Feels So Good It Has To Be Illegal

[Foreverford]

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be.

Anyway i arrived in Buri Ram a few years ago with a Ford 6610 on a truck with a 3 a 7 and a casava hiller. I took the hiller apart and took the 3 point frame to the local welder in Prakon Chai and gave him a few pages of drawing and selected a sheet of steel and a piece of two and a half meter mobar for a dozer blade and 4 days later we were painting a space ship (well at least they thought it was) Ford Tractor blue. I was a proud owner of a giant 3 point box scraper. Never got to use it much due to time of year other work, tractor lessons etc etc.

I recently found a fellow in Phetcheburi that sold equipment for Caterpillar motor graders and I bought 5 two foot long ripper teeth. Back to the farm and off with the front dozer blade and over to the welder, drawings in hand and shazam! I got a blade with 5 removeable ripper teeth that can be mounted facing backwards. some of locals said no good as they needed to be facing forward but with a space ship and these dragon teeth watch out.

we had a high spot in the new rice farm and had been flooded twice due to the enormous amount of rain this year and the klong blowing out the leveee road in a couple of places. Let's make this short, in two days me, one guy, and a couple grand of baht in diesel. I built nearly 300 meters of new road with some fills of over 3 feet with no lifts over 3-4 inches (not the Thai 2 1/2 foot lifts of dumping a truck and pushing out a bunch of dry dirt). I ripped it all out of the high spot on the farm found some good golden clay and saved that to top off the road at the end with the stickiest, all the soil had good moisture content and if not I blended the different one to make it right.

The illegal part was that I did it all in 6th gear and reverse. I'd drop the blade and rip in reverse then drop it in 6th and lower the box scraper and pick it all up and go somewhere and lay it all down nice and thin When i got enough down and compacted, I'd cut it down with a full box of dirt to compact it more. Two days of just almost thinking someone was going to come and get me and say i can't do it anymore. It was miles better than the old Gannon box scraper design where you had to use you hydraulics to lower your ripping teeth below your box scraper, then rip going foward, then put it in reverse and back it up, then hydraulicly lift the teeth, then (lots of "thens") put it in forward and scrape it all up.

I actually started to think they were going to really make this illegal when I ripped going back down into the farm and then shifted into 6th and dropped the box and while scraping it up I used the Dozer blade to cut away the edge of a spur road i had built earlier. It was mind boggling I thought this dozer blade on the front of a farm tractor was one of the goofiest things I had ever seen when I got here in Thailand but with a little bit of adaptation I have never accomplished more good work in such a short amount of time.

The box scraper cost about 17,000 baht to make (during the high steel prices days), everything included (except the hiller frame as I actually designed so it can be unbolted (I know it never will) and you can put the hiller discs back on). The ripper teeth and fabrication and welding of the mounting boxes and pins was pocket change. I can't see anyone investing a million baht on a 90 horsepower tractor and not investing this extra amount to create a monster.

The road was hard as cement and was properly crowned and properly sloped around the couple of turns so that I guarantee when it rains there will be no potholes, sinking or washboarding as every and almost all dirt roads (without a finish of rock and the use of a motor-grader) in Thailand are with their massive lifts of fill.

Maybe they'll just consider this type of modifications as hazardous materials like chiles and neem trees but for two days I was like a little kid again and really really enjoyed being on a tractor and it sure didn't feel like work.

And ya all know that god surely wouldn't have made farms and farmers if he wasn't going to make Ford Tractors ya got to luv em. ForeverFord

[blue eyes]

Has me a few fords and had nothin but problems.F.O.R.D,fix or repair daily,found on road dead.Hope you get the joke.

[Foreverford]

Has me a few fords and had nothin but problems.F.O.R.D,fix or repair daily,found on road dead.Hope you get the joke.

[/quote

] From the Rift Valley of Kenya to the deserts of Baja Mexico to Issan I've fixed and repaired almost daily and filled them full of fuel and used it all up too many times but never did they let me down. 8n tractors to 5000's to this 6610. Fix and maintain daily for a lifetime of good performance from a hard machine.

[Saiyan]

Has me a few fords and had nothin but problems.F.O.R.D,fix or repair daily,found on road dead.Hope you get the joke.

