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RMAC (KY)
07-21-2005 11:46:35
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I've been lurking around this site for several weeks, reading, learning, and even posted a couple questions that I had good replies on. This is a great site for tractor owners, and I noticed people like to tell their stories too, so I thought I'd share my first time on a tractor, a '50 8N. About six weeks ago I traded an old dune buggy and some VW parts for a '50 8N (my first tractor)that was sitting out in a field, all rusty looking, wouldn't start, but turned over fine. It also came with a 1yr. old 4'bush hog that was sitting in a shed. It even had 4 new tires on it, the rear ones have numbers stamped on the tread. I got it all loaded on my trailer and headed to my farm. Pushed it in my garage, and after fooling around with it for a while got it to start. Wow, I thought the old air cooled VW's were simple! I figger already I'm ahead, since that VW stuff wouldn't have brought $1000 on a good day. Every body was happy, so I figgered it was a good trade. I stripped it down, welded in some metal to take care of the rust, replaced lots of parts, made lots of adjustments, painted it, put it back togeather, now I'm ready to play/work on the farm. Yesterday, I hooked up the bush hog and headed out back. I started out mowing about 5 acres of field that had waist hight weeds and brush. It ran great, cut great, no problems. Now it's time to go down the holler, see what this thing will really do. Going to cut me a path down the hill, through the woods to the creek in the bottom. Weeds and brush are as high as the hood. Can't see much, but there used to be a path there somewhere. I started down the hill,was doing ok when all of a sudden the rear tires started to slip. I started moving faster, I'm pullin' levers, pushing pedals, turning knobs and dodging trees. I finally got to the bottom, looked back at my nicely mowed 4ft zig-zag swath. Couldn't believe how good this thing cuts. I stayed in the bottom and mowed a couple acres, and decided to head back up the hill to the garage and check every thing out. I'm going up the hill,cutting brush and BAM!! the tractor stopped and the front wheels rared up,here I go agin, levers, pedals and knobs... my bush hog was hung up on a stump. I finally got clear of that by lifting the BH over the stump and got the 'ol 8N home. I do have a question after all this. I need to make my wheel stance wider so I can mow some of these hills I have. It seems like it's going to be hard to tell if the hill is too steep without going for it. I'm going to reverse my rear wheels to make it wider in the back. The front axle is all the way in and I want to spread it out a couple notches to the outside on each side. Is there any special instructions for doing this concerning the steering linkage? Thanks for the help, and I hope no one minds the long post.
RMAC (KY)
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