Where do you guys find these deals? I'm out in Commifornia and it seems like the vast majority of tractors for sale are east of the Rockies. SMH. B.
Where do you guys find these deals? I'm out in Commifornia and it seems like the vast majority of tractors for sale are east of the Rockies. SMH. B.
That's what I was thinking. Not only did he not pay too much; he got a real nice tractor and at a bargain price compared to what it would go for here.
rScotty
From what I've read on TBN, the reason is California's draconian emission laws. Anything that is pre-Tier 4 isn't welcome within the borders.
There was a photo/article of perfectly good 'government' surplus tractors with the engines bored out, being sold for scrap. The laws wouldn't let them be sold as working tractors because they weren't Tier 4.
You'd be like large Marge pulling the tags off mattresses in pee wee herman.Who would check a used tractor for Tier 4 compliance crossing the border from Nevada, or Oregon, to California?
Does California have tractor compliance/enforcement personnel at each highway entry point?
Are their tractor police actually a division of their mattress police department?
Parts of the state are truly beautiful, but I can't imagine me trying to live there.
From what I've read on TBN, the reason is California's draconian emission laws. Anything that is pre-Tier 4 isn't welcome within the borders.
There was a photo/article of perfectly good 'government' surplus tractors with the engines bored out, being sold for scrap. The laws wouldn't let them be sold as working tractors because they weren't Tier 4.
Who would check a used tractor for Tier 4 compliance crossing the border from Nevada, or Oregon, to California?
Does California have tractor compliance/enforcement personnel at each highway entry point?

Maybe.... but I haven't heard anything it from friends there. Were those reliable photos? Are you sure it wasn't just isn't fake internet "news"? That's what it sounds like from here.
rScotty
Well, they DO have Inspection Stations along Interstates and other roadways blocking entry points where you must 'Show Us Your Veggies!!!'
View attachment 606262
https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pe/ExteriorExclusion/CalBorderStationMap.pdf
All I can say is that it was a linked news story and subsequent thread here on TBN... the picture showed a row of Californian government (State DOT, County, Town... I don't know) large (50+ hp) JD tractors with large holes bored through the engines so that they could only be sold for scrap.
Of course.......It's California!
Got to keep those Idaho potatoes out!
Under the 鼎ars for Clunkers program the local Toyota dealership was pouring sand into the intake of perfectly good running 4runners, Tacoma痴, and Tundras because folks were getting subsidized to trade them in on more fuel efficient cars. It was a crying shame to see perfectly good vehicles being destroyed like that.
Wasn't that a weird program? Too bad the program only lasted about a month back in 2009 before it was discontinued. I was a mechanic in Colorado at the time The goal was to get guzzlers off the city streets and improve air quality in cities. Since it only applied to licensed vehicles, us mechanics were all dreaming about the cheap dirt buggys and 4 wheelers we could build to use offroad and rurally. Did you see the program actually ever happen in Virginia?
Anyway, it never made it to Colorado, although we did get paid an hour's wages to watch a gov't produced video about the program...probably that is where some of the funding went.
BTW, if I remember right the program didn't apply to some 4-Runners and Tacomas, but it did to Toyota Tundras and big Toyota Sedans like the Previa.
After all, the object was replace the guzzlers with more fuel-efficient cars... and at the time some of the Toyotas were already good at that although some were not.
Since "Cars for Clunkers" was an urban program the emphasis was on air quality in cities. That doesn't seem to be so much of a concern today.
I like to think that us TBNers are smart enough about air quality that we saw what was happening and moved to the country for cleaner more enjoyable living all around. . .
Not many folks out here in the rural US, and a few tractors aren't enough to spoil the rural air,...Yes, that's selfish of us I know....but what can you do?
rScotty
LOL, no there are not tractor emission inspectors at the Ag entry stations. BUT, I work for a nut harvesting equipment manufacturer. And any time we have to change an engine, we have to punch holes into the old engine block, take pics of the holes in the block, and send those to the engine supplier. Because the emissions controls are so strict here in California, CARB does not want a possibly used engine being rebuilt and put into service. Which, by their reasoning, there would now be two engines adding to the carbon footprint. The new one going into the old machine and the old one which was rebuilt going into something that did not have an engine. There is no such things as buying a new engine for a machine and having the old engine remanded for a spare here in California. IF you buy a new engine, the old one MUST be destroyed. I know, I know it doesn't make any sense. But that's how things are here.
Plus, the price of new Tier 4 machines, farmers and tractor operators are using the machines longer to ring out as much cost savings as possible. So there are very few newer used tractors available here. If you do find an used tractor, it is either a one or two year old rental return or it is a very old tractor.
But, it's not like I am doing net searches every day. So I could be missing some good deals in between. When I do search though, the good deals are almost always east of the Rockies. Or so it seems. Oh well. B.