standardlee
New member
Well, about a month ago I took delivery on my second tractor, a new Kubota L3800 with a front end loader. So far, it is proving itself to be a very useful thing -- a Swiss army knife on wheels!
My first tractor was a Farm Pro (Jinma) 2524. I paid $2,000 for the tractor, a good rough cut mower, and a very nice King Kutter rotary cultivator. I like to think of it as buying some good used implements at a fair price and getting a lousy tractor thrown in for free.
After spending a little over a year with the Jinma, I concluded that it was actually pretty good device if your expectations were reasonable and you maintained it very thoroughly. But the previous owners had not maintained it thoroughly. Well, actually, I don't think they had maintained it at all. It earned the nickname "Smokey Joe" because of the clouds of acrid smoke that bellowed forth from the crankcase breather when it was under load. It burned oil, it puked oil, it leaked oil, and, possibly, managed to use a little bit of oil for lubrication before burning, puking, or leaking same. Starting it was a complex procedure; starting it in cold weather was an epic battle that required the deployment of booster cables, starting fluid, and every obscenity I knew how to utter. Cold weather or hot, it overheated regularly. But, once I got the hang of dealing with it, I did a lot of work with that thing and grew pretty fond of it whenever I wasn't cursing it blue.
Last May, my partner and I held a party, and since we were expecting guests who had not been to the house before, I parked Smokey Joe in the front yard and told the guests to look for the house with the red tractor in front. Late that night, though, we had a "party crasher" in the form of a numbskull kid who was texting and driving, in that order. Right before my eyes and those of several of my guests, he drove his car off of the highway and right into Smokey Joe. :shocked: The numbskull walked away unhurt, fortunately.
Well, after that, Smokey's engine ran about as well as ever, which is to say not very well. But there were bent wheels and axles, and it looked to me that about the only thing Smokey could do after that would be to plow a field in a zigzag pattern, or maybe in a big circle. Straight lines of any sort would be out of the question. I didn't think fixing what ailed this tractor would have been a good investment before the crash, and I darn sure didn't think so afterward. I gave old Smokey to my father, ostensibly so he could fix it and use it. I think it's a lot more likely that it will spend a few decades rusting away in his yard, which is how old tractors end up sometimes. The insurance company took good care of me, though, and I ended up with my implements paid for and also a few dollars in my pocket to take down to the Kubota dealership.
That was my homeowner's insurance, by the way -- the numbskull was uninsured, of course.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is that new tractors may be more efficient, but old tractors have way better stories. So I'm looking forward to this Kubota ("Cheeto") being around a while and making some good stories. But, I swear I'm never, ever going to park Cheeto in the front yard!
My first tractor was a Farm Pro (Jinma) 2524. I paid $2,000 for the tractor, a good rough cut mower, and a very nice King Kutter rotary cultivator. I like to think of it as buying some good used implements at a fair price and getting a lousy tractor thrown in for free.
After spending a little over a year with the Jinma, I concluded that it was actually pretty good device if your expectations were reasonable and you maintained it very thoroughly. But the previous owners had not maintained it thoroughly. Well, actually, I don't think they had maintained it at all. It earned the nickname "Smokey Joe" because of the clouds of acrid smoke that bellowed forth from the crankcase breather when it was under load. It burned oil, it puked oil, it leaked oil, and, possibly, managed to use a little bit of oil for lubrication before burning, puking, or leaking same. Starting it was a complex procedure; starting it in cold weather was an epic battle that required the deployment of booster cables, starting fluid, and every obscenity I knew how to utter. Cold weather or hot, it overheated regularly. But, once I got the hang of dealing with it, I did a lot of work with that thing and grew pretty fond of it whenever I wasn't cursing it blue.
Last May, my partner and I held a party, and since we were expecting guests who had not been to the house before, I parked Smokey Joe in the front yard and told the guests to look for the house with the red tractor in front. Late that night, though, we had a "party crasher" in the form of a numbskull kid who was texting and driving, in that order. Right before my eyes and those of several of my guests, he drove his car off of the highway and right into Smokey Joe. :shocked: The numbskull walked away unhurt, fortunately.
Well, after that, Smokey's engine ran about as well as ever, which is to say not very well. But there were bent wheels and axles, and it looked to me that about the only thing Smokey could do after that would be to plow a field in a zigzag pattern, or maybe in a big circle. Straight lines of any sort would be out of the question. I didn't think fixing what ailed this tractor would have been a good investment before the crash, and I darn sure didn't think so afterward. I gave old Smokey to my father, ostensibly so he could fix it and use it. I think it's a lot more likely that it will spend a few decades rusting away in his yard, which is how old tractors end up sometimes. The insurance company took good care of me, though, and I ended up with my implements paid for and also a few dollars in my pocket to take down to the Kubota dealership.
That was my homeowner's insurance, by the way -- the numbskull was uninsured, of course.The moral of the story, if there is one, is that new tractors may be more efficient, but old tractors have way better stories. So I'm looking forward to this Kubota ("Cheeto") being around a while and making some good stories. But, I swear I'm never, ever going to park Cheeto in the front yard!
