How To Buy A Tractor, New Or Used - GF Radio

Wondering how to buy a tractor? Erin, Will, and I talk about our experiences buying a new vs. used tractor, and the pros and cons of both.

 

So you want to buy a tractor but aren't sure if you should buy a new or used tractor, right? Today on the GardenFork Radio podcast, we talk about how Will and I bought our tractors. Will bought a new tractor and I bought a used tractor. There are pros and cons to buying either way. Plus we talk about how to avoid Craigslist scams.

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Eric: Today we're going to talk about how to buy a tractor and whether you should buy a new tractor or a used tractor. And to answer this question, I called the Wisconsin cheese mafia. I have Erin from the inpatient gardener and I have well from the weekend homestead on the line here. Hello.

Will: Hi Eric. Hi Eric. How are you doing?

Eric: We're great. Everyone is listening. We couldn't quite get the technology to work so it might not be superb podcast quality, but the content is worth listening to. I think

Will: it's that collect call to Wisconsin he had to make, it was just, it just didn't work, you know, technology wise, the string and the tin can.

Erin: Okay.

Eric: Erin, you're not taking the bait here.

Erin: I, I have nothing to add to that. I, I feel like I've, I've sort of at fault here. It was really me who started the technology problems. So I'm just going to sit here and be quiet about it.

Eric: But you had the brilliant idea to do this show because you texted me and you said basically, how did you buy your tractor? And I said let's talk about it on the podcast.

Erin: Yes. So I've been waiting, waiting to have this conversation cause you haven't answered my question yet. So I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to hearing what the answer is. As much as all your listeners.

Eric: Well just withdraw many thousands of dollars in cash out of your bank account and hand it to some guy that you barely know and you've bought a tractor.

Erin: Well see that's what I was feeling like he wasn't, I thought there must be a better answer than that. So that's what I'm coming to. You tracked your experts for.

Eric: Well basically Erin, why don't we start with Erin, why don't you start it with why you're thinking about buying a tractor and for everyone. I bought a used tractor and I think we'll bought a new tractor so we can offer different experiences and we as we answer your question,

Erin: perfect. So basically I wish we would have bought a tractor 15 years ago because I, we keep, we have thought about it and thought about it and thought about it and the number of times we've needed a tractor, so we have either rented them or borrowed them from neighbors, although our neighbors tend to like to drive their own tractors. So when you asked them if you could borrow their trash or what really happens is they spend their afternoon using their tractor at our house and it, it is kind of an awkward situation because now it's not just their stuff, it's their time. And so that gets a little weird to keep asking for that favor over and over and over again. So, you know, we are sort of at this situation where it's like, well, we can either go another 10 years and look back and say, boy, now we wished we would have bought a tractor 25 years ago.

Erin: Or maybe it's time for us to think about getting one. And I mean, I need it for a lot of like big garden projects, but you know, we have, so we're on like just under an acre and a half, which is like just big enough to like probably need one for various projects including like dealing with trees and all that stuff and like just a little bit small to be like, well maybe we don't need one. It's kind of that InBetween sized piece of property and stuff that we do things on. So we really started looking into it because you know at some point you go, they're not cheap to rent and we have rented them for projects before and you start thinking, boy, you know, I know it's one of those things that I think once you have it, you would use it more often than you currently use one in one way or another. So that's sort of where we're at.

Will: Can I ask a question just to kind of get an understanding of what you've used it for before or what you plan to use it for because that ultimately will tell you what tractor to buy and what features, sizes, that kind of stuff that you would need to know to make a good decision on which one would work.

Erin: The main thing we've used it for in the past and the main thing I see us using it for in the future is sort of front loader type of deal. a big bucket, to move materials, soil, mulch, you know, bulk materials around the yard is the big thing that I'm seeing. But also I'm also sort of moving around like if we take down a tree or something, moving that stuff around. things like that are the main thing that I see us using it for. But I can see one of those things where if you get one, you know, I'd be a situation where you add like the snowplow attachment onto it. And so instead of snow blowing our driveway, we could start, you know, doing like a mini plow situation, that kind of thing.

