Property out of town - Haul your tractor, or build storage - opinions?

[Snowback]

I'm struggling with potentially biting the bullet on some type of onsite tractor storage. Our property is 40 miles from town. 30 minutes by car or truck and 45+/- minutes when loaded with trailer. Not really that bad in the overall scheme of things.

It is somewhat of a chore/pain to load from town and head back and forth with tractor and implements. In town there is a relatively low chance of theft with many more deterrents in place and there are two acres here where I use the tractor from time to time, but it's usually because I'm lazy. The machine probably should live up on site... Can anyone speak to the life altering improvements/epiphanies they may have have had after being able to leave their tractor and some tools/equipment on site as opposed to hauling back and forth? (Assuming a properly secured shed or container with locks, insurance, maybe game cameras, etc...) There are neighbors on the adjoining 20 acre tracts on a reasonably well traveled county road. Theft would be one item, but insurance would allow me to sleep at night. Mice and other critters would be another possible issue I do not currently have to deal with.

We're not ready to commit to anything permanent up there in terms of large buildings since final location of things might change, so it would either be a container, or a lower cost, built on site structure.

It just seems that some days I would be much more likely to hop in the truck and rip out to work for a few hours if the tractor was there and ready to go, as opposed to planning ahead, trying to string a few days worth of work together, and then performing the "load/haul/unload, repeat" ritual. I am able to haul my full kit in one fell swoop and have become reasonably proficient at getting all the implements on the trailer at one time. I appreciate this is a somewhat trivial request for input, but was curious if anyone else has had a similar experience either way with insights that could be shared.

Thanks in advance!

 

[hawkeye08]

If me, I would put a container onsite and secure my tools there. Downside is the extra travel/work when you need the tools at home. Sometimes I have time/energy to do a task, but if you add additional time/travel then miss that opportunity.

 

[JerryK]

Sometimes hard to get any type of insurance on stuff if it's on property that you don't live on. There has been at least one discussion on this forum about a guy that used a on site container to store his tractor, but I don't know what it was under. I remember something about him putting in a shelf type storage above his FEL bucket to give him more room for his other stuff...

 

[flusher]

Nothing will deter a determined thief from getting your tractor. All he needs is a battery-powered angle grinder with a handful of cutoff blades to saw through anything in his way.

Use your trailer and keep your tractor near you at all times.

Good luck

 

[Snowback]

Thank you hawkeye08, JerryK, and flusher! This very short sample of varied responses covers a lot of my thoughts very concisely... My brain continues to hurt. Certainly pros and cons here. Sure wish there weren't stinkin' thieves out there.

To haul or not to haul remains the question. Please keep 'em coming if anyone else has additional input.

 

[brasco426]

Nothing will deter a determined thief from getting your tractor. All he needs is a battery-powered angle grinder with a handful of cutoff blades to saw through anything in his way.

Use your trailer and keep your tractor near you at all times.

Good luck

Boy I couldn't agree more. If it were me I think I'd keep it near me. We work too hard to have some thief come and steal our stuff. Drugs are everywhere and the addicts addicted to them and most will steal anything to get high. A camera is just going to catch them on video, and only usable if you can ID them. That's a tough call Snowback, I was a contractor overseas and thieves broke in my house because they knew I was gone. I immediately got a security system from ADT. Still even some thieves look at it as they have time even if they trip it before the cops show depending how far out you are.

 

[930ck]

My farm is only 6 miles from where I store my tractor but found that I didn't use my tractor as much as I wanted to because of the hassle of getting it to and from the farm, decided to get a shipping container.
Now if I have an hour of tractor work I don't waste that much time getting it there and back, have the tractor insured and still worry about theft but am getting a lot more use out of tractor.
The only thing I keep in container is the tractor and implements, all tools go back to town with me.

 

[s219]

Been through the same thing, and I transported the tractor every time I needed it. I got good at loading/unloading. Often, I'd load up the night before so in the morning, I could just head out.

 

[kebo]

Nothing will deter a determined thief from getting your tractor. All he needs is a battery-powered angle grinder with a handful of cutoff blades to saw through anything in his way.

Use your trailer and keep your tractor near you at all times.

Good luck

This would get my vote. It only takes one theft/vandalism incident at the remote property to wipe out a lot of your hard work and efforts to have a nice tractor and equipment to go with it. Even with insurance to cover it, which is really just a bandaid for the physical theft/damage, but it won't help the emotional aspect of it too much.

If you do decide to leave it stored on the remote property, go ahead and prepare yourself mentally that at some point it will get stolen or vandalized, and when/if it really does happen, then it won't be such a killjoy.

 

[kthompson]

By chance do you have a neighbor who would let you store the storage container on their property near their buildings or such. You might could have customer latch assembly to offer protection for the lock itself from a grinder.