Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living Friend lost a tractor.

A good friend ( #1) of mine called about 2:30 this afternoon and said come quick to another friends (#2) house. #1's tractor was on fire. I grabbed a small fire extinguisher and a couple of 5 gallon buckets and headed about 4 miles down the road. When I got there, the tractor was a full ablaze and #1 was just trying to keep the fire from getting into the woods and/or burning #2's tractor and/or house. #1 had called the fire dept. but it took them about 20 min. to get there (rural dept). The fire got into the woods, but only burned about an acre and it was just leaves and a little underbrush, no trees. We managed to keep it beat back from the tractor and house and I guess all total it burned about 2.5-3 acres. Burned about 10 rolls of hay, too.

#2's tractor wouldn't start, so #1 drove over on his tractor and was making a few passes around the house. Just cut about 100' on each side and the back of #2's yard. The house sits in a field that is usually cut for hay, but wasn't cut this year. He said he looked back at the bush hog and when he turned back to the front, the tractor was ablaze around the diesel tank. The tank sets just in front of the steering wheel, under the hood. Tractor was a total loss. Bush hog will probably be ok and it had a front end loader on it, maybe it can be salvaged. I just dont know.

If I remember, the tractor was a 460 Long.

In 1996, I had been drilling some wheat, and when I was finished, I pulled my 5600 Ford into the equipment shed with the drill still attached. The equipment shed was an old cattle barn that I'd worked on and converted into a place to keep my tractors. I went in the house to eat, and when I came back out, it was fully engulfed. Apparently, the 5600 caught on fire and it spread to the wooden structure. I also had a 7700 Ford, a 6 row planter, and a "C" Allis Chalmers in there, and I lost them all.

I learned a very valuable lesson......make sure everything is itemized on your insurance policy. I didn't do it, and the insurance payoff barely covered the cost of replacing one tractor. That fire 21 years ago this month put me out of row crop farming, as I couldn't afford to buy the equipment back that I'd lost. I stuck with cattle and tobacco for a few more years, then put everything in CRP and concentrated on my Post Office job. We pulled everything out of CRP, except for 17 acres when my brother died, and cash rented the cropland to a neighbor.

I've been fortunate to be able to buy back a couple of tractors, and some new equipment in the years since the fire. I'm actually, equipment wise, in better shape now than I was then. But, the difference is that I depended on that equipment a lot more in 1996 to make a living, than I do now. I feel for anyone who loses their possessions to a fire.

bearings going out on combines burns up a lot of ground and equipment every year as well

Had a bearing go out on a 510 Massey combine. I was shelling corn, and it was dropping out hot metal, and leaving a trail of fire behind me, as the field was pretty dry. I was in the very back field on the farm. Parked combine......ran to my truck.....drove to house and called local VFD....went and jumped on tractor which was hooked to a disc.....had fire out before VFD got there.
Now the funny part. Wife was at work 20 miles away, when a local woman came into the Post Office there and said she had just heard over her scanner that our farm was on fire. Wife leaves work, gets stopped for speeding, tells cop what's going on, and cop lets her go. Brother comes over to the farm to see what's going on, and get's in big argument with an ex-girlfriend who was there with the VFD. I calmed wifey down, told her all was well, and told brother and ex-gf to take their fight elsewhere as I'd enough excitement for one day.

In a dry fall, our son keeps a disk hooked to a tractor, he is a fireman, he has been on several field fire calls.

Damn!

Every piece of equipment I own is on my marine policy individually listed. No fault insurance. If it is damaged I'm covered. Even from my own stupidity.

Baling season is when most things burn here. Lots of fire started by balers with bad belts.

There was a fellow near Wabigoon, Ontario, his round baler had a bearing go out, start the bale on fire. He dropped the burning bale off at the Wabigoon Fire, and Rescue. He could have dropped into a creek just as easy, but I suppose the ministry of natural resources would have been all over him.

The friend that lost the tractor called today and said his insurance agent had checked and the tractor is covered. That's good news. I figure they will depreciate it by age, but getting something, is better than nothing.

Depreciation by age would be a killer on tractors.
A good tractor from the fifties or sixties is probably worth
more dollars today then new.

This one didn't catch on fire but- a guy I know was grading roads on ranch north of here with a fairly new Cat grader. Coming down a long grade when something let go. The grader free wheeled about a quarter mile down the road, gathering speed all the time. Finally ran off the road and into a canyon. The grader stayed upright but apparently broke the frame. As of yesterday it is still up there.

pack rats around those parts? We lost a CAT backhoe at work because of packrat nest on the manifold. The same backhoe caught fire with me operating it a few months earlier, but I knew where the hood latch handle was located and got the hood popped open and got the fire out. Obviously should've taken the time to show all the operators where that latch was.
Neighbor lost big round bailer due to baring going out a few years ago. Sounds like he's not the first to have that happen.

A lot of graders use hydraulic steering and brakes.
Stall the engine on a hill, you are screwed.

Some older farm tractors are the same.
An older JD gave me a thrill before she restarted.

At least with old stuff you can still lower hydraulics without any engine power. Drop the bucket or blade!


Our fairly old 12E grader has the knuckle buster controls, so if you lost power chit ain't dropping to slow you down. Brakes would still work though.

The fellow that had the tractor burn up, called the other day and said to stop by when I had a chance. So, today I drove over and there sat a '08 680 Long w/front end loader. 432 hrs.
He said he had to give a little cash, but insurance paid the bulk of the cost.

That is good, glad he found a replacement. .