A few months after the 520 tractor returned to the old family homestead for the first time, the 60 tractor left that same homestead for the first time. Aside from the occasional trip to a neighboring farm, and one trip to the dealer's shop back in the day, the 60 had never left the family farm since my grandfather bought it in 1956, and certainly had not left the state of New Jersey since it was originally delivered there two years earlier. Once it was retired from farming duty, the tractor sat on my grandfather's farm in the weeds from 1986-2002, then was towed to my uncle's farm around the corner, where it would spend the next two decades being moved around the property and sitting idle in a total of 4 different spots (each one a little bit closer to the shop and further from the weeds).
After spending most of 2022 preparing for its arrival (making room in my shop in Pennsylvania and acquiring the necessary tools and a loader tractor), I was finally ready to haul it up. I brought the truck and trailer down, and drained the fluids out of the tractor. With the help of my uncle's two Ford 4WD industrial tractors, we rolled the 60 out of its spot and very carefully loaded it on my trailer for the trip to PA - even with some of the parts removed (due to rust or due to my own doing), that tractor is HEAVY and it still managed to lift the rear ends of both loader tractors off the ground.
I brought the tractor over to the former farmstead (to my late grandfather's house) for old times' sake and to get a few pictures, and then headed up to Pennsylvania after dark. This was the tractor's first time leaving New Jersey in nearly 70 years. Unloading it at my place was a challenge and definitely looked sketchy at night while the neighbors were trying to sleep. My Ford 340A loader tractor (2WD and a little bit lighter than the 445's) definitely got a good workout unloading the 60 off the trailer and slowly "walking" it into the shop bay - it took a lot of lifting, pushing, and pulling, in addition to digging several holes in the gravel, before we got it put into position and rolled inside. In the future I may need to add more counterweight to the loader tractor, but it still got the job done and I'm glad to have the 60 living under a roof, finally. Let's get this 60 restored!
Негізгі бет The John Deere 60 LEAVES Its Original Homestead For The First Time - Off to Greener "PA"stures!
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