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Your First Big Time

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TGIN

01-28-2007 05:03:26

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Had a Cub and a Massey Harris 22 that did`nt run much that I used around the farm but my first big tractor time was when I was about 9 or 10 and me and dad bought a Allis WD with a homemade loader and a elevator at a auction on a cold Jan. day . I drove it home about 10 mile pullin the elevator with dad behind me in his 56 chevy truck . I did`nt feel the cold and I felt like the biggest guy around , mom was`nt real happy when we pulled in , dont know if it was because of the tractor or me driviv it . I remember it like it was yesterday . About 40 yrs. ago .

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grub

01-29-2007 15:35:10

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

13 yrs old working as an irrigator on a row crop farm for the summer. One morning before we started out the boss said "You know how to run my 4020 don't you?" I sure as heck wasn't gonna say No!! Got to spend that day and many more pulling a disc and cultipacker.
Same guy put me in the cab of his JD 95 combine and after one round said "Got it?" There was no bigger smile or head on the planet those days.
He was killed in a tractor accident 10 years later but he changed my life and taught me how to work.

Grub

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farmerbill13

01-29-2007 14:22:37

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I think I was thirteen and got a job on my uncles turkey farm,first tractor I drove was a ford 8n,he showed me how to start it let me figure out the rest of it by myself.He had a ford 600,a farmall 300 with a loader,but my favorite was a 460 farmall with a feeder wagon behind it,power steering,T/A,5 speed,I thought it was the biggest tractor ever made!Worked for him till I was 18,learned a lot.

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John (MO)

01-29-2007 06:15:15

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I drove a WD for my dad and uncle to pick up round hay bales. So little I had trouble staying between the rows of bales. Every once in a while dad would have to get on and back me off a bale that I got to close too. Of course the WD had the hand clutch so it didn"t matter that I couldn"t reach the foot clutch. I"d guess I was 5 maybe, I know it was before I started school.

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Garry in OK

01-28-2007 21:55:26

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

4 or 5 I guess. Mom was teaching school. Dad decided I was big enough to drive a B Farmall pulling a wagon so he could pick corn by hand. He made a 2x4 clutch extension for me. Thought I was in tall cotton. Don"t think I was very proficient, but what can you hurt at idle in low gear. Mom was not impressed-big tearful "Daddy, you"ll get him killed" statement. Couldn"t understand her dismay, since I was on top of the world.

During WWII, my brother at pre-school age used to take his nap on the back of draft horses named Mutt and Jeff. He"d hook his ankles in the harness and lay back. Dad said he always knew when he went to sleep, his had would bob side to side with the horse"s steps.

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1936

01-28-2007 19:01:54

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Must have been 4. Cannot remember not setting between Dad's legs or standing up and driving a 49 B and newer JD. I was told I rode before I drove.

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Janicholson

01-28-2007 16:56:27

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Operating a SP125 McCormik Combine ~13 and that was not a mild mannered unit. Just unhooking the master drive clutch lever from the slot in the platform to engage it was serious effort. The intense sounds of thousands of mooving parts, and the sensitivity to hear one of them go sour. Still gives me goosebumps. Guards, we dont need no stinking guards. I don't think it had a single guard on the machine from the facory. Maybe the rail around the open platform is a guard!! JimN

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Bus Driver

01-28-2007 16:35:24

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Summer 1945 on a 1939 JD model G. Due to the war, manpower was very short. I was a tractor driver, the very first thing I ever drove. Felt like "big stuff".

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genos

01-28-2007 16:30:18

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I Don't Remember The First Time I Drove The F-20
Probably around 7 Or 8, Always Had Trouble Reaching The Clutch, But Do Remember Cultivating Corn At Around 10 With It, 2 Row Hand Lift, I Had To Stop At The End And Take It Out Of Gear And Stand On The Axle Facing The Rear And Swing All My Weight On The Handle To Lift The Rear, And the Front Ones Were Spring Loaded, All I Had To Do Was Hit The Handle To Release It. Can't Remember Just How I Lowered the Front After I Turned, But The Rear Fell After Releasing Handle.