Will: You know, one of the big things on tractors is there's, there's really a couple of different things they're used for lifting and hauling. Like you're talking about pushing and then there's a number of attachments that attach usually to the back of the tractor called three point attachments where you have things that spin. So blades, augers, you know, that type of stuff. Do you plan on doing anything like that down the road or even adding like a mini excavator or anything like that?

Erin: I don't see that probably happening. I mean maybe, but I don't really see a use an obvious use for that at this point.

Will: Okay. Cause I mean that's, that really kind of defines the horsepower of the tractor. Like if you said, Oh I want to move up a bale of hay on my mini farm, you might be looking at a different tractor because maybe the bales of hay are wet or something like that and they weigh 700 pounds. So you want something they can pick up that much versus kind of the things you're describing fall more into the light duty side of it than kind of the heavy duty. And that's one of the big mistakes a lot of people make when they buy a tractor is they think, okay, I need to buy a 50 horsepower gigantic machine that does all these things. And in all reality, you never even get close to using the potential of it. And because of that you end spending way more than you need to on the tractor. I agree. Void spending way more than I need to.

Eric: So I what I, my thoughts with, before coming on the show, my thoughts were, kind of laying out the advantages of buying a new one versus a used one. I mean, the, obviously it's price, but, we'll, why did you, did you buy a new one?

Will: I've actually, I've had a number of tractors, so I've had to use tractors in one new tractor. So I started out buying used tractors and then kind of, I'll be honest with you, I kind of would buy them. I do some fixing on them. I use them and it's interesting thing about tractors is they tend not to lose their value. It's not like buying a boat where you buy it and it's $20,000 in the next year it's 10 because it's used tractors tend to hold their value. So I had bought a number of tractors where I bought them, worked on them a little bit, used them for a little while, sold them for basically almost what I paid for them or even a little bit better and then bought the next one and kind of kept working my way up to eventually selling the last tractor I had and then getting the one that I have today.

Eric: And the one you have today is a new one, correct? Yep. So there are at least the state I live in, there are, if you are self employed with an LLC, there are actually some tax advantages to buying brand new equipment or leasing brand new equipment. And that if you use that tractor for a business like Erin for your blog, which is a business about gardening, if you leased a tractor, there would be a tax advantage there. I don't know how great of an advantage versus the price you're going to pay every month, but that's something to think about.

Will: Well actually really interesting. The other way to look at it too is like I'll use the Kubota tractor cause I had a used Kubota and then I bought the new Kubota. The use Kubota was, you know, between 10 and $14,000 to purchase it and I had to pay for it all upfront. I paid it to a guy that I bought it from, used it, and eventually I ended up selling it for the same. I paid for it when we decided, well I don't want to do that again because sinking that amount of cash in one shot upfront was just too much, especially when we were trying to do the remodel and do to the other things. We'll come to find out that there are some exceptionally great deals with regards to financing new tractors. And that's actually the reason why we pulled the trigger on a new one was because I got no interest at all for 60 months on it. And once you divide that larger payment out over a period of time with a very small amount down, it made it very affordable to actually afford a new one. And then it gave you all the warranty. It gave you basically everything new. There wasn't a lot of things you had to put into it. And then if anything ever went wrong I just dropped it off at the dealership. They took care of it and you know I got it right back.

Eric: The thing to think about with, going to a dealer for the repairs is that you have to get the tractor to the dealer and that usually means trailer so.

Erin: Right. Exactly. Cause that's the other thing we don't have is a trailer or frankly a truck capable. At least at this point. We have trucks, we can, we have trucks in the family but we don't have one like currently.

