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Unofficial Home of Old Simplicity & Allis-Chalmers Garden Tractors

Anyone identify with this....?


SmilinSam

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Everytime I get a Good AC or Simplicity from the 60's I get it home and before I can get it apart and on Ebay I got two boys hounding "I want this piece , I want that piece.."[:0]B) How does one pay the property taxes like this? Tonight I stumbled across a cheap 3212H , headlights, hydrolift, weights, chains, 48" deck, 46" HD blade, chrome air cover, etc etc etc.:D Well, tonight the boys were away elswhere till 8:00pm, so by 7:30 I had the tractor home, jumpstarted it, mowed on the yard with it, wheeled it in the shop , got the air wrenches out and whistled it down into pieces and most of the good stuff on Ebay all before they finally got home around 9:00.:o) Saved me alot of arguing...}:) I think;)
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Sam, If it ran OK and mowed the lawn why did you part it out?????? I just hate to see good tractors parted out strictly for profit. Maybe why I'll stay poor but just doesn't seem right. Don't mind my rambling.
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Enjoy it while you can, (and I know you do;)) much too soon they will be out on thier own and you will miss it. But they will still stop in your shop once in awhile and say "Hey Dad, I could sure use this, been looking everywhere for one just like it". "I lost one of my hitch pins, you got an extra?" Trust me, mine is 43 years old and I still hear it. It's like music to my old ears.:D:D
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Roy, I use to have a problem with this at one time as well. But now I do the same thing. There are people out there that need the parts that wouldn`t beable to get them other wise. I have 3 or 4 tractors that I wouldn`t part with though. Now when I buy a tractor I see what I need from it for parts for my self then I sell the rest.
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quote:
Originally posted by Roy
Sam, If it ran OK and mowed the lawn why did you part it out?????? I just hate to see good tractors parted out strictly for profit. Maybe why I'll stay poor but just doesn't seem right. Don't mind my rambling.
A valid question. The answer is threefold. 1)Returns Generally a machine such as this will only bring $350-$450 all together running. Parting it out raises the returns to around $700 -$1000 or more. Case in point had a similar B-10 a few years ago. Bought for $200 and it parted out for $1200 on EbaY. 2) Time To sell complete to get the most return requires time to clean up, tune up, touch up, as well aS more money invested in parts and repairs. Parting out only requires about 3 hours time accounting for disassembly, pictures, ad write ups and packaging. It would take me better than two weeks to make $1000 working a 40 hour a week job. I would rather spend my time with wife and kids relaxing, reading, thinking, and doing things around home than "slaving away" working at something I dont really care about. 3)Training of ones Self Doing things like this helps to train my Self to place little value on material things and not to become attached to them, not to desire them, to see them for what they are- tools to aid in ones day to day existence. Doing things this way allows me to experience all sorts of machinery rather than accumulate and store. Experience , knowledge and wisdom are what counts. Such are all that one can take with them when its all said and done. Hope that helps in seeing my point of view;)
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I have been called the Wrecker in not to kind of way by a few people in Oliver circles because I take the old 35 to 37 oliver 70's and part them out. But I also have alot of nice letters and pictures of restored tractors where my customers say they would never have been able to find the right parts without my help. every time I'm at a show and see a nice restored 70 with some of my parts on it I smile introduce myself and have an instant new friend. Keep it up Sam you never know when I'll need one of those parts. JW
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quote:
Originally posted by SmilinSam
Everytime I get a Good AC or Simplicity from the 60's I get it home and before I can get it apart and on Ebay I got two boys hounding "I want this piece , I want that piece". Saved me alot of arguing .....
I run into that when customers come into the garage and see my own attachments, etc., and say "I want this, I want that". My wife says my main garage is like a 'candy store' for orange people ('Orange people' not the term she usually uses. 'Old farts like you', is more like what she says). I need to put tags on my stuff that says "my stuff, not for sale". Or I need to put these things in a different building, but it is more convenient for me to have them in this particular garage. B.R.