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Nebraska Cowman

01-28-2007 15:46:30

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

No, I really don't remember. From the time I was a little bugger I always rode along. Dad would make excuses and have me steer while he "blew his nose" etc. I do know when I turned 8 he had me baling hay with him on the wagon. I do remember cutting silage withe the old Allis chopper and WD when I was 10 or so. But my all time memory is when we took delivery of a brand new D15 Series II in 1965 when I had just turned 11. The tractor came while dad was taking his after dinner nap and the dealer showed me how to drive it! When dad came out of the house he took the Ferguson 30 and mower and had me drive the D15. I will NEVER forget that!

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Fawteen

01-28-2007 15:39:49

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I don't specifically remember the first time I was turned loose with a tractor, but it was most likely our John Deere B hauling a hay wagon while my older brothers threw round bales out of the AC Rotobaler onto it. I'm guessing I would've been about 7 or 8.

My proudest moment was the day Dad let me plow on my own with our McCormick SW-6 and the John Deere 3-16 trailer plow. Dad was some particular about his plowing, and I swelled right up like a balloon when he figured I was good enough to go at it on my own. I'dve been about 12 or 13 at the time.

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john d

01-28-2007 13:26:19

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O h Yeah! in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I was 4 years old, and my Dad had a Carter front end loader on a Farmall H. He parked the tractor under the edge of a peach tree, set the brakes, and put me on the seat. Then he spent a few minutes letting me learn how to lift the loader by pulling the hydraulic control rod, and how to let it down by setting the little "bump" on the rod below the bracket and then pushing it with my foot. The hydraulic line to the loader had a flow control valve in it that he had adjusted to let the loader down slowly. Then he got in the loader with a basket, and picked peaches as I raised the loader when he told me to. We worked all the way around the tree like that, and I thought I was the biggest kid in the world.

When I was 7, I got to rake hay with the Farmall B, and by the time I was 8 I was following the combine with the H and a wagon. The best part of that job was eating all the wild blackberries in the fencerows!

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doogdoog

01-28-2007 13:11:55

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Aloha, I remember when I was about 5-6 sitting on the bulldozer seat while my dad pushed dirt high up in the mountain. I never could stay awake because of the heat, dust and bumps. LOL

Mahalo,
doogdoog

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KEH

01-28-2007 12:18:53

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

First tractor I drove was a old Fordson. I was probably around 6. Daddy later bought a Case S which was about 10 times the tractor the Fordson was. I have never been impressed by the Fordson. Hard to start, hard to steer, not much power, no brakes, though I understand from reading on here they had a braking system in the clutch.

Biltmore estate, Ashville, NC has a Fordson in their farm museum which I happened to see get started and driven. Hard to start then too, said magnets in flywheel were weak. Interestingly enough, Biltmore once had a fleet of Fordsons and there is a picture of one of the Vanderbilt women driving one.

KEH

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don-wi

01-28-2007 11:07:47

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

My first time was when I was 5 years old on my grandpa's Oliver 1600. My dad was chopping corn with the 285, and had the 1600 out there too. He hooked the 1600 to the wagon after it was full, put it in first gear and got me started. He went ahead of me with the 285 and the old Fox chopper.

After that I started raking hay with the 285 and I've been on a tractor ever since.

Donovan from Wisconsin

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David in Wales

01-28-2007 10:55:48

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Hi Gang;
Parents used to take me on vacation each summer to a farm in North Wales. in 1960 at 10 years old was allowed to help with the harvest, steering old David Brown Cropmaster tractor hauling trailer in the field being laoded with sheaves of oats.
Could'nt hold the clutch pedal down - not strong enough - tractor went forwards suddenly and tipped the guy loading the sheaves onto the ground. Yes he did shout at me !!!
Probably the reason 46 years later why I still dont like David Brown tractors !!! Cheers David

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John N Mi

01-28-2007 10:46:57

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

Dad did not get a tractor until I had left the farm for the U S Navy in 1951. My first big time was when I drove the eight horsr team while plowing. My second was 1975 when I bought my first tractoe. A AC B. I have never farmed with a tractor.