Will: Yeah, you'd be surprised at what you can pull a trailer with. Cause I mean we had a Ford Explorer for a long time and a single axle trailer and we were able to pull our Kubota around because we bought a light duty tractor. You know, that's, that's the thing is you fall into all these categories cause you have lawn tractors, which, you know, a riding lawnmower is. So there's a riding lawn mower, then there's a riding lawnmower tractor. And then there's the subcompact tractor, which is a size that we got. And then eventually you get to the mini tractor that mid size, the large, and then the big farm equipment. And now the higher you go up on that list, the heavier they get. So what we looked at was our tractor was 3000 pounds. Well to put that on a trailer and pull it somewhere that's, you know, like pulling a boat around or something like that. So if you have a vehicle that can pull a boat, you can probably pull a small to mid size tractor easily on that trailer. A lot of people think, Oh, the weight on them is exceptionally high when you're on the lower scale and doing light duty stuff. The other thing that's nice about it is the tractor's usually a lot lighter.

Erin: Yeah, there we go.

Eric: Let me walk you through my experience of buying a used tractor. my good friend who's also my neighbors are a tired guy and he has worked with, outdoor power equipment, backhoes and big machines all his life. And he started out working in farming and ended up working on, he would build roads so he knew he knows a lot about equipment and he goes through Craigslist just to see what's for sale. And he sent me a link to a, I had been making some noise about maybe, you know, it'd be, it'd be handy to have a, a backhoe, cause I have to hire my neighbor to do things and I'd be like, you know, he's a great guy, but I kind of want to do it myself. But the price was always kind of prohibitive. And he sent me a link to a John Deere 10 50 tractor and it's a nine, 1985, John Deere 10 50, which is considered a compact utility tractor.

Eric: I don't think it's compact at all, but, and it was $12,000. And I'm like, okay, that's a lot of, that's a lot of money for me. But then I was talking to two of my buddies up there are also weekenders and I'm like, they were both like, wow, I'd be great to have a backhoe. And I'm like, well, why don't we buy this thing and split it, you know? So, neither of none of us really knew that much about tractors. So I worked with my neighbor who does know tractors and we ended up, and I looked at the tractor several times that I met with the guy and he lived probably about 50 miles away and he was like, look, I'm moving to Maine. I have to sell one of these tractors. I'm going to sell this one. But it had a backhoe, it had a front end loader.

Eric: It was in very good shape compared to other 30 year old John Deere 1050 that I've seen. Actually my neighbor who I always used to hire has the same tractor and it is really beat up. So we bought it. And so for $4,000 I had a tractor instead of laying out the $12,000 but with that came a little bit of a bumpy road with my other two friends and we're still friends, but it ends up that one of them I didn't realize, didn't really know how to drive or use a tractor. And we ran into some bumps with that. And then suddenly one day the clutch started smoking and burnt out. And that added some tension as well because it was a $3,000 repair. I got the repair done by a neighbor who fixes farm equipment. That's his business. He works out of his barn.

Eric: Everyone takes their tractors there. He gave me a deal because he's, he's my neighbor. I, you know, but, it caused some tension within the people that bought it and I didn't, I was like, we should just have tractor school, you know. So we went over how to use the tractor. But the flip side is that that bump has smoothed out. Each of us uses the tractor when we need it. And it only costs us a third of what, the tractor would cost individually. And a lot of times I see people have tractors in their yard and 90% of the time they're just sitting in the yard.

Eric: So if you have somebody you trust or you have it up front, it's possible to buy it with someone else. We've, we've kinda gotten over the bumpy part now, but it was, it was a little bumpy.

Erin: Can I ask, did you have any kind of, do you have any kind of like formal contract or anything about it or did you guys just kind of, is it all very, you know, handshake friendly kind of thing in terms of whatever, how, who gets to use it when, or anything like that? You guys have anything formal on a piece of paper?