Also "First on the rubish dump"

[IsaanAussie]

Foreverford,

Hang tough mate, whilst I have a small Iseki I have admired the Ford 6610 since I arrived 10 years ago. Absolutely dominated Thai tractor farming, you could not find anything else, you could get them fixed anywhere by practically anyone. Simple technology built to be abused and still produce the goods.

Love to see a picture, better the design sketches for the box scraper/ripper. I want to build a much smaller version to move dirt around with my Iseki. I have a two row hiller and had not thought of converting it before.

Isaanaussie

[Gary A]

Ford tractors were never that popular in the Ohio farm country. Because of that, I never had an opinion of their reliability. When I moved upcountry here in Thailand I quickly developed a healthy respect for them. I watched the Thais beat and abuse these machines in every manner possible. It's no surprise that they are common and popular. They are bulletproof and require minimum maintenance.

[slapout]

I guess the model A gave ford a good working pattern as to what was required to have repeat business. I had a ford 8n as a garden and lawn tractor, it was 25 year old when I got it and it just kept going. A neighbor or 2 farmed 160 acres with the 8n and even though slow they were planting when every one else was. You can not beat dependability.

[Foreverford]

I guess the model A gave ford a good working pattern as to what was required to have repeat business. I had a ford 8n as a garden and lawn tractor, it was 25 year old when I got it and it just kept going. A neighbor or 2 farmed 160 acres with the 8n and even though slow they were planting when every one else was. You can not beat dependability.

For those that don't know, an 8N Ford tractor is a petrol powered 4 cylinder farm wheel tractor built from after WWII until the early fifties. You still see them operating all over America (that's about 60 years of being in the sun and rain almost everyday for most of them). That is the "D" in Ford "Dependable". I had one and sold it to go diesel in a Ford 5000. It was dug out of a couple meters of mud in the massive rains that California received in '80-81 and even though it was encased in mud it fired up Ford Dependable. They then used it with the loader bucket on the front to dig out all the rest of their farm equipment and other tractors (ALL THE NEW AND FANCY STUFF). It fired up on the first touch of the starter come hel_l and high water and never failed ever, though I broke it a couple of times.

I believe CMT the big maker of great implements here in Thailand has a set up where you can have both the loader and the dozer blade on the front of a 90 hp tractor. That would be something as the bucket is truly a very valuable tool to help you "walk" out of a bad situation and to lift any and all types of heavy things like steers and hogs during butchering.(I built a boom (removeable) to mount on the box scraper that stands about 4 feet above the box and the arm (3" tubular steel) extends about 5' behind the back of the box. It has another piece of tubular that just fits inside of the 3" and you can pull it out another 5 feet to extend your reach for lighter weight objects. It has a swivel mounted hook atached to the extension. With the extension out you get nearly 4.5 feet of vertical lift when you lift with the three point hitch mechanism. It is plenty srong enough to lift a 2.3 meter Howard rotovator out of the back of a truck (when not externded) and probably two of them but don't want to try).

Forever Fords - Fix Or Repair Daily (if needed) and they'll last a half century minimum. I have never seen the abuse these tractors can take until I've seen them in action here in Thailand abuse is one thing but with the complete and total neglect that they receive it geometrically increases the wear and tear on these true work horses of farming. 6th gear and reverse and foot to the floor keep the implements in the ground and watch em work. gotta love it!!

[IsaanAussie]

I guess the model A gave ford a good working pattern as to what was required to have repeat business. I had a ford 8n as a garden and lawn tractor, it was 25 year old when I got it and it just kept going. A neighbor or 2 farmed 160 acres with the 8n and even though slow they were planting when every one else was. You can not beat dependability.

For those that don't know, an 8N Ford tractor is a petrol powered 4 cylinder farm wheel tractor built from after WWII until the early fifties. You still see them operating all over America (that's about 60 years of being in the sun and rain almost everyday for most of them). That is the "D" in Ford "Dependable". I had one and sold it to go diesel in a Ford 5000. It was dug out of a couple meters of mud in the massive rains that California received in '80-81 and even though it was encased in mud it fired up Ford Dependable. They then used it with the loader bucket on the front to dig out all the rest of their farm equipment and other tractors (ALL THE NEW AND FANCY STUFF). It fired up on the first touch of the starter come hel_l and high water and never failed ever, though I broke it a couple of times.