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Nebraska Cowman

01-28-2007 15:52:05

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to John N Mi, 01-28-2007 10:46:57

Now I am getting a lump in my throat. I hear many stories of kids driving horses before they were big enough to put the harness on. But an 8 horse team? WOW that would be a thrill!

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trw

01-28-2007 10:01:55

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I don't remember the actual first time I drove a tractor by myself. I would guess 5-6-7 yrs. old, Sometime in that age I would guess. I grew up on a farm, and still live on the same farm, that was homesteaded by my great-grandfather. It has never been owned by anybody but our family. Anyway, back to "first-times". Isn't it amazing how years ago, kids that were less than 10 years old would and could do actual work. Now the government and some parents won't let them work until 16 or even 18 years old. I remember a few years ago, a nice young man, he was in high school, helped in the summer at the local high school, but since he wasn't yet 16, he couldn't climb on a ladder! And we wonder why so many kids are in trouble these days? Let them get a job and learn some responsibility!!

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gold-leaf-deere

01-28-2007 09:11:04

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

In 1946 at the age of 10 I was hired at 50 cents per hour to drive a L Case on steel wheels, There were 3 L Cases and one DC all pulling trip rope 3 bottoms plows in a large triangle shaped field, The driving rule was if the L on rubber which was fastest was pulling up on you , when you got to the end to turn around you got out of his way and let him turn first and get on his way.The DC was the slowest and he had to wait at the turn around so all of the L models could pass him. After 60 years I still have the old 1934 L that I was driving that day.

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David Kronwall

01-29-2007 03:26:54

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to gold-leaf-deere, 01-28-2007 09:11:04

gold-leaf-deere...50 cents an hour in 1946? That was BIG money. My first paying farm job was about 1960, and I earned 75 cents an hour putting away hay bales in the mow with a 62-year old hired hand named Andrew. Next summer, the farmer raised my pay to $1.00. Next, $1.25. It must have been 95 degrees up there, full of hay dust and scratchy. I had scratches all over my wrists for a couple of weeks until I hardened up.

Drove my first Farmall when I was about 12 on my grandpa"s 80-acre dairy farm in Zenda, Wisconsin. Was about 1959. Loved that old tractor. David

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Walt Davies

01-28-2007 09:07:36

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

My first time was in the forties sometime near the war days. Grampa had borrowed the neighbors Cat D-2 and was discing the hay field for planting. He let me stand up between his legs and pull the levers to turn it. Boy you are real proud of that and never forget it. I was about 7 or 8 I think maybe younger.

Walt

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RAW in IA

01-28-2007 08:28:50

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

I can just remember part of this. Surprising what the little cub would do.

Cub hauling hay

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fixerupper

01-28-2007 07:51:57

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to TGIN, 01-28-2007 05:03:26

First time driving a tractor was a short non-eventful stint on dad's 51 JD A just driving down the road to the hog pasture. I was about five then and was standing between dad's legs, gripping the wheel.This was about in the middle fifties somewhere. The tractor was later passed down to me and I think it might the first tractor my son drove. Now my son owns it. First I drove a combine I was about seven or eight and a neighbor was at our place combining oats with an A6 Case pull type, pulled by a JD 60 in low gear. He wanted to level the oats in the wagon that was being towed along beside the combine so he had me steering the tractor down the windrow while he got in the wagon. Yep, I was on top of the world too. Jim

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Del MI

01-28-2007 19:31:02

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Re: Your First Big Time in reply to fixerupper, 01-28-2007 07:51:57

Oh Yeah! Will never forget that FIRST time. On a JD G about 7 or 8 years old. Thrashing beans in the barn yard. The G was belted to the thrasher, a stacker was blowing the straw into a pile. Wagons were coming and going from the field loaded with navy beans. And being loaded into the thrasher and the beans being baged. My job was to sit on the G and wait for the signal to throttle down and disengage the clutch. Like at lunch time and quiting time. I thought I was really important at the time, and for a long time after. Now I realize they put me there so they could keep an eye on me, and know where I was at. So I wouldnt get hurt or run over. LOL

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