Eric: Well, I did it. I sent an email to each, to the group an email. The three of us said, look, you know, we're gonna have to share this. We're on all wanted on weekends. So I think it's only fair that people ask like a week ahead. we're gonna split all the maintenance three-ways there's going to be more maintenance than you think happens. Parts for it are expensive. Like we have to put new brakes on it. The brake shoes are $400. I'll put them on. It's, it's like a Volkswagen, you know, you just put them on. But, and then we have a running total that I email everyone, you know, a two gallon container of hydraulic fluid and we have a 30 year old tracker. So it leaks. Hydraulic fluid is, it's like $30 and we probably go through three of those in a summer, you know, so we just keep a running total and every once in a while they just hand me some cash cause I, I buy all the parts in the maintenance and everything. So

Will: I would say that's a lot of hydraulic fluid to be going through. I think with all of the equipment we go through maybe a gallon and a half between four different pieces of equipment in the year.

Eric: Well it ends up we had a hydraulic hose that was leaking. Oh. So and we didn't realize it. I mean I actually love working on the tractor so, but if, and there's going to be some other hoses we have to replace. The other thing I found was we have a backhoe and a front end loader and it also came with a, a set of forks, which are for people don't know what that is. It imagine you're eating fork has two tines on it and they just stick out front and they're adjustable across the front end of the tractor so you can lift up pallets, but we use it for lifting up trees and logs and stuff. Both my friends live on dirt roads and if a tree falls, we'd go over with the tractor, we cut the end of the tree off, we lift it up and we'd dump it off the side of the road and then later on we'll go cut it up. So we have all found that you never run out of uses for a tractor once you own it.

Erin: Yeah, that's what I'm thinking is exactly what happens is that, is that I just feel like we'd be using it. We'd find a lot of things that would be really helpful to have it for if we owned one and had one sitting there. You know?

Will: Can I give one word of warning. When you're looking at tractors though, try, you know, don't buy the first one you find like look at, get a piece of paper and you know, fire up Craigslist or however you're going to shop for this and just start looking at different ads you and do that for maybe 30, 30 days at minimum. And what you're going to learn is you're going to learn the vernacular that people use and you know, what features come with what and which ones are a good deal and not, and just kind of keep watching because I will tell you in the tractor world, there is a lot of scammers out online and if you see a $20,000 machine and they are selling it for $5,000, either it's broken or it's a scam. And there's a lot of that kind of stuff out there.

Will: So you know, one thing you can do to like if you go to look at a tractor, ever look at things like the hoses, are they leaking? you know, when you go there, I actually check and put my hand in the engine to figure out if it's warm because a warm tractor starts much easier than a, cold tractor. So did they fire up the tractor and run it for 20 minutes before he got there? And then when you get there they go Roman and start your up like look there's no problem but you didn't know that they had the jumper out there and all these other things to get it going. Not saying that people are doing that kind of stuff, but it happens, you know, are the safety equipment features on the tractor disabled. You know, sometimes they take off the rollover protection or the PTO shield or you know, that kind of stuff where somebody had modified the tractor and now all of a sudden you're buying something that potentially is not even safe to use. So that happens a lot too. So you just kind of have to know what you're looking at and know what's a good deal and not a good deal on. The only way to figure that out is by looking at a bunch of tractors. Yeah,

Erin: good to know. We're seeing a lot of ads. I have looked at Craigslist a little bit and I've been seeing a lot of ads from dealers who are selling, you know, use tractors, on Craigslist. is I see a lot of that if you either like so far I found really, really crusty, really old. I mean, I don't know if you can tell much by looking at a tractor, but they don't, they don't look like they're, I'll tell you that. And then a lot of used ones that are being sold through dealerships. Is that a, is that a reasonable way to go, is to buy a, you know, a used tractor through a dealership? Or is that probably not. I mean, I'm sure it's not as good of a deal as if you bought it from a private individual in most cases. But, is that a good option to consider?

Will: Actually one comment I'd make on that is, you know, buying from a dealer. If you're just buying the tractor, it's usually just a tractor. That's what you're buying and you have to buy all the implements separately. When you find private parties, the price is probably the same on the tractor as you would find at the dealership, but maybe they have a backup blade forward or maybe they bought this snowblower attachment. When dealers sell tractors, they usually strip off all the extra attachments and all the extra stuff, so you just get the basic unit because then it's less likely to come back for a repair because instead of the tractor just being defective now the snowblower could be defective or whatever, so when you buy from a dealership, you usually get a good deal on price, but usually it doesn't have any extra bells and whistles with it versus a private party where you might get all the other stuff that they've accumulated over the years of owning the tractor when you buy it.

