A Truck, a Tractor, and a Story

Hey it's Brock here from Rock Hill Farms And this is my friend Paul case howdy He's our resident Storyteller and all The equipment expert so we're gonna look At some old equipment I'm actually here Because I was looking for some matching Wheels for my hay wagon restoration but I think Paul wants to tell us about an Old truck today yeah this is my dad's Old pickup Um it's a 1976 model GMC three-quarter Ton four-wheel drive There's really nothing spectacular about It except it has a story And my dad bought this in 1979 it was Three years old and it had a hundred Thousand miles on it And that was a lot of miles for a Three-year-old vehicle then now it's Nothing but back then that was Considered really high mileage a guy Might put a hundred thousand miles on His vehicle in 10 years Back then but he bought this truck from A Dairy Farmer over by Mount Vernon And uh The story about how it got so many miles On it was That in 1978 The farmers were protesting the Government foreclosing on AG loans Because of low commodity prices Farmers Couldn't make their bills couldn't make Their loan payments and it was a lot of

Them getting foreclosed on and the way They protested was they got together in Groups and drove their tractors to Washington And if you don't know anything about This you should search it on the Internet there's all kinds of pictures About the chaos in Washington when there Was 50 000 farm tractors all over Washington DC and while they were there They had a snowstorm and guess who Hauled people to work and Drug fire Trucks around through their snowstorm And and helped doctors and nurses get to The hospital so they could help other People during that bunch of farmers There's pictures on the internet of For a big farm tractors all over the Mall and that was where they took them To park them and they had it all tore up By the time spring came so one of them Good old boys stayed behind after Everybody left worked it down and Reseeded it to grass for them They didn't Completely accomplish what they wanted They wanted them to say they could not Foreclose on AG loans because of a guy Not being able to pay because commodity Prices were low But they did get some help for Farmers Then and my granddad on my mom's side Was caught owing money and and the Reasoning behind them having so much

Trouble was interest rates were really High And guess who controls that and so it Was like everything was stacked against The farmers at an interest rate of 18 And a half percent You could make your Year's payments and They would tack on what you couldn't pay Of the interest to your note And so that was kind of a bad deal but My dad bought this truck from a guy who Had put a guy behind the wheel of it all Tractors home from Washington DC And so that was to how the first hundred Thousand miles went on this truck and it Was my dad's only pickup for 14 years And he drove it to work at BF Goodrich For several years until they closed and Used it on Farm here we custom bailed Hay for other people so it spent time on The road every day going to the hay Field moving hay hauling tractors around Whatever we needed to do it it done it It has been through dad and I tried to Figure this up a while back it's been Through seven Motors We have puts it's on its seventh motor It has 454 in it now it always had a Small block Chevy in for uh 400 lasted The longest but it had a 350 in it when We got it it went through a few salvage Yard 350s when it's your only truck you Need it you know and so we'd have to go Get us some motor real quick and put in

So we'd have something we could use Um The transmission And the transfer case and the gears in The front end have never been changed so That's the same and and it's been being Used up until last year or year before Last it would have been one of the Trucks we fed cows with all winter it's Got a hay bed on it now that runs Hydraulic and it's just one of those Things where it's always been something We could use and Yeah pretty tough old truck Yeah it's uh the interesting story that I'd only very briefly heard about the The tractors going to Washington it's Kind of a bad deal when they're Controlling the prices coming in and out Of your operation well and they've got Your loans at the same time there was a Lot of other things that they had the Deck stacked against them they outlawed A lot of the chemicals they could use to Be able to grow good crops but then There were farmers who had land on both Sides of the Rio Grande River who were Using those chemicals on their crops South in Mexico And then they were shipping them across Here and saying it was a product of the United States and they actually caught Them doing that but they couldn't do Anything about it

