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Tractor Recovery Stories (GT Archeology)


lampoulos

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I'd like to see more recovery stories in the club and thought I'd share my own to start. I'm sure there's more colorful stories of having to treck into deep wood, or willfull negotiations to buy a derelect tractor from an original owner. At least more colorful then mine. Call me silly, but I find these stories of great interest. I'm sorry but this story is from a while ago so I don't have pictures, but if any of you do please provide on your stories. I would have loved to do so on mine."My first Simplicity was a 5116. That tractor was my gateway into the Simple Tractor Club which furthered my interest in other tractors of the like. I purchased it out of necessity to tend to the property that came with my first home purchase. It was an impressive tractor that always did what I asked and sadly met an early demise only when its transmission was destroyed by the neglectful hand of its owner/operator and is now honored by having its salvaged hood perched proudly from my shop wall. During its hay-day I decided I needed another which started me searching on craigslist.I found a 6212.5 listed for a decent price, with no major issues listed. I had to borrow my friend’s truck and drove to the seller’s property across town to have a look at what they were offering for sale. When I arrived I was surprised to find that the person that I had spoke to was not there and left his young son to show my around. This turned out to be good later as some of the things he filled me in on where key in figuring out some of its issues. As the boy walked me to the back of their property we engaged in conversation where he informed me that he wished they could keep the tractor because he grew up on it mowing the lawn for his father. He used to love the way he could mow up and down the deep ditches on their property and it would never bog the engine down.As we came around the back corner of their garage we came upon a pile of what-not with weeded growth covering it all. In the middle you could see the white and orange hood of the tractor in the advertisement. Climbing over the pile of old bicycles, yard ornaments, and old tires I was able to do a closer inspection on the tractor and was disappointed at what I found. Two rotted flat tires, no battery, the opposed twin cylinder engine hadn’t had spark plugs in either cylinder for a long time, and most of the steering linkages were completely missing. I also noticed that the carburetor had been disassembled at one time. I knew this with confidence without asking because it two bodies were reassembled using wood screws.Seeing these issues I got in contact with the owner and explained that I wouldn’t be able to pay asking price hinting that it was better fitted for the scrap pile (I hadn’t reached the obsession stages of my hobby back then so this sounded like a good option to me at the time). We ended by negotiating a price, which would be better described by calling it a “song” and after the exchange the po made the comment that his son would be sad to see his first mechanical project leave…..That would normally be the end of the project recovery process story, but Murphy is a great friend of mine. Both father and son decided they’d lend me a hand loading the tractor in the back of my buddy’s jacked up Chevy pickup. Because of its height we all agreed it best to back the truck down they’re abnormally deep ditch (that the son loved to mow) to load providing us the ability to just wheel the tractor into the bed. The idea worked wonderfully and only went south after we all shook hands, said our goodbyes, and I turned the ignition key of the truck only to get no response….no response…..and no response. The fruitless efforts to start the truck stopped the father and son couple at their front door and laughingly turn around to help. Our tireless efforts to get the truck back up and out of the ditch under its own power then brought us to the time of the day that everyone in Auburn Hills, Michigan knows as “Rush Hour” and the front of my standard cab truck stood humorously in one lane of the two lane road. Like someone camped out on the side of the ocean when the tide comes in I was sunk. Now with panic set in the father backs his dually up to my nose blocking BOTH lanes of traffic and mercilessly pulls me out of the ditch, much to the satisfaction of our audience of patient commuters. Once we got my pickup backed into the po’s driveway and on level ground we fiddled with it a little longer and it touched off and started for no apparent reason. Once it was started I hurriedly said my second goodbye and sped down the road. Did I mention my relationship with Murphy?Since then I’ve grafted in a new engine, replaced all the broken steering, and repaired all the broken transmission mounts that I found to be broken from the owner’s son having so much fun mowing ditches. I’ve had this mower for five years now and it’s provided me with all sorts of good seat time, blowing snow in the North Dakota winters, mowing, disking, tilling, and even pulling a moldboard plow. Though I’m sure my fun is not nearly as close to that of which that kid had in those ditches."

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Great 'tales'! I'd have to sit down and thing up a few. One that comes to mind is an LL101 that had HiLo on it, on the local CL. DIdn't run, and looked nasty, but I picked it up, go the engine running, and parted her out. Bryan has the frame, the tranny is in my 2110, HiLo is on my B-110, steering gears are in the Big Ten (now yellow, of course), spindles went into the Squire and some of it's on the scrap heap. BGB, steering wheel, sheetmetal, rims/tires, etc are all in the parts pile. I consider it a save

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I once found myself in the middle of a "private" junk yard of someone who would NOT sell anything.

I'm staring at a nice early sickle bar and drooling, and trying to talk him out of it.

Do you wanna sell??

Nope, don't even know what its worth.

Going around $250 on ebay, that interest you?

Well maybe. I can't move it (he was about 70) and I'd like it up by the road.

Well I'm not gonna help move it if I can't buy it (joking)

I'll tell you what, you want it that bad, IF you can carry it from here to the road you can have it for $250

Once I figured out how to pick it up without cutting my fingers off, I threw that sickle across my shoulders and walked the 1/4 mile to the road.