Eric: That's what we got actually, because I looked at the John Deere 1050, sells about $12,000 at a dealership or a used implement dealer. But ours came with a backhoe, a rebuilt backhoe with all new hoses and new seals. the front end loader, which is in good shape and a set of adjustable forks for 12 grand. And the backhoe alone is like three or 4,000 on the used market. I'm pretty sure. So you take all those implements and it seemed like a much better deal. I will, I do want to comment on the scams they are, if you see something and it's too good to be true, it is there. They have these beautiful pictures of a, a mid range Kubota and it's like $9,000. And you email them and they email back and they go, send me your cell phone number so I can call you or send me your email address. And they immediately try and get you off of Craigslist because Craigslist allows an email exchange that, I would keep up, I would not leave. And I, so I think I sent one of them my cell phone number and he texted me and he goes, Oh, I'm, I'm out of the country right now, but if you wire me the money, I'll have my friend bring the tractor over to you.

Erin: Yeah, I ran into that same thing when I sold, was selling my car on Craigslist too. Same deal where I got those people who were like, Oh, sometimes my Craig's, I don't get the emails from Craigslist, so make sure you email me at this other email address or call me or whatever. So,

Will: right. So you can always say, go ahead. I was going to say, I will say this though, on Craigslist for tractors, I have been successful three different times selling tractors and four different times buying tractors and devices off of them. In fact, one of them, I bought the Kubota tractor and the guy had a box blade and a back blade and a tiller and all these other implements and he'd put it all together and sold it all. I brought it home. I got the tractor up and running and the couple of issues that were wrong with it and I sold it for the same amount that I bought the entire kit for. So now the tractor rolls off the driveway and goes away. And now I've got, you know, $4,000 worth of implements that when I bought my next tractor. I just put them on that next one. So that is something that does work really well when you're buying from private parties. You just gotta watch out for the ones that are way too good to be true.

Eric: Right? I mean, that's, it's like with anything, but they are out there and, it's always a shiny picture of a tractor and they're like, I'm like, nah, this ain't, this ain't the real deal. There are, I've had overwhelmingly positive experiences on Craigslist. I actually helped my neighbor who helped me buy my tractor. He has sold two tractors through Craigslist

Will: can I make one other suggestion on buying and selling that a lot of people don't think about, but actually the Facebook marketplace is become a great place to buy tractors because the person who's usually on Facebook is actually the person and they usually have an account and everything associated with it. So there's a lot less scammers with regards to it versus Craigslist where it's a lot more anonymous. And actually I bought in some implements for the skidsteer through Facebook, for the, for over at the resort. And it actually has turned out to be a really great transaction.

Erin: That's great. Can I ask you guys about brands? I mean, I know some of the big brands for tractors, I know Kubota and John Deere and you guys will use those until you guys had mentioned. But you know, I know some of the big ones, are there, you know, is there some brands that you know, are definitely not something that if I'm looking at, especially if I'm looking at something that's used that's maybe not there for the long haul, or is it, is that less important when I'm looking at these things and some of the other just general condition type stuff?

Eric: I know two brands that are good. Yanmar is a Japanese brand and actually my John Deere tractor was made in Japan by Yanmar, Y. A. N. M. a. R. I have a Yanmar three cylinder diesel engine in my John Deere tractor. And my tractor was made in Japan and shipped over. John Deere only makes the larger tractors now in the United States,that's what I'm told. And then from India is a brand called Mahindra and they sell more tractors worldwide than anybody else.

Will: And they've actually been in business for 40 years. Did you know that?

Eric: Yeah. And I see Mahindra more and more in my area. And then there are some, Chinese brands that I don't know much about, but I have seen a couple of people buy them.

