On the Road For Rusty Gold

With over a month in planning - on Friday, Allyssia and I started out on a long distance tractor acquisition trip.  It started when I was surfing Craigslist and came across a tractor that I just had to have.  The biggest problem with this tractor was it's location.  At nine hours away in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania I had a bit of a predicament. 

As you can see it is a heck of a trip down here but your asking what could possibly be worth driving that far to get?  Well, it is nothing short of a Quadractor!!

This Quadractor was used quite hard but it is still a great find.  The gentleman I bought it from was a dealer back when Quadractor was first made.  He used this machine for years on his own woodlot hauling firewood. 
The best part of this particular Quadractor is the factory three point hitch and spare parts.  When I showed up the owner of the Quadractor had the tires inflated after twenty years of sitting and had it hooked up to his tractor like shown to the left. 
A little side note here, if you all couldn't tell the truck in the picture is not my truck, but Grampa's truck.  His truck is better on fuel mileage a lot more comfortable for long trips, plus the cruise control works.  So thankfully Grampa let me borrow his truck and all his ratchet straps for the trip. 












What you see here is just the bare tractor but he did have the two side panels two front hoods and a tailgate as well as chains for all four tires. 

We tried to fit the tractor in the truck bed but even though I measured my tractor at home this one would not fit.  We started out by taking just the ditch side front tire off to get it to fit but I was worried about tearing the bed liner up because it was still tight so we removed the drivers side front tire as well.

After removing both front tires it became a problem rolling it forward in the truck so we put some boards under the hubs and up over the wheel wells for the hubs to slide up.  Bill then picked the rear of the Quadractor by the three point hitch and slowly pushed it forward. 

Luckily the Quadractor was built to be a light machine so it was easy to pick up and move around the bed of the truck.  We left the rear wheels on and left them setting on the tailgate and strapped it like that.  I also put a load lock behind the front two axle mechanisms.  After it was loaded I put the side panels on and strapped them to the machine.  Tomorrow morning I will post a short update with some more pictures of the 3 point hitch and the tractor completely loaded and strapped.  We still have a five hour drive ahead of us from Coxsackie, New York.  I am very excited to get the three point hitch on my Quadractor and get this one unloaded and assess it a little more.