I believe CMT the big maker of great implements here in Thailand has a set up where you can have both the loader and the dozer blade on the front of a 90 hp tractor. That would be something as the bucket is truly a very valuable tool to help you "walk" out of a bad situation and to lift any and all types of heavy things like steers and hogs during butchering.(I built a boom (removeable) to mount on the box scraper that stands about 4 feet above the box and the arm (3" tubular steel) extends about 5' behind the back of the box. It has another piece of tubular that just fits inside of the 3" and you can pull it out another 5 feet to extend your reach for lighter weight objects. It has a swivel mounted hook atached to the extension. With the extension out you get nearly 4.5 feet of vertical lift when you lift with the three point hitch mechanism. It is plenty srong enough to lift a 2.3 meter Howard rotovator out of the back of a truck (when not externded) and probably two of them but don't want to try).

Forever Fords - Fix Or Repair Daily (if needed) and they'll last a half century minimum. I have never seen the abuse these tractors can take until I've seen them in action here in Thailand abuse is one thing but with the complete and total neglect that they receive it geometrically increases the wear and tear on these true work horses of farming. 6th gear and reverse and foot to the floor keep the implements in the ground and watch em work. gotta love it!!

Forever,

Keep yor boot through the headlight mate. Built to be used, what a product, what a life cycle in this replaceable world of commodities we live in.

Isaanaussie

[anothertorres]

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be... Tractors ya got to luv em.

ForeverFord

i have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds awesome. do you have some pics to share?

[Foreverford]

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be... Tractors ya got to luv em.

ForeverFord

i have no idea what you are talking about, but it sounds awesome. do you have some pics to share?

I don't know how to do it on this site but I can send a few now to you and you can post them or just enjoy them feel free to PM. I'll have a bunch more in a few weeks showing the entire building of the box including golf lessons for the fellow who owns the welding shop a real first class great guy who does fantastic work in Prakon Chai. Choke Dee me

[Pseacraft]

I would sum it up as simplicity of design. The older tractors (40's - 60's) from JD, Farmall/IH, Ford, etc.. are still out doing the job because they were designed to be maintained on the farm by farmers. They were over built which resulted in reliability that is envied today. Technology can make great improvements but costs to overbuild and the need for complex designs due to the new technology results in lowered reliability.

Use to have JD A's and B's, Farmall Super H, a little Farmall Cub that had a cracked engine block and radiator but kept going! Many many 8N & 9N's where I grew up but the A's and B's were coveted and snatched up quickly. Ah the simple pleasures in life. :-)

Plow on brother!

Eric

[teletiger]

Pity the dependibility didn't spill over on to their cars.

Regards

[Foreverford]

Pity the dependibility didn't spill over on to their cars.