Will: I would say one other, one other one to throw into the equation too. And for your application you might want to look at what's called a mini skid steer. it sounds daunting and I think they're called landscape skidsteers. Basically it's a skid steer, but you stand on the back of it to use it and it has

Erin: i did one use of those ones

Will: amazingly enough, I found them for ridiculously good prices on Craigslist and it uses such a small footprint that it works really good in people's garages. That's one thing that a lot of people forget about is they want to buy the tractor with the big bucket on the front and all the big tires and everything else. And then they look at their property and they're trying to figure out where to park it or where to put it.

Erin: Right.

Eric: That's a huge thing actually with my buddies. We have a standing agreement that the tractor is always under a roof because if you leave any, I think you will leave any machine out. It's going to degrade much faster than if you put it under cover and out of rain. And also UV sunlight, UV sunlight degrades your all the hydraulic hoses, you know. Exactly. So you get three car garage now, Erin.

Will: Yeah. Well do you have any fences on your property?

Erin: No.

Will: Cause a lot of people don't put into the equation either. Like I want to use this in my backyard, but your gate's only 48 inches wide and you just brought a tractor that's, you know, 60 inches wide. Oh right. That would be a problem. Now you have a part of your,

Erin: Oh for sure.

Eric: Yeah. It's kinda tricky. I am, I, I would suggest buying a tractor that has a backhoe, but it, it might not be exactly what you need, but if you want to put, if you want to put in a tree that has a big ball or you want to put in a bunch of smaller bushes, it's actually a lot of fun to dig the holes with the backhoe.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, I bet it is.

Eric: So any more questions?

Erin: Formation? yeah. Well yeah, who's got a, he's got a tractor you feel like selling, so no, that was really helpful. Thank you guys very much. I appreciate that a lot. So I mean I just, just out of curiosity, I'm assuming, I mean do you guys find yourself finding uses to use these all the time? Well beyond probably the purpose you originally bought it for? Is that true? I mean, I'm just trying to judge for sure to make sure that making this kind of purchase is something that is really going to be valuable for us. And my thought is we're going to find more things to use it for with them, we think. And I'm curious if that's been your experience too.

Eric: Oh, I think so. Yeah. It's, I actually have, I'm going to put in drainage along my driveway and I know I don't have to call one of my neighbors and pay them $70 an hour to dig a trench. You know, I can just, me and my buddies are like, Hey, get the tractor out. Okay. You know, we do it.

Will: one side of it, and it might be a little bit more of a cavalier attitude about it, but I've never been stuck with a piece of equipment. So one of those scenarios where I, I bought a piece of equipment and I've used it and found all these different things and then I decided to upgrade to something because I want to do something else. I usually get at least 95% of my money back, sometimes 100% of my money back when I've gone to sell the tractor or to, you know, sell it to the next party after even using it for a short period of time. So you might buy something, decide to use it, find out it's not the right thing. A lot of people are really afraid, Oh, I'm going to lose a ton of money by trying to sell this or move on. We'll tractors, like we said in the beginning of the show, hold their value. So even if you buy it, find out that it doesn't do what you're looking for. It only does like 50% of the stuff you wanted to do to get out of it and get into the next thing. It's a good way, you know, start with something small, figure out how you use it, and then as your need grows, you can always sell that device or that tractor and then buy the next size up. Try that for awhile and kind of figure out where the sweet spot is.

