My latest craigslist score! (long)

   / My latest craigslist score! (long) #1  

kebo

Elite Member
Joined
May 16, 2006
Messages
2,910
Location
Lexington, SC
Tractor
2001 John Deere 790 4x4, bar tires
Got on CL late this afternoon and there was a 3pt spreader listed for $200, looked good in the pic's and the post was just an hour old so I sent an email with my number. He called me about an hour later and I asked a few questions, then asked if I could come look at it right away and he agreed. So after mappinghis address with google, I was on my way, and he was only about 10 miles from me on the other side of town, so only took abut 20 min toget there.

His story was it belonged to a deceased uncle andhe was just selling to get it out of his mothers back yard. This house was in a residential area (1/2 acre lot) and the seller did not own a tractor, so I knew it was gonna be like taking candy from a baby lol. However, he had done some homework on it and learned that it sold new for $419, which I had done too when I first saw the ad. It was in reasonably good shape, the gearbox turned freely, and the seed gate was not rusted out or froze up. It' a Cosmo model P spreader, which holds 900lbs.

The catch... if you look at the pic, you will see it's missing the tractor end of the PTO shaft. He did have two other PTO shafts that he was going to throw in with the deal. He figured somebody could make one working shaft out of all them together. So then I started looking at everything real close and figured out that you could not make one working PTO shaft out of what he had. So I pointed that out to him and then said I would have to spend about $100 to get a new PTO shaft for it because you cannot buy just half of a shaft. I told him considering all that, I would be willing to go $160 on it, including all the PTO shafts and he said he would take it!!

The deal with the PTO shafts is that the short half shaft that came with the spreader (from Cosmo) has a 1" square tube end. The yellow colored half of the shaft laying inthe truck bed is of the Walterscheid design tube, so it won't mate up. The other black shaft has Post Hole Digger stamped in it, so it's obviously made for PHD's (duhhh) and it has a 1 3/8'' smoothbore end for the gear box on a PHD (to use with a shear bolt). Thegear box on this spreader has a 1 3/8" 6 spline on its input shaft. The only thing I have not done is to pull this PHD shaft apart and see what type of tube it has. If it has a 1" tube, then I can probably make it work, but it will have to be cut down. However, I suspect is also the Walterscheid design too. Honestly though, I would hate to cut it down just for this spreader as I could probably sellor trade it for the shaft that I do need.

The kicker is that he also has a rusty but NICE Ferguson 5ft scrape blade and a 5 shank cultivator (tillage tool) that he was going to sell too. He wanted $300 for the both of them, and I probably would have gotten those too, but on such short notice I didn't have any way to pick them up and haul them back with me. If he still has them later this week, I will seriously consider going back to pick them up too. The blade looked like it was ready to go, but the tillage tool would need a little bit of work, at least one of the sweeps was broken, and one of the shanks was laying on the ground, didn't look at it real close to see what was wrong with it.

So, I'm going to start looking for a 1" square PTO shaft that will mate up with the shaft on the spreader, or a complete shaft for spreaders. I know I need the end that attaches to the tractor, but is it the male or female end of the 1" square tube? If anyone in the midlands SC area has what I need, I am open for a trade on a shaft.
 

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   / My latest craigslist score! (long) #2  
Two satisfied parties=good deal.
 
 
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