And spent my $250 :D:D

that was several years ago, and as far as I know he still has 8 or 9 B's that he wont sell either.

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My Big Ten was a neat find. I think I gave $700 for it, becuase of it's nice, straight steel and lack of any sort of rust. It also came with a deck, 46" dozer, 36" blower, 32" tiller, and some other goodies. I sold all that off to fund the tractor's restoration. I kept hte RH side panel, with the dealer tag. PO had a neat story of how he used it as a kid, and how is father and uncle bought matching machines, new, in the town where I bought it.

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I've tried to get in touch with the seller since, but hve been unable to reach him, to show the result of his sale ;) I like to keep in touch with PO's...

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^^ When we're doing stuff like this, Josh. I want to take my stuff to the PO's place and cut his lawn for him,,,, just once.:D:D

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:D This one was in the classifieds on this site.I found it the day before ad expired. No deck or 3pt. or any other attachments. Running tractor for $675. E mailed PO and found out he was near Pittsfield Mass. 450 mile trip one way for me. Did some e mails to make sure it ran and got a couple of pics. We made our deal and set up a time for me to pick it up. Left work on Friday afternoon and drove straight to Pittsfied. Slept in my truck and found his place next morning about 7:30. We had a good chat as we loaded tractor on my trailer for the return trip. I was the only one to reply to his ad and I almost missed it myself. Headed home and got to my place in time for supper on Sat. There was an apologetic email waiting for me. PO was sorry but he had forgotten that the belly pan was off the tractor because he had changed the drive belts and not reinstalled it. I emailed back to hold on to it and I would figure out a way to get it. The following Sept. I went to a large antique truck show near Balston Spa N.Y. and also to Larry8200's place (RIP Larry) in N.H. Picked up belly pan then. I have since acquired a snowblower, mower deck and the 3pt. stuff for it...Dave

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Here's the Squire 9 I picked up off Perry. I suppose the 'save' belongs to him, but I was able to complete a facelift of it last year. Team Effort! dOd

I think I picked it up in the spring of 2011...or was it 2010? I brought it home and parked it in my folks barn for a year or two before touching it. I took a few months to work through it. Taught myself the art of using a gun when painting this one.

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I hope to have my clamshell B series cab (thanks Dan) recovered in time for summer shows, and add it to the Squire, as in the Wards catalog pics.

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i would like to read this thread; but there's no way i'm going to sit here and scroll left right for every sentence - huge widescreen pix? if necessary, ok. if not, well, you figure it out.

640x480 or 800x600 are recommended. and have been forever.

thx for reading this, if you got this far - i didn't. thx anyway for what's likely an interesting thread. sorry for the interruption.

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quote:Originally posted by MysTiK

i would like to read this thread; but there's no way i'm going to sit here and scroll left right for every sentence - huge widescreen pix? if necessary, ok. if not, well, you figure it out. 640x480 or 800x600 are recommended. and have been forever.thx for reading this, if you got this far - i didn't. thx anyway for what's likely an interesting thread. sorry for the interruption.


id="quote">
id="quote">I didn't have to scroll left and right.
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I love this thread guys. I find the stories of "saves" to be the most intriguing. I'd like to stumble upon an old relic sitting in a farmers pasture somewhere just to be able to say I saved one myself. Not that there's anything wrong with buying from other collectors. Recovering them from a fire, some old derelict that was parked for 30 years after running out of fuel once, draged out of a ditch or scrap pile! Whatever, keep the stories and pictures coming!

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Here's a B207 that I bought from a po. He used this to mow the lawn at his parents farm here in North Dakota all through his childhood. Unfortunately, he started scavenging parts off of it for projects as he became interested in them leaving the tractor a carcass for all intents and purposes. As you can see the tires & wheels were the first things to go. I hope to have to the time piece it back together this summer and next winter. I like the thrill of the hunt for parts so this one is a perfect project for me.

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quote:Originally posted by MysTiK

i would like to read this thread; but there's no way i'm going to sit here and scroll left right for every sentence - huge widescreen pix? if necessary, ok. if not, well, you figure it out. 640x480 or 800x600 are recommended. and have been forever.thx for reading this, if you got this far - i didn't. thx anyway for what's likely an interesting thread. sorry for the interruption.


id="quote">
id="quote">I didn't have any problems with the size of the pics, looked good to medOd
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some of those pics are back when we were newbies and just starting out on the forums. we didn't know about pic size back then .... :D

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Love them Squires! I saw a similar one sitting

in a boneyard, no engine, but the rest was complete.

I bought some Simplicity/AC's from the guy

(including a B1),but he wouldn't sell the Squire.

Now the whole yard is gone, a victim of an

elderly owner, and high scrap prices.

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quote:Originally posted by MysTiK

i would like to read this thread; but there's no way i'm going to sit here and scroll left right for every sentence - huge widescreen pix? if necessary, ok. if not, well, you figure it out. 640x480 or 800x600 are recommended. and have been forever.thx for reading this, if you got this far - i didn't. thx anyway for what's likely an interesting thread. sorry for the interruption.


id="quote">
id="quote">Smileyofftopic.gif
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