Regards

Same story in regards to simplicity and over-built reliable design for any Ford 1965 or older (the only kind I have ever owned). They were as reliable as any ever built. '65 was probably the best year and I owned nearly a dozen and a half Falcons, wagons, coupes, four doors, pick ups, you name it, but when the brushes on the generator go out in the midle of the Baja desert asnd you roll into a fishing camp on the gulf a 100 miles from nowhere and back and just walk around the abandoned broken down mess of their back yards and see a brush with wire attached sluffed off in the dusty sand and pick it u and believe it will actually fit and jury rig the other bad one you've lost your generator light and the generator is charging again and you're on the road searching for petrol and another road to somewhere on the way to nowhere. Can't beat em, no questions no lies, just the facts. I had a 65 3/4 ton flatbed that came from the factory qwith a custom "Omaha Standard" 7 foot by 8 foot flatbed. Omaha Standard is famous for making the best flatbed trailers and truck beds in America. Mine was finger jointed 1 1/2" x 8" oak that was built into the floor of the bed, on edge, so there wasn't a bull or anything that could fatigue or destroy it. It had completely removeable fold up and down sides, all the way around that wouldn't allow even Fruity's monster Indo-Brazilian bulls to be able to get their head over the top of it. You could put it in Compound low and get out of the cab and walk for a few minutes on the backroads of the Baja to get the kinks out of your body while the truck would drive itserlf down the deep rutted roads. I've parrallel parked the succker in the middle of the biggest cities in the Californias and it would do 160KPH (90 mph) no problem rolling thru LA or San Francisco. It's still running and working in the Redwood forests of California. The transfer case on that model was built by Spicer and if you owned a Dodge Power Wagon or any Gm military or civilian model full size pick-up it had the same transfer case in them. Talk about simplicity and ability to get parts. In San Diego on a Super-Bowl Sunday I was able to by a rear shaft seal and to make it better it was designed to be set in the tail end of the transfer case but because this area of the tail end was usually worn out causing tthe leaking and also the contact point to the shaft the seal you bought woyuld seat deeper into the tail of the transfer case allowing for a new contact point further in on the rear shaft and any wear issues were resolved just because people and Ford thought to look at a problem and design a repalcement part that would allow you to still use a worn part but a completely functional one with this new rear seal. That's the way it was and is if you opwn these vehicles. the closet thing I've found here to that dependability and readily available parts is an old '69 benz sedan that I've put a newer fuel injected Thonburi thai 230 engine in it. Forever Fords

Just a little PS, but my '60 T'Bird had the original paint on it when I owned it in the late 80's into 2000's and many people would assk where I had it painted. Engine and all the interior was original and without a licensce int he USA I would drive it at 200 KPH + and really enjoy the peoples faces as I rooled on by enroute to Oregon to chase some Salmon and Steelhead and to see what Kesey or the Grateful Dead might have up their sleeve for the week. 6 inches ground clearance 390 cubic inches of Ford power and my African wife saying it was a "James Bond" car because it lookede like the Batmobile well before its time. Ford had it all in the golden years of the mid 60's and anybody that was there knows just what I mean.

[anothertorres]

just thought i'd show you guys what i've been working on...

[Gary A]

My Dad always said that his Ford may rattle first, BUT, it will rattle longer.

[IsaanAussie]

just thought i'd show you guys what i've been working on...

That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Just got to rush out and make one, just the same.... This thing answers the great mystery of life here in Tractor Thailand, "So that's what a PTO does! Wow..."

[mgjackson69]

Ford tractors were never that popular in the Ohio farm country. Because of that, I never had an opinion of their reliability. When I moved upcountry here in Thailand I quickly developed a healthy respect for them. I watched the Thais beat and abuse these machines in every manner possible. It's no surprise that they are common and popular. They are bulletproof and require minimum maintenance.

Same for me...in South Dakota it was John Deere and International-Harvester/Farmall, with a few Case and White thrown into the mix. About the only Fords around were 8Ns, mostly for "play". With the number of Ford tractors I see in Thailand, and knowing first-hand how the Thais do machinery maintenance, I certainly have gained respect for the Ford tractors.

[mgjackson69]

I would sum it up as simplicity of design. The older tractors (40's - 60's) from JD, Farmall/IH, Ford, etc.. are still out doing the job because they were designed to be maintained on the farm by farmers. They were over built which resulted in reliability that is envied today. Technology can make great improvements but costs to overbuild and the need for complex designs due to the new technology results in lowered reliability.

Use to have JD A's and B's, Farmall Super H, a little Farmall Cub that had a cracked engine block and radiator but kept going! Many many 8N & 9N's where I grew up but the A's and B's were coveted and snatched up quickly. Ah the simple pleasures in life. :-)

Plow on brother!

Eric

I had a really nice wide-front John Deere 50 that I used for mowing and snow removal on my place in Nebraska.

I would still have it if I could have figured a cost-effective way to get it to Nebraska to Nong Hin.

[WatersEdge]

I follow the concept...

Ripper teeth hinge up harmlessly when moving forward,

dragging gently over the freshly dozed surface.

but lock against the back of the dozer blade when moving backward

A photo would clarify for all

The time honored method in Mae Sot is to bust the surface with a disk plow,

then push with the dozer blade.

While it works, it is cumbersome, and exerts unnecessary wear on the valuable plow.

Your method is a brilliant stroke of machine design.