Erin: That's actually a really compelling argument because when you start adding up how much you can conceivably spend on renting these things for a day or a weekend, you know, that's, that's a lot of money and you know, that adds up very quickly. If you're looking at a situation where you, these things keep their value so well that if you used it for awhile and when you're done using it, you're able to sell it for 95% of its value. You're probably ahead

Will: one other thing to put in the equation too is the of the tractor on how you take care of it versus you know, the next person and so on. You'd be surprised what a pressure washer will do to the value of a tractor. I've bought a tractor and it was in really bad condition. You know, we did some grease cleaning in the engine compartment. We fixed a bunch of leaky pieces on it just to make it nicer for ourselves. And then when we went to sell it, you know, we were able to get actually an extra $500 out of it just because it was in a much better condition. You know, spray painting some of the rust up and you know, fixed it up. I actually found a John Deere three 18 tractor when we were kind of prepping for the show. I was like, I'm going to see if I can find something that might fit into what Erin might be looking for. I found them as cheap as $1,000 and as high as $5,000 and the main difference is how did it look like the $5,000 one, the wheels were new. The outside of the housing was all new. Everything else, the thousand dollar one looked like a rusty pile. I mean it basically worked, but you could easily buy something like that, have it work and just fix it up as time goes along.

Erin: Great idea.

Eric: Wow. Now it's excited. It's like this vicarious thrill of helping Erin buy a tractor.

Will: I think everybody should leave a comment or send you a message and just throw in their ideas. Cause I mean I'm guessing there's a bunch of people talking to the radio right now cause talking about tractors is like talking about pickup trucks. Some people like forward, some people like Chevy tractors. It's the exact same thing.

Erin: Yeah, I'd love to, I'd love to hear some feedback from people on it.

Eric: My other, my other thought was if you buy a used tractor, do not take it to the dealer for repair cause they're just, they're just going to nail you. I mean it's like if you buy a used Subaru, you take it to your local foreign car mechanic, you don't take it to the Subaru dealer. And I would just ask around, maybe you know some of the local ag store, the local feed store, Hey do you know anyone that works on tractors around here? Cause that person might have a few tractors that he's bought and fixed up and, and sells them on the side to make additional money or it's just good to know them to fix your tractor. Or they might even know some tractors that are for sale. Word of mouth is, I think the best way to buy one.

Erin: That's a great idea. Good deal.

Eric: All right, we have dead air here. We'll start talking.

Will: Sorry I had him muted. I was coughing. I thought you were chugging another one.

Erin: Well you guys are, you guys are a font of knowledge on tractors so thank you for sharing that information. That's quite helpful.

Will: I would say slow and steady is the best way to go with regards to it. Every, if you just jump in and buy something blindly, there's a good chance you get burned. If you've looked at a certain model number that you know fits your fancy, you know, just flipping through online and go Oh the John Deere three 18 is a model that I like, you know, search it for a couple weeks and see what comes up. Springtime actually is a really good time to buy tractors cause a lot of people when the snow goes away and Wisconsin, they've got stuff in the yard they want to get rid of or they're cleaning out the barn. You know there's a lot of estate sales and interestingly enough I've actually picked up implements at a state sales and they'd been ridiculously good deals because let's say a farm you know is shutting down or getting split up or changed or whatever and they're selling off the equipment. It's kind of like used furniture. Sometimes the equipment people are just trying to liquidate it to get rid of it cause the tractor is long gone, but they've got all the implements laying around and they got nothing to use them for. So they'd rather have the cash.

Will: All right. So I feel like I should hire you guys to buy a tractor for me.

Eric: Just pay for my airline ticket. I'll be there.

Will: Right. Okay. No, we can't let Eric come back to Wisconsin. Sorry, I just, that's part of the rural Eric. Can I come back to Wisconsin?

Eric: All right. So, everyone, do you have some tractor experience or tractor thoughts? It's [email protected] would be the best way to get hold of us. And you can find Erin at her fabulous YouTube channel, the inpatient Gardner, just amazing information there plus her website and we'll, we'll just post a new videos to his YouTube channel, the weekend homestead. And we've talked about the pine cone cabin, but you have a video and a live stream about the pine cone cabin there. Right.

Will: I was surprised at how many questions we got with regards to that cabin. It kind of, it was interesting how it got a little louder.

Eric: Yeah, we can talk about that in the after show, which is the part of the podcasts, the garden fork patrons get, but for the moment email us [email protected] and we would love to hear guys. So drive safe and go out and do cool stuff. Thanks for listening.