Farm mechanics

[Turtlesprings]

Never knew how much I would learn about mechanics having a farm. So far, I have rebuilt a Suzuki atv, rebuilt a carb on a Honda rancher, welded a disc back together, rebuilt the entire ignition system on a IH 2400, and became a carpenter to build the deck on the barn, my cabin, several stands and platforms. A bathroom build is in the works, so add plumber and electrician to the list.

Wish I knew all this in my 20's.

 

[Tree Spud]

Sounds like every weekend around here. If you are strong enough, it is worth it ...

 

[ACCMan]

You just described my entire life.

 

[Bill]

They say WWII was won by farm boys who made trucks and tanks run again in the field. Necessity is the mother of all.

it’s funny I tell my son all the time, you don’t have to know how to do it, you just have to know you can.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

They say WWII was won by farm boys who made trucks and tanks run again in the field. Necessity is the mother of all.

it’s funny I tell my son all the time, you don’t have to know how to do it, you just have to know you can.

I do a lot a repair work on our vehicles. My son asked me where I learned how to do it. I told him being broke teaches you a lot of things. You can screw it up two or three times for what a shop will charge. Failure is also great teacher.

 

[ACCMan]

When I was 14, (69 now) I was bushhogging for a farmer. He had a narrow strip between two fields that went up into the woods. He instructed me to back in and drive out as it would be faster. What he didn't know was his son deposited a blown V8 motor block at the far end and the weeds had grown up and the block was not visible. Well, I backed in and the bushog swallowed that block, and crap flew everywhere. That day, the farmer taught me to use a torch, arc welder, multiple hand tools, grinder, and learned numerous cuss words. The farmer must have thought I was hard of hearing because he just kept on using those words, which really didn't help me feel any better at all. The farmers son, that dumped the block, still uses the bushhog and we still laugh about that day.

 

[TreeDaddy]

This thread brings a smile.....

My hands are purple today from PVC primer and a little light plumbing work this weekend........

bill

 

[pilotpip]

I do a lot a repair work on our vehicles. My son asked me where I learned how to do it. I told him being broke teaches you a lot of things. You can screw it up two or three times for what a shop will charge. Failure is also great teacher.

This, and it's not unique to the farm. I kept a jeep Cherokee with a 4 banger running for nearly 300,000 miles because I couldn't afford to do anything else. I replaced the floor boards in it twice, clutch once. I don't know which was worse: Driving from indy to home in St. Louis after work 4 hours knowing I had no clutch, praying I didn't hit any traffic, or the time that the starter died in it and I had to push start it in my work uniform. Loafers aren't exactly high traction shoes. Thankfully it didn't have much compression left and it would fire as soon as I popped it into second. After that I was good.

Now, I take joy in paying someone else to change my oil and rotate my tires because I can. Sometimes getting out in the garage and getting my hands dirty is therapeutic. I did have fun rebuilding the carburetor on my old Yamaha wolverine a couple weeks ago. Now I don't have fuel dumping out of the bowl when I forget to shut the petcock because my float actually works. Thing ran so damn good I didn't want to mess with it until deer season was over.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I will say growing up on a farm, you learn how to make what you have available work. You cant teach the experience of growing up on a farm. I have been an auto mechanic for more then 20 years, and I have worked with many other mechanics. I will say, the ones who where farmers, are usually much better mechanics, then the auto mechanic school junkies. But there are a very few of us that grew up on a farm, and also are school junkies, we can correctly diagnose even the hardest vehicles, and figure out how to fix them.

My son, and myself have just built a shop/cabin ourselves. It isnt as easy as the pros make it look, it has given me plenty of respect to the carpenters, electricians, and plumbers out there. It has taken us 2.5 years, and we are still messing with stuff on the shop/cabin, but it was well worth it. I have learned a lot, and for my 23 yo son, it will be many valuable lessons he got from helping with building it, that he will have a life time to use.

 

[Gator]

I didn’t grow up on a farm but I grew up in a family that didn’t pay anyone to fix something but figured it out and did the work ourselves. Just two days ago I was teaching my 2.5 year old how to change a tire as I needed to replace a boat trailer tire. Took 8 times as long but he enjoyed it and was grasping what needed to be done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

For the most part, I do all of my own wrenching. Dad usually did and still likes to tinker today. My mothers side of the family are all farmers so I've been on farms great plenty. I also have milked thousands of cows throughout the years as a summer job growing up and in my 20's during the winter months when work was slow.

My brothers first car was a geo metro that we bought for $300.00 It was in perfect shape but had a bad motor. We bought a good used one and swapped it out in the driveway. Dad wasn't going to allow his son to ride around in that tin can so we sold it for $1500 and put that towards a different vehicle.

Automobiles of today are a different animal. I have an Audi allroad 4.2L V8 with a broken timing chain that I have in a storage container. I have watched a bunch of videos on doing the job and feel confident I could do it. However the amount of time it would take (estimated 26 hours for a professional) and limited shop space for a job like that I think I'll be referring the job to a local mechanic that builds drag cars. I'll have more money into it by the time it is fixed than the car is worth but I really like the car. It is rare and I plan on doing a full restoration on it. I will be doing many of the other items needed by myself. I'm guessing that by the time i'm done I'll have better than 30 K into it and it will be worth about 10K. I like it better than any other car I could buy for that money so I'm thinking its going to be a go and may just get going on that project this year. Its been in storage for over 5 years.