Grandpa Henry Ford would be proud of you!

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be.

Anyway i arrived in Buri Ram a few years ago with a Ford 6610 on a truck with a 3 a 7 and a casava hiller. I took the hiller apart and took the 3 point frame to the local welder in Prakon Chai and gave him a few pages of drawing and selected a sheet of steel and a piece of two and a half meter mobar for a dozer blade and 4 days later we were painting a space ship (well at least they thought it was) Ford Tractor blue. I was a proud owner of a giant 3 point box scraper. Never got to use it much due to time of year other work, tractor lessons etc etc.

I recently found a fellow in Phetcheburi that sold equipment for Caterpillar motor graders and I bought 5 two foot long ripper teeth. Back to the farm and off with the front dozer blade and over to the welder, drawings in hand and shazam! I got a blade with 5 removeable ripper teeth that can be mounted facing backwards. some of locals said no good as they needed to be facing forward but with a space ship and these dragon teeth watch out.

we had a high spot in the new rice farm and had been flooded twice due to the enormous amount of rain this year and the klong blowing out the leveee road in a couple of places. Let's make this short, in two days me, one guy, and a couple grand of baht in diesel. I built nearly 300 meters of new road with some fills of over 3 feet with no lifts over 3-4 inches (not the Thai 2 1/2 foot lifts of dumping a truck and pushing out a bunch of dry dirt). I ripped it all out of the high spot on the farm found some good golden clay and saved that to top off the road at the end with the stickiest, all the soil had good moisture content and if not I blended the different one to make it right.

The illegal part was that I did it all in 6th gear and reverse. I'd drop the blade and rip in reverse then drop it in 6th and lower the box scraper and pick it all up and go somewhere and lay it all down nice and thin When i got enough down and compacted, I'd cut it down with a full box of dirt to compact it more. Two days of just almost thinking someone was going to come and get me and say i can't do it anymore. It was miles better than the old Gannon box scraper design where you had to use you hydraulics to lower your ripping teeth below your box scraper, then rip going foward, then put it in reverse and back it up, then hydraulicly lift the teeth, then (lots of "thens") put it in forward and scrape it all up.

I actually started to think they were going to really make this illegal when I ripped going back down into the farm and then shifted into 6th and dropped the box and while scraping it up I used the Dozer blade to cut away the edge of a spur road i had built earlier. It was mind boggling I thought this dozer blade on the front of a farm tractor was one of the goofiest things I had ever seen when I got here in Thailand but with a little bit of adaptation I have never accomplished more good work in such a short amount of time.

The box scraper cost about 17,000 baht to make (during the high steel prices days), everything included (except the hiller frame as I actually designed so it can be unbolted (I know it never will) and you can put the hiller discs back on). The ripper teeth and fabrication and welding of the mounting boxes and pins was pocket change. I can't see anyone investing a million baht on a 90 horsepower tractor and not investing this extra amount to create a monster.

The road was hard as cement and was properly crowned and properly sloped around the couple of turns so that I guarantee when it rains there will be no potholes, sinking or washboarding as every and almost all dirt roads (without a finish of rock and the use of a motor-grader) in Thailand are with their massive lifts of fill.

Maybe they'll just consider this type of modifications as hazardous materials like chiles and neem trees but for two days I was like a little kid again and really really enjoyed being on a tractor and it sure didn't feel like work.

And ya all know that god surely wouldn't have made farms and farmers if he wasn't going to make Ford Tractors ya got to luv em. ForeverFord

[Foreverford]

I follow the concept...

Ripper teeth hinge up harmlessly when moving forward,

dragging gently over the freshly dozed surface.

but lock against the back of the dozer blade when moving backward

A photo would clarify for all

The time honored method in Mae Sot is to bust the surface with a disk plow,

then push with the dozer blade.

While it works, it is cumbersome, and exerts unnecessary wear on the valuable plow.

Your method is a brilliant stroke of machine design.

Grandpa Henry Ford would be proud of you!

Well here goes and I'll try to make it short (no laughing now). I just had an experience that felt so good I know it is or will be illegal shortly. Has to be.

