{"id":124,"date":"2005-10-07T07:59:40","date_gmt":"2005-10-07T07:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.jmatt.net\/?p=124"},"modified":"2013-11-28T02:39:24","modified_gmt":"2013-11-28T02:39:24","slug":"another-geek-gadget-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"Another Geek Gadget Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent some time last weekend playing with another techno-toy. Like the iPod<\/a>, I’ve had the latest toy for a while, but had to get some accessories before I could use it enough to say much about it. Unlike the iPod, it’s not exactly pocket size.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The latest toy is a Ford 6610<\/a> tractor. It’s a little bigger than I need, but the lure of the front-end loader proved irresistible. “New” is a relative term. It’s new to me, and, at about 20 years old, it’s still young in tractor years. In fact, the ~40-year-old David Brown 990 it replaced still had some life. I was just tired of tolerating some quirks, like bad brakes and hydraulics, that weren’t easily fixable for a reasonable price. The braking issue, combined with a light front end, frequently made steering out of predicaments a little problematic, and more than once contributed to sinking to the axles in mud. And trying to find parts for an obsolete British model that never was very popular is a pain. Around here, tractors are blue (Ford\/New Holland) or green (John Deere), and while some of the less popular models may be just as good, it’s a lot easier to find dealers stocking blue or green parts.<\/p>\n

\nTractors tend to last forever, and hold their value almost as long. That means anybody whose budget demands a used tractor is probably going to be looking at double-digit age before the price starts to look like a used price. After looking at a recent issue of Fastline<\/a> to get a rough idea of what I was going to have to pay, I set some parameters and started looking.<\/p>\n

\nNot being a mechanical genius, I decided to pay a dealer’s markup to get one that had been recently serviced, rather than paying less to an individual and risking a mechanical headache. I called around looking for something in the same horsepower range as my 990, because it was pretty close to what I needed. Two dealers each had something a little bigger than what I was looking for, which was better than too small. One was green, and the other was red (Massey-Ferguson).<\/p>\n

\nFondly remembering my summers in Canada on larger Masseys, and still lamenting the loss of my MF ball cap, I decided to check out the Massey first, ignoring my brother’s warning that Masseys had a reputation for bad hydraulics. They couldn’t be as bad as the poorly-designed David Brown system that had never worked properly. Besides, it had a loader, which I could do without, but sure wouldn’t mind having.<\/p>\n

\nMaybe my brother was right. I started the Massey, eased the lift control lever down, and watched as the hitch arms remained motionless. I looked at the salesman, who hastened to assure me that it really worked, there was just a trick to it, and started to talk about draft control vs. position control and how I needed to adjust both levers. I said “Okay, show me”. He kept insisting that it would work, and I kept insisting that I wasn’t going to buy the tractor until I saw<\/b> it work. So finally he asked somebody else what the “trick” was, and after they both messed with it for a while, they pulled it into the shop and started beating on the transmission with a hammer and block of wood. I decided that if that was the “trick”, I wasn’t interested. If I wanted something I had to beat on, I’d get a mule.<\/p>\n

\nOn my way out of the parking lot to go look at the green option, I remembered there was another dealer nearby that I hadn’t called. I decided to wander in there and see what they had. At first, the salesman couldn’t think of anything he had that would fit. He had a cute little New Holland compact, but he didn’t think it would handle my mower very well. He said it might work, if I didn’t have any hills, but it really would be better with a smaller mower. I wasn’t looking to downsize.<\/p>\n

\nThen he asked if I needed a loader, and I replied that it wasn’t essential but I wouldn’t mind having one. So he showed me the Ford, bigger than anything I’d considered, but you can never have too much tractor. The price was reasonable, so I took it.<\/p>\n

\nBelieve it or not, the missing accessory that kept me from getting much use out of it at first wasn’t a beer holder; that was already installed<\/a>. I just needed a pair of stabilizer bars<\/a> for the 3-point hitch-mounted mower. The amount of time and money I spent finding and buying a pair of metal bars with holes drilled in them was ridiculous (I could have bought another iPod instead), but I had to have them. They wouldn’t be essential for flat ground, but I’ve got some slopes<\/a>to mow, and I like to keep the mower centered behind the tractor instead of swinging downhill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nAfter lots of telephone calls, and internet searching, and consultation with mechanics, and getting the wrong parts, and more consultation, I finally ended up with what I needed. Ironically, the local blue dealer, where I had to buy the parts, was the one who tried to sell me the defective Massey. The dealer who sold me the tractor was a green dealer who had taken the Ford as a trade-in, but didn’t handle parts for it. <\/p>\n

\nSo after finally getting the mower hooked up and stabilized, I started attacking weeds. It didn’t take long to find out that having more power than one needs requires one to use the force wisely. In just a couple of hours, I managed to destroy a shear pin<\/a> in the mower driveline that had withstood eight years of abuse with the old tractor. Previously, if I hit something I shouldn’t, the tractor would bog down. Instead, the Ford neatly sheared a half-inch grade-5 bolt without even breathing hard, leaving me suddenly wondering why the grass didn’t seem to be getting any shorter. After finally realizing the problem, I figured it probably won’t be the last time that happens, and picked up a supply of replacement bolts.<\/p>\n

\nAnother minor exception to the “bigger is always better” rule is that the taller exhaust stack has a problem with some low-hanging branches. Since I don’t want to buy mufflers in quantity like the shear bolts, I think I need to do some judicious pruning before next mowing season. <\/p>\n

\nAs mowing season is just about over, I’ll have to find some other excuses to play with it this fall\/winter. The loader is handy for turning my compost pile; it could also be good for clearing snow if we ever get any.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent some time last weekend playing with another techno-toy. Like the iPod, I’ve had the latest toy for a while, but had to get some accessories before I could use it enough to say much about it. Unlike the iPod, it’s not exactly pocket size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekstuff","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9mOtr-20","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.redhorse.me\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}