Hey lurkers

[Tdog]

If you are like me, I read TBN for some time before I made the big jump & bought a tractor. Let me just say that you should not put your tractor purchase off - - we lived in the country for 10 years before I bought the tractor. In the 1st year, we hired a bulldozer to clear room for our pasture & barn - - the house was here already. After that, my wife & I took down many trees by hand. It was really hard work - - I cannot emphasize enough how much easier it is now that we have that 3 cylinder diesel working with us.
I would probably never have made the jump, but the Kubota financing plan pushed/pulled me into the deal. I'm coming up on 3 years & currently have just over 650 hours on the BX-22. That was the right size for my 6 acres.
I don't cosider myself an expert by any means, I don't think you will regret buying a tractor.

 

[RalphVa]

My life's a lot easier with purchase of my 4010 JD. Learned a lot here to select it. Made do with a Gravely for about 4 years. It beats a wheelbarrow, particularly on hills, but was a whole lot more work than using the JD.

Yesterday, I made only 2 trips down to my garden with mulch and did 4 rows, using my FEL and carryall combo. With the Gravely, I was lucky to get one row done and had to unload into buckets and carry down the rows, as the Gravely wasn't high enough to straddle the raised rows. With the JD yesterday, I just ran it down with the wheels between the rows: the rows I'd done with my chisel plow/opposed disc combo.

Was finally able to clear out the vine mess underneath a red cedar near the end of some of the garden rows that was always giving me fits. Shredded it all up with my MacKissic on the 3ph. Now, I can go down there and turn around without hanging up in vines.

Ralph

 

[IslandTractor]

Lurkers, stay away. These guys who proselytize about tractors are like crack dealers. They are just trying to pull you in to an evil world were you'll spend all your time checking posts on TBN, worrying about which attachment to buy next, and wishing you could upgrade to a bigger tractor. Sure, a tractor will save you some time in the garden or fields but since when do we Americans, the most out of shape, over weight folks on earth, need more seat time instead of exercise? It's a conspiracy I tell you. Stay away before they get you into their grasp. There is no return. It's the night of the living tractor dead. Your tortured soul will linger forever on TBN worrying whether you chose the right hydraulic fluid or if you can live another day without a grapple attachment. Run, don't walk. Quickly while you still can. Go to Sears. Get a push mower and hand saw and a shovel. Run, Run, Run. Do what you must but don't buy a tractor.

And send help. There are hundreds of us trapped in TBN limbo. Think of our poor unsupervised children and the horror of our wives living as TBN widows. There must be a cure. Write your congressman, ask them to fund research studies and treatment centers. Please, it's almost too late.

By the way, if you cannot send help to those of us trapped in here, at least stop lurking, register now and help us make decisions about important things like synthetic oils, toothbars, mower size, box blades and, of course, tractor colors.

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[ByronBob]

See the biggest problem with buying a tractor is after the initial love relationship you start having with the tractor, it gets dirty, then the next model year comes out with new and improved gadgets.

Then you ask yourself:

I could afford a new one
Do I need a bigger one
Why on earth would my neighbor not have my brand or even a smaller tractor than mine
Who are all these strange people we communicate with here...

 

[djwill]

you a funny guy.. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jbrumberg]

To Ed & All Lurkers:

When the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is released there will be a new Category Identified: Tractorphilia

You have already identified the diagnostic criteria. There is no known cure at present. The etiology is unclear, but do not talk to a freudian! Jay

 

[Jstpssng]

Hey potential owners, don't listen to these guys. There is nothing wrong with wanting a tractor.

And once you get one, it's only natural for guys to wish for something bigger than what we have. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Tractors really aren't addictive, the reason I end up talking about them to the seller for 2 hours everytime I buy a used implement is because I feel for underpriveleged people which they must be; why else would they be selling off their tractor toys-
ER, tools?

Let me close with one last comment, paraphrased from someone here although I don't recall the source.
"Give a man a row of corn, he'll eat for a week. Give him a tractor, and he'll spend the rest of hislife in pursuit of implements which he may or may not use. (Yet will always need.)"

Seriously though, I wanted a tractor for years before I bought one. Now I wonder how I got along without it. Examine your needs/wants, and if it's within your budget, go for it.

 

[IslandTractor]

<font color="blue"> When the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is released there will be a new Category Identified: Tractorphilia
</font>
Actually, I've seen the next edition in draft form. They actually break Tractorphilia into several subtypes. The current draft includes the following:

-lurkophilia (the mildest form and arguable curable if diagnosed early or if the internet connection is lost)
-obsessive complusive attachment shopomania
-oil and lubricants fetish and the more severe oil/lub paranoid psychosis form
-tractor color racism subgroup
-"defenders of the faith" subgroup (tend to clash violently at times with the color racism group)
-tractor isn't big/powerful enough depressive form
-registered tractor owners who hang out in other brand forums are afflicted by a form as yet without a formal name but referred to as the "peeking at the other guy in the urinal syndrome"
-the "to a man with a welder, every piece of steel looks like a tractor project" syndrome (diagnostic criteria include hanging out in the customization, DIYS and project forums)
-the backhoe deficiency syndrome subtype (also sometimes referred to as the "should have bought the BH with the tractor" subgroup)
-the turf vs R4 tire choice paralysis syndrome (particularly common amongst PowerTrac and subcompact owners apparently)
-the Rodney Dangerfield "I don't get no respect" varient which seems common in owners of tractors with colors other than green, blue or orange and particularly in the owner's of Chinese tractors.
-the weird avatar subtype
-the post your tractor purchace price on each post for ever subtype

It appears there may be even more subtypes identified in the future now that DNA testing is available.

Search continues for a vaccine as the diseases are felt by reputable epidemiologists to be contagious. The sad truth is that each of these illnesses is incurable once unlimited access to TBN is permitted. CDC recommends "safe lurking" practices be followed which apparently means having your wife sit with you whenever you access TBN. Many men object to this as unnatural and unsatisfying however and manage to access TBN illicitly while on the road or when their wives are unaware.

Congress is holding hearings soon and it is possible that Homeland Security will become involved especially as some experts believe foreign intervention was critical in allowing these illnesses to spread from their native farming communities to other more vulnerable segments of the population.

 

[slowrev]

Yeah tractors are great, you buy one and then find out you are color prejudiced /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben

 

[jbrumberg]

Ed: Awesome prerelease of DSM-5 information. I am still laughing (even my wife found some humor with TBN this time). Or maybe it was the bilateral ECT I self-administered with jumper cables running off my tractor battery. I originally thought the current was too low and was considering running the jumpers off the alternator posts. Keep up the good work. Jay