Anyway i arrived in Buri Ram a few years ago with a Ford 6610 on a truck with a 3 a 7 and a casava hiller. I took the hiller apart and took the 3 point frame to the local welder in Prakon Chai and gave him a few pages of drawing and selected a sheet of steel and a piece of two and a half meter mobar for a dozer blade and 4 days later we were painting a space ship (well at least they thought it was) Ford Tractor blue. I was a proud owner of a giant 3 point box scraper. Never got to use it much due to time of year other work, tractor lessons etc etc.

I recently found a fellow in Phetcheburi that sold equipment for Caterpillar motor graders and I bought 5 two foot long ripper teeth. Back to the farm and off with the front dozer blade and over to the welder, drawings in hand and shazam! I got a blade with 5 removeable ripper teeth that can be mounted facing backwards. some of locals said no good as they needed to be facing forward but with a space ship and these dragon teeth watch out.

we had a high spot in the new rice farm and had been flooded twice due to the enormous amount of rain this year and the klong blowing out the leveee road in a couple of places. Let's make this short, in two days me, one guy, and a couple grand of baht in diesel. I built nearly 300 meters of new road with some fills of over 3 feet with no lifts over 3-4 inches (not the Thai 2 1/2 foot lifts of dumping a truck and pushing out a bunch of dry dirt). I ripped it all out of the high spot on the farm found some good golden clay and saved that to top off the road at the end with the stickiest, all the soil had good moisture content and if not I blended the different one to make it right.

The illegal part was that I did it all in 6th gear and reverse. I'd drop the blade and rip in reverse then drop it in 6th and lower the box scraper and pick it all up and go somewhere and lay it all down nice and thin When i got enough down and compacted, I'd cut it down with a full box of dirt to compact it more. Two days of just almost thinking someone was going to come and get me and say i can't do it anymore. It was miles better than the old Gannon box scraper design where you had to use you hydraulics to lower your ripping teeth below your box scraper, then rip going foward, then put it in reverse and back it up, then hydraulicly lift the teeth, then (lots of "thens") put it in forward and scrape it all up.

I actually started to think they were going to really make this illegal when I ripped going back down into the farm and then shifted into 6th and dropped the box and while scraping it up I used the Dozer blade to cut away the edge of a spur road i had built earlier. It was mind boggling I thought this dozer blade on the front of a farm tractor was one of the goofiest things I had ever seen when I got here in Thailand but with a little bit of adaptation I have never accomplished more good work in such a short amount of time.

The box scraper cost about 17,000 baht to make (during the high steel prices days), everything included (except the hiller frame as I actually designed so it can be unbolted (I know it never will) and you can put the hiller discs back on). The ripper teeth and fabrication and welding of the mounting boxes and pins was pocket change. I can't see anyone investing a million baht on a 90 horsepower tractor and not investing this extra amount to create a monster.

The road was hard as cement and was properly crowned and properly sloped around the couple of turns so that I guarantee when it rains there will be no potholes, sinking or washboarding as every and almost all dirt roads (without a finish of rock and the use of a motor-grader) in Thailand are with their massive lifts of fill.

Maybe they'll just consider this type of modifications as hazardous materials like chiles and neem trees but for two days I was like a little kid again and really really enjoyed being on a tractor and it sure didn't feel like work.

And ya all know that god surely wouldn't have made farms and farmers if he wasn't going to make Ford Tractors ya got to luv em. ForeverFord

Thanks for the reply but this is much heavier-duty than hinged rippers. The teeth drop into a box (5)welded onto the back of the blade and lock onto a piece of metal that matches one of two notches that are cut out of the ripper tooth for height adjustment (these are Caterpillar teeth for their big motor graders). I've thought of cutting one more notch for a finer adjustment for cutting extremely tight rocky soils. Anyway you drop the teeth in and then put in a square pin in the same slot (with one side cut slightly on an angle) this falls into place and wedges against the tooth and can only get more secure as you use it more and it wedges a bit more into place. To remove just tap up on the pin (and many times you can pull it up with your hands) and it comes loose and the tooth can be removed. The other pins can be tapped out with the first pin and installation is probably less than 2 minutes and removal about a minute, very easy and very safe. This is similar to most installations of ripper teeth that I have seen for scrapers and motor graders. If you need to push piles of dirt you can do so with the teeth in place but can't doze flat on the ground cutting soil out. I would doze the sides of roads and levees with the teeth in but the blade a foot off the ground while I was going forward filling the bucket.

