Old Friends

[xrsrfn]

I had a tear in my eye when I left the dealer with the new tractor on the trailer. I looked at the Ford 3000 as I drove by and remembered all the times I had growing up learning how to drive and live. Dad bought it when I was sixteen and it did a lot of work over the next 39 years. Man I had some good and bad times on that tractor. It was almost not worth the trade in to leave it but allowed me to afford the new LS and it is the right color. How many have some of their fondest and worst memories on the first tractor they where allowed to solo on?

 

[kday64]

XR,

I have had similar feelings back in November when I bought Jinny, my BX2360 and I didn't have a trade-in. It felt like I was cheating on my dad's old Ford tractor. The sad part is my dad's Ford still doing God's work back in MI while I am in CT.

Do you have any pictures? New next to old?

~Kevin

 

[TripleR]

I sure have many memories good and bad with out first new tractor, a new 1955 Ford 600 my dad traded in a couple of older Ford N Series tractors when I was eight years old. Fortunately we still have it and my brother uses it regularly. My dad loved that old tractor and while he traded cars and trucks constantly would never part with his beloved Ford. I have many fond memories of driving it as a youngster and working with him many years later in his retirement.

 

[pat32rf]

My first "solo" was on a homemade that my grandfather built. Ford Model something front end, two truck tranny's in tandem and a truck rear end with 20" tires. We "borrowed" it (along with my uncle's 22) for a hunting trip when we were about 14. Got it back before anyone got home from a family wedding, thank goodness.
Skip forward 17 years to the best truck I've ever owned, a 76 Scout (ordered new), that I just couldn't trade in when the time came to replace it (1998). It is still parked out behind my barn, ever hopeful...

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I've had my 770 for about a year and a half and I hate the thought of giving it up. Hope I never have to.

 

[Bird]

My first tractor use was in the early '50s when Dad bought a 1940 John Deere L and I'd think up jobs that needed to be done, just to get to drive the tractor.

 

[Johndeere3720]

First tractor i was Solo on was my grandpa's old JD 2210. No FEL but I mowed the lawn and graded the arenas. Next I got to drive my great grandma's JD2210 with a 210 FEL and moved manure around the yard into the flower beds. And finally third was when my dad got his 3720 back in 2005. That was Solo #3. So i basically started out on SCUTs unless you count my dad's JD L110 riding mower which I got to drive when i was 8 although it technically isnt a tractor.

 

[deere755]

Well it wasnt the 1st tractor I ever owned but I watched as my 755 left on a truck this week and I was pretty sad watching it leave. I just posted back in the winter that I would never trade it off. I always mowed roadsides with it while my Dad or my son used the batwing and I would follow up next to the crop and trim up around the posts. I guess the dealer caught me at a weak moment and made me too good of a deal to turn down. I was always doing something on that little tractor and I will miss having it around.

 

[xrsrfn]

Thank you for the replies. I will post some pics of the new tractor that I am sure I will have lots of good memories on. I know it feels a little tipsier than the old 3000. I think I drove the olsd one enough that I could drive it on two wheels and not think about it. I had a couple of puckers last weekend but was impressed with the 4x4 traction it was awsome.

 

[ruralruss]

My first was a John Deere B with a hand clutch. We called it a Johnny Popper. I have no idea how old I was, maybe 10 to 12 years but it was older than me. Of course I got to steer from between pop's legs when I was four or five. Then pop bought a used Farmall Super M. What a tractor! That thing would pull. Ask anybody who has ever drove one if they remember the seat. It was a ride by itself!