Re: Yeah, a 4020 for one

Posted by jdemaris on November 10, 2006 at 05:56:34 from (66.218.17.83):

In Reply to: 30,000 hours on a tractor???!!! posted by davpal on November 09, 2006 at 21:25:38:

I know of several with over 30K.
My neighbor's 4020 has approx. 35,000 hours on it and I've rebuilt the engine three times over the years and another guy (now deceased) also did it once. And - the little and often cursed Roosamaster CB injection pump has never been replaced. I have fixed a few leaks on it. He bought the 4020 new - actually he bought a pair of 4020s new along with a gas 3020 and a "loggers' special" 350 Deere crawler. He got rid of the one 4020 after only two years - it was a dog. Two 4020s, both equipped the same, both bought new contemperaneously - and one was an awful cold-weather starter and always had something wrong with it - whereas the other was just the opposite.
He also had a little Allis ED-40 he bought new early 60s - and he did a lot of light-duty blower work with it. I own it now.
Years back - he was considered one of the biggest local employers for people seeking farm jobs. As he came close to retirement - he found it almost impossible to hire any young people. He also got sick with two hernias - and had no health insurance - and had to go to Canada for an operation. In Canada, it was much cheaper for surgery if payiing cash - which he was. He almost lost the right to farm at that time. His farm is the last that is still partly in the village of our town. And, with modern land-use regs. - farming in the village is now illegal. But, he was grandfathered in - with the law stating that if any "farming use" is discontinued for one year - all rights are lost forever. Subsequently, he had to go back to work before he was really healed up - or lose his right to farm.
A few years ago (maybe actually 10 years) - he tried to replace the "good" but near worn-out 4020 with a Deutz-Allis - four-wheel drive air-cooled and hates the thing. He's had nothing but trouble with it and it's had two complete engine replacements (not rebuilds). So, he rebuilt the 4020 engine again. He just retired and a new young farmer is using it as his main tractor. I suspect he will fail soon and the farm will become a housing-development.
Farm is 450 acres - just about all hillside and mountain-top. Just to spread manure - it is a five-mile round-trip from barn to field in the winter since town roads have to be used. Summer is a shorter run. In the spring - I live on the next mountain top over - approx two miles away - I can hear plowing from sun-up to sun-down and it's all hard-pan with chisel-plows. Even though he's now retired, he still works on the farm without getting paid. He lives next door in a rented trailer - and tried living in Florida one winter and couldn't stand it. So, he's still running the 4020 - but no longer owns it.

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