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I am inclined to agree with the parts availability being slim. If not for people like Sam who take the initiative to keep good parts in circulation many of us would be putting our tractors together with altered, cobbled up, or inferior parts. Just my opinion.
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I used to be against parting working tractors out but then my barn started getting where I couldn't walk around in it so i tried to sell them and in my area they where selling or selling at a very good price so I started parting them out and making more money and a lot of times like Sam stated you can pay for the tractor with 1 or 2 attachmnets or items.... And as far as my boy if it's not a TV or video Game he has no interest....
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i really hate parting out tractors, i like to fix them all. but you half to draw a line some where. just drove to mich. to pick up a 314 and just happened onto a cozy cab for my landlord that a just had to have. that what makes it fun. really like dealing with you people on simple tractors ,best tractor sight around.
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Gang, I understand the need and motivations for parting out tractors. Still, I hate to see good, complete machines dismantled for parts. My problem, not yours. :(
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Very nicely worded description of your thoughts Sam. I too have been faced with this lately but we all have to understand that some must die so that others may live. Luckily my boy has't gotten so big that he confiscates my goodies before I have a chance t make a deal.
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I'm 50/50 on that one. If the tractor is in mint condition, I would not dream of parting it out. If it needed parts... And someone else with a better condition tractor could use the parts, why not.. At the same time, I'd be conflicted with the idea of parting out a perfectly good tractor. It'd have to depend on which kind, condition, etc. Although, I wouldn't buy a tractor just to turn it around to sell to a profit. However, that would be a choice made by others and I am in no position to judge that. Erick
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P.S. As for having to deal with boys fighting over the tractors, I guess I could say I'm lucky in that category for two reasons: 1)My son is only 9 months old. (Have a few more years to go.) 2)We only have one son, and it will stay that way. :o) Best, Erick
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I also hate to see working tractors parted out. Then again, I'm the guy who buys old stuff with the hope of making it work again. If not for the guys parting out I would'nt be able to get alot of the parts I need.
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Sam: After you laid out your reasoning, as you have, yes, I can identify with it. Especially with the $200. tractor parted out for $1,200. I have a '60 ('61?) 725 that needs multiple doses of TLC, some of which is more than I'm willing to get involved in. I'm thinking that parting out could be the route I should go, for all the reasons you mentioned, not the least of which is the "Training of One's Self." I don't think I'll do it in anything approaching 3 hrs., but that just points out another of the benefits of the "Training" reason. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's opened my eyes to an alternative I'd never seriously considered. Peter
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Guys, That's true about the learning aspect. It's always great to learn new things, most especially if it can benefit you in the way of helping someone else. I agree 100% on that level. I guess, we're on a honor system. We can only hope that the person buying the parts from us will really use them, and use them well. If it is bought only to be forgotten, and eventually thrown away by a family member, or something of that sort, then it'd be such a shame... A good part lost forever. Someone else had to part out their tractor in order for you to restore your tractor. So, the question would mostly boil to this: How good is your tractor -vs- the tractor being parted out to provide the parts for your tractor? If your tractor was in fairly good shape and only needed a part here and there, then it's worthy of a full restoration and shouldn't be parted out for whatever reason. But, if it's in bad shape, and would need a lot of parts... The question then would become this- will your bad tractor fixed up with someone else's parts be better than their (the ones selling the parts) tractor fixed up? It keeps recycling one way or another. But, most certainly somewhere, some parts fall through the cracks, and that's what I mostly have a problem with. Regards, Erick
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Sam, You said it all and I am glad to see some other members are finally coming around and agree with some of us.I just finished tearing apart 2 Simplicity 3416H tractors( two parts on these covered the initial cost of both) and I recently spent days trying to restore a John Deere 110 stripping it ,repainting, buying new parts and after trying to reassemble this complicated mass of metal parts I realized I would never get my money out of this green machine.So after all my labor and selling only 1/3 of the parts on ebay for $450 I have already recovered my initial investment, made a profit and need to sell a few more patrs to reach the $ 600 that this restored tractor may have sold for.I now have another John Deere 112 sitting in my garage ready to part out. This taught me a valuable lesson though ,these Deere tractors are not Simplicitys and are a very complicated ,difficult, and the parts are expensive and tough to find.When you have two small sheds and 8 Simplicitys what are you supposed to do with the other tractors you enjoy working on, build more sheds or part them out?
