Use of old time tractor radios?

mrutkaus · Jan 23, 2007

For anyone who had/has a "tractor radio", that is, the old fashioned kind designed to mount on the hood or fender in a metal box with a whip antenna on top.

How could you listen to them with the tractor being so loud when it was running? How popular were they? How well did they work?

Mike

Soundguy · Jan 23, 2007

That's what headphones were invented for. My tractor has a radio on the fender.. it has a HP jack.. I got the biggest comfiest pair of 'muff' style phones that radio shack had.. works fine. the muffs block out the noise and keep the tunes in.

When im on my other tractors, I simply use a set of shooting muffs, and put some ear buds in under the muff and use an arm band radio.

Soundguy

53gravely · Jan 24, 2007

Geezus those things were loud! I remember before he got a cab tractor, the dairy farmer's son across the road would crank up his fender radio and you could easily make out the song a half mile away....of course that was twenty years ago and today the inside of his MX cab tractor is nicer than my car--CD player, satelite radio, etc-

jimmy1 · Jan 24, 2007

Wow those are old. We had one on the dairy farm eons ago and they were loud. You had to crank it up to hear over the tractor and we did at first as it was a big thing to have a radio on a tractor but the novelty soon wore off because of the noise. This one did not have ear phone jacks.

Jim

daTeacha · Jan 24, 2007

My dealer still sells those things. If you want one, Google Ashland Implement in Ashland, Ohio. I think they have a website, but I'm not sure.

Soundguy · Jan 24, 2007

TSC sells them.. and i have seen them at the CNH dealer..

Soundguy

Farmwithjunk · Jan 24, 2007

Soundguy said:
TSC sells them.. and i have seen them at the CNH dealer..

Soundguy

I think TSC is still selling some of the first batch

Those are the ones I remember first. I got out of school and got a job. 2nd paycheck went for a fender radio. Music was that important then and sitting on a tractor for endless hours was the most BORING thing on earth at that age. The tractor it went on wasn't all that loud. ('56 F-40 Ferguson) My radio was loud. I was a real rebel.

DK35vince · Jan 24, 2007

Tractor Supply sells fender mount or roof mount tractor radios in the metal case with headphone jacks.
I got the roof mount radio and mounted it under the canopy.
I put on the headphones, it blocks out the motor noise and I can enjoy listening to the radio while I mow..

mrutkaus · Feb 1, 2007

Thanks for the info, I did get one off ebay when I got my tractor and planned to use it, but when I realized the noise level I switched to the Peltor yellow earmuff radio...

But I imagine they were quite the thing.

Mike