Anyone leave their tractor out in the weather?

[Mark Page]

We bought our property in January of '96. The previous winter I read 2 books on pole barn construction. Drew my own simple plans for the county. In March I started construction on a 24x48 pole barn. I has 4-8x12 sliding doors out front which gives me 4-12x24 foot bays.
It gives me room for everything including my rider, a 4 wheeler 2 tractors and my jon boat as well as all my implements.
The final touches went on in November. It includes a hanging pole for butchering deer, a small woodstove for cooking venison a 36" 8 ft workbench and shelves for my decoys and other misc. debris.
I had a lot of help from buddies and a little bit of hired help. Including materials and some grading with a small dozer I spent $9,000 to build it. Had a contractor give me a price he wanted $22,000 1996 dollars. It was a lot of fun to build as I had never built anything with a roof before.
I did cheap out and put in a stone floor, big mistake. I used T-111 for the siding, big mistake.
The only change the County wanted made was to use Southern Yellow Pine for the double beams front and rear. The County had a problem with the way I wanted to pour the footers. Showed the inspector the books I read and he let it go. Passed the final inspection with flying colors.

Had 40" of snow on the top one time without a problem. I don't think it's settled an inch in 15 years.

 

[EE_Bota]

My BX is indoors. My Farmpro is outdoors. It has been outdoors for a few years by the previous owner, and I can sure tell it. I have only owned it for around a month, and I am trying to get all the fluids changed and get it looking better.

It has a ROPS with the white hood attached to the Rops. What I find is I can pull a tarp over the front and up over the ROPS hood to about middle. Then I pull another tarp from the rear over the backhoe, and again over the ROPS hood and the previous tarp an inch or two. Add four bungees, and it is its own building.

I would like to build another barn, and I am in the process of seeing if I have to get a permit for a pole barn. If I do, I won't build. I have little space, and I am thinking about moving someday just to get more space, and flatter ground. Most any place I would buy would either have buildings, or would have plenty of space to build them. I only have an acre right now.

 

[blueriver]

I'm fortunate ...I have a machine shed/shop and a hay barn ... I like to put the tractors in the hay shed until its full of hay ... the shop just gets to hot in the summer.

Very seldom do they stay in the field overnight and if they do I just deal with it.

 

[Bob Ha]

We have three tractors and all are in the barn when not in use. They have better living quarters than I. Cement floors, double insulated walls and ceilings, three wide/tall roll up doors and office space for future use. We also keep the cutter, rake, baler and sprayer inside or under the eves. We bought a New Holland used and it spent some time outside and you can tell by the plastics and paint. We have a 23 year old JD 650 bought used but has spent it's entire life inside and looks almost new.

 

[s219]

I did cheap out and put in a stone floor, big mistake. I used T-111 for the siding, big mistake.

Can you go into more detail? I was thinking about both a stone floor and T-111, and would be curious to know your thoughts!

 

[RonS]

All of my machinery, SCUT, garden tractor, implements stay in a shed or garage. Might be overkill but I like the shiny and new look.

 

[murphy1244]

Can you go into more detail? I was thinking about both a stone floor and T-111, and would be curious to know your thoughts!

Me too. I'm replacing some and was going to use t-111

 

[crackerjack222]

My tractors lived outside for years. Besides the deterioration of paint and exposed hardware rusting, it is hard on the starters. The starter would have to be removed, cleaned and lubed about every 5 years. I now have them under roof and expect to have much fewer problems with paint, hardware, hoses, tires, instruments, seats and starters.

 

[sam5570]

i have always been big on keeping everything out of the elements my tractor has been kept in shed sence new it'02 and looks new my vehicle's i normally keep 12 to 14 years and they have no rust or fading when i sell them i was kidding my wife when i said when and if we ever move i will make sure i build garage before i build house.

 

[TerryR]

I used t-111 for my three outbuildings, and I'm less than thrilled. I've got several places where the outer ply is coming loose, even though I've kept it stained. It does that especially on the 8" strips I ripped for fascias, but also in a few places in the siding panels. Maybe a more robust coating than the semi-transparent stain I used would have helped. As a minimum I'd recommending using something else for the fascias.

Terry