Re: metal WORKING today

On 5/20/2025 7:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

I'd love to find a justifiably affordable tractor/loader/backhoe, even one too small to be commercially practical, since I can hoist a boulder or log beyond the capacity of any loader I could maneuver through my woods.

As you may be aware the big green, red, and blue, ag (and construction) equipment manufacturers are fighting tooth and nail against "right to repair."  Particularly green, but they all are.  As a result in some regions some ag equipment users have bought up older stuff they can work on.  Some are buying stuff they would otherwise deem to costly to repair, because it equals out when they have to pay a servicing dealer for all their repairs no matter how minor on new stuff.
If you really want something like that I think you will have to actively look for it.  I'm not dismissing serendipity, but the odds are longer than they used to be.
That being said, I've got a clapped out 1950 John Deere Model M sitting out at my folks property that I have no idea what I am going to do with.   My Grandfather purchased it brand new and paid for it one nasty winter in North Central Ohio plowing roads and driveways.  My dad wanted it, and he hauled it from Ohio to Arizona some years back. Interested?  LOL.   I haven't gotten into it at all.  I expect it will likely need a major overhaul from hitch to grill.  I actually used that tractor back in 1980 hauling grape lugs out of the vineyard behind my Grand parents house. That vineyard is now a Christmas tree farm, but all the trees have grown to lumber size.  My Grampa would tie a toboggan on behind and tow us down the road after a snow.
One thing that might extend your odds is looking in areas with crazy strict emissions on equipment demanding basically new equipment every year or two in order to keep up.  I wouldn't count on a steal. Companies in that kind of business are aware other states want their "used" equipment.
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Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
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