California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,926
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
Makes sense to me.That's why anyone who has been at it for more than a few years has a backup of everything at the house.
The farmer who contracts to till, prune, harvest my orchard has well over 20 tractors. I've seen that many at his place and there are several more at his other sites. He has upgraded to recent 4x4 models for his primary use but he has inexpensive semi-retired ones - clear back to an 8N with front and rear forks - all over the place at the various locations he farms.
His harvest crew is 16 to 20 men so even a half-day down would be expensive. Downtime of any one tractor is no big deal with that much backup onsite or nearby. He maintains the old units - MF 135's, the 8N, etc - so well that there is seldom a problem.