Frank's random auction purchases/ daily driver work trucks thread.

Outlaw

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If I ever end up getting some land I’m definitely going to have to check these things out or give you a shopping list and money to get some stuff. :rofl:

That's pretty much what I'm doing now that I've got the land. Most of my bids are for flips, but there's a tractor, two sickle bar mowers, a hay rake and a few other odds and ends that I'm planning to utilize. The kids that we have cut and bale our fields are swamped with other work right now so I'm just going to do it myself now that I've got the tractor. There really aren't any balers at this auction that look halfway decent, so I'll probably source one from marketplace. I'll also be a lot more comfortable buying one from someone that's used it to make sure its in time and such since timing a baler can be a 12 hour job depending on how fucked up it is.

The "ideal" hay setup is 50 horsepower tractor, a haybine (essentially imagine a grain head on a combine with sickle bar, with an auger feeding two rubber drums called conditioners that squish/flatten the hay as it goes through to dry it out quicker), a rake and a baler.

I will be doing this with my 27 horsepower utility tractor for sure, potentially another small tractor if it goes cheap enough (Farmall Super H, less powerful than my Case 310 but enough power to run the sickle mower, rake and pull a hay cart), a sickle bar mower which does not condition or windrow the hay since they take fuck all for power to run, a rake which is ground driven off its own wheels and only requires the tractors pulling power, and the baler. Being that I'm on flat ground my tractor SHOULD run a smaller square baler without too much issue. Baler most likely won't have a kicker to toss the finished bales and pulling a wagon behind the setup will probably be too much for my tractor, so I'll have to hand stack them on a trailer.

With our lack of rain, I don't think I'll suffer to much not having the conditioner that the haybine would've provided, and I can always buy a conditioner separately and run it in-line with the right sickle mower, or just add a step and condition the crop after being cut and windrowed.

So yeah, this whole agriculture thing is escalating quickly lol. I would like to get a Farmall 400/450 which is right at the bottom of that 50 horsepower requirement, or something like a 706/756 which is 73/80 horsepower respectively and can do a hell of a lot of work pretty effortlessly.

I'd love to be running green machines, but fuck are they pricey. Year for year, horsepower for horsepower, option for option, hours for hours you can get the same damn tractor painted red for a fraction of the cost because they made so damn many of them. A Farmall M/ Super M turned up will get you mid 40 horsepower all day, and if you're patient can be had for next to nothing because they made 100,000 of those fuckers and they're damn hard to kill. There was a Super M locally with new rear tires, 3pt conversion (able to run damn near any implement made from the mid 50's to present), aftermarket governor (power increase), rear hydraulic remote and a clutch in 2017 for $2,000... For some patience and another $400 I could've found a wide front for it to make it a true 4-wheel tractor instead of a V-wheel. The shit is insanely cheap if you're willing to work with old stuff.
 

Outlaw

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4020 probably doesn't know it's back there lol. From my limited experience a lot of the older balers don't take much to run at all since so much energy is stored in the flywheel. I know a few guys that run 'em with M's or Super M's on flat ground without issue.

If I can get a good deal on a Super M with a 3pt I'd snag one and just feed it some onions and make it happen. I really don't want to use my Case for that kind of shit, rather let it pull the wagon and utilize the loader that I bought it for and beat up on a machine I can go to any farm store and get parts for.
 
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Outlaw

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I'll probably end up with a haybine before too long if this ends up being worthwhile. Guy that used to cut hay for a lot of people around here moved so there's a chance I could pick up some of those fields. All of them are within a three mile radius of my place. It's probably a pretty even split between people that need the hay and would pay me to cut and bale and people that don't have anything to feed that I could just throw them a buck a bale for and sell it off myself. As of right now I have my five acres of our own pasture to do, two acres at a friends place down the road and probably another 20 along my 2.3 mile road alone. I'd have consistent help if needed as well between my 2nd shift working neighbor and friend down the road.

Neighbor has a nice 30x150 open side shed that he's down for filling up since all he has in there are two square body Chevy's and a lawn mower lol. He works second shift and wants to give a hand from 7-1 if needed. Figure it'd be a nice little source of side revenue seeing how our area pretty much constantly commands 5-8 buck smalls for good grass hay and there are a fair amount of people on my road and one road over that bought 10 acre parcels because they wanted peace and quiet but don't keep any livestock and are happy to take a couple hundred bucks 2-3 times a year for a mowed backyard lol.

The one thing I'm willing to spend good money on is a baler. They're all headaches so it seems, but I want something that isn't going mistie every other bale.
 

GTPpower

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Our new Holland has been good. I don't know much about other brands, but it's basically trouble free. Dad's probably owned it for 30 years.

I can't remember what they are called now, but the two long times that push the twine up through the hay when it ties, wear out where the twine travels through them. We've built them up with a welder a couple times, but that's about all we've done to it.
 

Outlaw

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FIrst win of the day. Farmall H tractor. Drawbar only, no 3pt. Has 540 pto, an aftermarket O/D trans and 12v converted. Ran great when I ran it and it doesn't have a leak on it anywhere. $850.

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Outlaw

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Never been to that one but I've heard of them.

And yeah, you'll run into the farmer engineered solutions on the older machines. Usually it either worked well enough to continue to be used the way it is, or you can un-fuck it by just fixing it correctly. That H I bought looks largely unmolested, fired right up when I started it and ran through the lower gears without issue. I'll take an all original machine like that with no leaks that hasn't had a half-ass "restoration" any day over a shiny one lol.
 

Outlaw

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With these old Farmalls there's not a ton you can Jerry rig that isn't easily reverted, minus like JB Welding a case or block or some shit, which is easy enough to see if you take five minutes to look.

I also just realized I'm going to have to fab up a center ramp for my trailer. Never had to put a V-wheel anything on there yet lol. Fack.
 

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