And the government wouldn't do anything About it there was a group of guys that Got arrested for going down there and Protesting them at the border bringing Across those products Well it feels like a lot of times There's You know I feel like the government has Too much influence sometimes on our Lives and there's nothing you can do About it just showing up with a couple Of thousand tractors is a fun way to try To do something they actually headed Them off one going to let them in DC Kind of the same way they did the semi Truck Convoy that went there last one Last year that happened and uh they were Unsuccessful because Farmers know back Roads And I mean there just wasn't any country Boy Ingenuity that the people in Washington could figure out how to get Around we've shut down all the major Highways they won't be getting here yeah Right right and those guys they said at Any given time when they they picked Four routes going across the United States toward the east coast and then Hit one that went into Washington And they said by the time they got the Other side of the Mississippi River On one of them and the other one by the Time it got to Georgia There was 25 miles of tractors moving

Down the highway and they were on Interstate highways and and I'm not Talking about just Model A John deers We're talking about tractors like that One sitting over there that would have Duals on it even It has a quadrajunk Carburetor hey what are you doing there With that bottle of oil Yeah Fixing it up I'm not I'm not the smartest guy but it Seems like you just put oil where the Air is supposed to go yep I did for Anybody that wants to know you can do This on your vehicle 400 150 cubic inches of We're out there looking at the truck and Having a good time and uh started to Rain all of a sudden and I didn't mind That but I was worried Paul would melt So we'd come in here to look at this Tractor float So uh we got a International here takes a little bit International 585 XL uh believe it or Not this tractor would have been built In Doncaster England They built a lot of Internationals over There and shipped some over here most of Their newer utility line was that way It's four cylinder has eight gears Uh if you was a John Deere guy who was

Used to driving a John Deere with eight Gears this would seem real natural uh Because most of the John Deere utilities Had the same Type of Gear patterns and everything Uh this tractor has dual Hydraulics you Can see it has a loader bracket it has a Front end loader I haven't got it on There because we use it primarily for Field work this is a regular working Tractor for you you use it all the time We use this one to Avail square bales With that cab is so nice air conditioner Works We pull the rake with it and keep Shadow The dust a little uh I was looking Earlier it says on tractor data this was Made from 85 to 90 1990 but they don't tell you anything About serial numbers so I don't know Which year in there this one was built So um how many waivers would I have to Sign if I was wanted to operate one of These Um Be handy if you knew what she was doing And just Hahaha I was that close Is that going All right how is this a adjustable air Ride seat no you see the book hook air

In right here and you inflate it or Actually the block underneath it if You're short you can take that out and You'll sit down like it's a low rider I like it mine doesn't have an Adjustable seat that's we're moving up This one has two adjustments Uncomfortable and more uncomfortable Well this has got a lot of levers and This is not this is a manual kill it has A pool Keel this is it you want to shut The engine off you just pull that out Like that and then kill it okay it's got To be in for it to run that starts on The key it does not have to have Anything like It may have a clutch switch still but it Doesn't have to be in certain gear or The parking brake on or nothing like That start And if it ever had it it's been unhooked So but your your gears Are on this side this is your one two Three four And I think it's in one right now And and this is your range And where it's at is low push on your Clutch And that would be reverse Right Above It Low in reverse and then high range is Over to origin down I think low and Reverse will cover me okay You're gonna think I'm lying to you but I'm telling you the truth if you go out

Here and you're driving in low one And you want to speed up You take that shifter without pushing on Anything and you pull it out a little One and push it toward two and it'll go In and then you'll be going faster And you can go backwards the same way And it won't grind Now they call it a fully synchronized And much older tractors than this didn't Have it that old big and don't have it I didn't expect that I figured you had To stop and switch gears no you don't Exactly you do if you have to switch Ranges you have the strange terrains You'd have to stop because it would Grind all over the place but all right So I should turn the key now right That's see how it goes Get that second here Green Acres is the place to be Born So I always have a good time coming out Here and looking at some older equipment And hearing some stories from Paul so I Appreciate you having me yeah it's a lot Of fun all right hey and I appreciate You taking time to watch put links on The screen to a couple more of our Videos And we'll see you next time