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Well, I guess I’ll have to throw in with Roy on this one. If I get a machine that’s in reasonable shape (either a runner or complete non-runner) then I’m going for the restoration. If it’s a basket case or parts machine, then I follow what Sam is doing, parting it out after I get what I need. I used to restore cars back in the 1980’s. Back then you could pick up an old GTO for under a grand. Then as the muscle car market exploded, cars that would have previously gotten restored, got parted out (purely in the name of vast profitability), parts selling for whatever the market would bear. The result was you had restored cars selling for the price of a second mortgage on your house and (since the “parts car” supply was finite to begin with) no more “original” parts or project cars. This is why I abandoned the car hobby and jumped into the tractor hobby…that and the fact that my garage holds more tractors than cars.:D Not to put down anybody’s way of making a profit, but profit for profit’s sake just isn’t for me. Of course if the person I sell the restored machine to wants to strip it down to triple their investment on eBay, well that’s their business. Just my point of view.
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Sam, I also understand your philosophy here on parting out this tractor. To quote a famous movie line (you'll appreciate) "the needs of many outweigh the needs of one". Get it? Tom(PK)
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I'm sorry, I'm another one that would not buy a running/working tractor just for the sake of parting it out. I think some of this is that there are not that many running older Simplicities around here and would hate to take another one out of existance for the sake of profit. If in my area they where still fairly plentiful then I might see things differently, that's not bad. As far as the tractor parts vs sons thing I can not relate. Only thing I can relate that to is when I get a basket of homemade goodies around the holidays as a tip from customers I get left with what nobody else wanted when it was my goodies to start with.
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quote:
Originally posted by Roy
Gang, I understand the need and motivations for parting out tractors. Still, I hate to see good, complete machines dismantled for parts. My problem, not yours. :(
Heres more detail for some added clarity..... Paid $300 for above package. Sure it mowed as is, but to really make it decent and reliable the following must be added: 4 new tires -$200 Steering components-$30 Bushing-$5 Paint- $20 Decals- $80 Seat-$40 Regulator & maybe Generator rebuild- $100 Battery-$40 Now we are up to around $795.00 Add several hours of time puts you approaching the $1000 in a tractor you couldnt hope to get about only half of that out of. Simple economics here. Could be worse too, I could be in it for scrap iron purposes only like a number of people I know. They pick up machines like this one and they go straight to the melting pot. No one gets a chance at any of the parts or accesories. One other thing to ponder on. Wait till you have 10-15 running tractors tying up room in your shed and competing for maintinance resources. That in itself is reason enough to become unattached.;)
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I believe the owner gets to do what they want with their stuff. If I sell something for alot of money to a guy and he takes it directly to a scrap yard and disposes of it so be it. Too many people are getting worked up over other peoples stuff. Makes me wonder if they want a government bureaucracy to monitor everyone and everything. Not them of course though. I've parted out my share of lawn tractors. Never gotten near $1200 from parting out an old Simplicity or Allis though. I come across alot of lawn tractors and will first see if they run,which might take me as much as a year or two, then offer them for sale that way at a decent profit. If no one buys it after a while, could be 1 month or 3 years, I'll start selling parts off them. Usually only if they have high value options though like hydraulic lifts, lights,hi-lo's etc...I live in the country and so far haven't had any neighbors bitching about my lawn tractors. I do get the comments about looking like a junk yard. I have about 100-110 lawn tractors give or take around the place. I do know that the people that come to me looking for parts,attachments or complete lawn tractors are always pleased that I'm around collecting this stuff and keeping it from rusting away or going to the scrap yards.
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