I shall post a few photos but it will be after the 10th or so as I don't have the ability to do so until then. If I had to buy a new tractor now I would probably be considering John Deere but in Thailand for used tractors it's Forever Fords

[teletiger]

A little piece I picked up whilst looking for cornbread:

Meanwhile, be making your batter — some buttermilk, about a full drinking glass of it, four handfuls white cornmeal, salt, plenty of red or black pepper, baking powder, about a spoonful, maybe less. Put all this into a quart Mason jar. Add an egg if you like but be careful breaking. Bits of shell add texture but alarm females. Screw the top on the jar and shimmy like a Ford truck with a shot wheel bushing.

In the early 70's a friend of mine picked me up in his mustang....drove down to the coast. Bray in Essex. Opened the bonnet (hood )and with the aid of a towel produced a tin-foil package. Mustang chicken! Manifold cooked chicken.

Fords are great.

Although now I buy Honda.

Regards.

[Foreverford]

A little piece I picked up whilst looking for cornbread:

Meanwhile, be making your batter — some buttermilk, about a full drinking glass of it, four handfuls white cornmeal, salt, plenty of red or black pepper, baking powder, about a spoonful, maybe less. Put all this into a quart Mason jar. Add an egg if you like but be careful breaking. Bits of shell add texture but alarm females. Screw the top on the jar and shimmy like a Ford truck with a shot wheel bushing.

In the early 70's a friend of mine picked me up in his mustang....drove down to the coast. Bray in Essex. Opened the bonnet (hood )and with the aid of a towel produced a tin-foil package. Mustang chicken! Manifold cooked chicken.

Fords are great.

Although now I buy Honda.

Regards.

Right on Teletiger. Down the Baja it was burritos in foil and some lobster burritos included; if not lobster make sure the burro is very young or you'll get a lot of excercise for your jaws. Falcon burritos forever. A bad wheel bushing or tie rod end never bothered the bottle of Sauza Tres Generaciones though before blowing out the tie rod ends once I managed to send both the front shocks and mounts halfway through the hood (that sounds so much more "manly" (ha Ha) than bonnet). Keep on Truckin' Teletiger

[slapout]

Foreverford, now you come to realize that ford has shot its wad and JD is the way to go. (ha) Yes the old fords, tractors, cars, and trucks were dependable but the mustang was the final good gasp. We could not afford JD so ran Case, International, and small Fords. With the farming sector realizing a more fair share of the selling price in the real world. John Deere and Caterpillar have come into their own. I see JD is now in Thailand and will could root Ford out of the second hand market if they commet to support like they give in the west.

[toypeace]

Foreverford, now you come to realize that ford has shot its wad and JD is the way to go. (ha) Yes the old fords, tractors, cars, and trucks were dependable but the mustang was the final good gasp. We could not afford JD so ran Case, International, and small Fords. With the farming sector realizing a more fair share of the selling price in the real world. John Deere and Caterpillar have come into their own. I see JD is now in Thailand and will could root Ford out of the second hand market if they commet to support like they give in the west.

There is no question John Deere is the only way to go if you are buying new. I don't think I would buy anything else new. I helped the city of Mountain View witht he purchase of 7 for their use and they were all 60 horsepower and I believe (6 years ago) they were somewhere under 300,000 baht each when they got a bulk deal. How would you like those prices over here?? In thailand in the used market there is no replacing the big Fords as they are entrenched in the society. In 25 years there will still be big Fords working here but I'm sure you'll see a bunch more JD's along with the remains of Kubotas about. I test drove a brand new Ford FWD with the electronic shift etc, what a piece of crop. Very difficult in all shifting modes and not fluid at all. No new vehicles for me 62 Ford in Mexico, 69 Benz & 1988 Ford Wagon and Ford Pick-up here in Thailand. Nothing runs like a Deere. Yes 1965 was the last good year for any US designed automachine and now they are paying the piper. Good luck slapout.