my "neighbors". Anything "out of place" stands out. Where I live, I still know my neighbors, even though that's changing slowly. Plus, I've got a good eye!

I guess, there might be a little more to me seeing them ..

The one neighbor's wife did the mowing in her bathing suit, so I kept a pretty close eye on that and the other neighbor lived right across the road, so I would see or hear, when the tractor died and see him stomping off to the house or shed.

tmajor, around here (Tn) we have called those old Ford tractors "red belly Fords" for as long as I can remember. I got to wondering, how widespread is that nickname, or is it a local thing (to us "hillbillies")? Around here I hear that term often but I don't think I ever saw it in print.

I've never heard the term, as far as I can remember. Most all, who aren't really into the fine points, call 'em 8Ns ... same general appearance, due to color and size. I'd guess, there were a lot more 8Ns than the other gray/red models.

tmajor, maybe some other members will throw in on this. We call ALL the old Fords having OEM red painted drive train under gray sheetmetal a "red belly Ford". Heh heh, it may be a "hillbilly" thing after all. :^)

mownie, I hate to cut the glory, but if you Google "red belly ford", a ton of sites come up. Sounds like a common term, uncommon to me, only.

Sittin' here and a flat bed backs into the neighbors drive with a red tractor on board and unloads. I believe, it's a new used one. I didn't even see the neighbors old red one sittin' in the yard.

I noticed he hadn't mowed in a couple of weeks. Thought maybe, he figured it was too dry.

My case rests!

(I suppose, the old one could be lurking in the shed.)

I'd sure like to give some of this rain to somebody who needs it! I need to mow and it's rained off and on all day. I can still remember my Dad buying a new Ferguson 35, 1 year later he had a power pack (bigger sleeves and pistons) put in. I started driving it when I was 9 years old. All the neighbors got together and helped each other when haying time came, us kids drove the tractors with hay wagons from the field to the barn and back. One neighbor had an 856 International, boy us kids thought that thing was a speed demon, I almost learned the hard way that it didn't stop good on a gravel road with two wagons behind it both stacked seven high! I used to ride on the fender of that Ferguson when my Dad was plowing and discing, talk about not safe! That old Ferguson wasn't the biggest tractor around but it never gave a minutes trouble, I can still remember the whole exhaust manifold glowing red when pulling the plow. Probably the reason I own red tractors today(Massey Fergusons), I learned to drive on that old Ferguson.

Heck, Catapiller yellow is good.......

Do you mean Yellow, like this?

This was one of my projects, which I took on, in order to build the pond. It only had 250 hours on it when I got it, as I recall. And it seems to me, it was a '54, D-4 CAT. MOST of the work was cleaning it up and a few gaskets on the pony motor.

{{gwi:336634}}

Now thatis the type Tractor I have always wanted.There is still time.Nice lookin machine.tbk

Herringboned,

Your speaking of stacking hay bales brings back memories. In my 20's (seems like yesterday, though I am pushing 50) my brother and I were doing truck farming. The guy across the way took care of a rich estate "horse farm"and we used to trade labor on various project. He also had a good friend who ran a beef farm and he gave us a lot of wisdom. I used to help stack hay in a huge barn there. I think that barn must have been 50 feet tall inside and we'd stack a given section till we ran out of headroom. As you got closer to the roof the less room you had to work. It would get to the point where all you could do was keep the bales from clogging up around the conveyer until that load was done. Then you'd stack like crazy hoping to get caught up and maybe have a short break before the next load.

Hay under the nails, in the nose, in the mouth, in the pockets, down the pants!

Anyway, there is a tractor aspect to this. We owed this guy for a lot of help and advice over the years (he also gave us a beat up old 3 row Deere corn planter) so I didn't expect much in return for the work. He'd sometimes give me a bit of cash. At one point he must have seen me admiring a Wheel Horse C-120 that was near the house in the yard with the hood open. So one day he shows up and tells me "I am giving you this for all your work". Boy was I happy and surprised! I grew up doing chorse with my Grandfather on a Suburban 550 Wheelhorse and always thought they were more authentic as "tractors" verus most riding mowers and GT's I'd see around.

That C-120 Auto burned a fair amount of oil, and the finish wasn't very good, but with some fixing up and TLC is did a LOT of mowing and Towing. I was sad t leave it behind when I moved back to the city (Cleveland, OH) and into an apartment. Not sure what happened to it.

Now I still leave in the city but I have a house and 2 Wheel Horses! The Charger 12 is very similar to the C-120 Auto.

Thanks for the memories.

I guess, I go back a bit further.

My first memories of haying, include the horse dump rake, hay wagons, pulling the loose hay into the mow with an overhead hay fork, using the horses to pull the rope across the barnyard and pitching it around in the mow. Then we got to the bales. All dusty and dirty! ... and me, with hay fever.

Back in the early 1960's,around Moses Lake Washington, myself and a friend picked up alphalfa bales( 90 plus lbs each behind some sort of OLD tractot pulling a
sled" to bring the bales to the stacks we built.Sunup to night fall in 110 F in the shade.We were poor Air Force folk making food money.We were both about 30 years old.

Of course lawn tractors should not be green. They should be experienced
Posted by mownie ;
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So that's what's wrong with JDs; they're green.

You dopey dunderhead. I meant "green" as in novice, newbie, naive, unsophisticated. Not the color. Why don't you take your tiller and try to cultivate a sense of humor.