Lets Talk Farm Trucks

Lets talk Farm Truck!


If you missed our live video today (or don't want to listen to me ramble) here's a short blog about our farm truck.


If you've lived on an acreage, you'll know that you need at least some form of a snow removal. For some, it's a lawn mower with a snow blower, for others it's a tractor, and for us, it's a truck and snow plow attached. We use the farm truck as a farm truck and a snow plow so if  you've ever heard me talk about it, this beauty is it. It's a 1983 Chevy something or other that has seen better days.

Yes, you'll need a tetnus shot to climb in but up until two weeks ago it ran. Mike was joking that the plow truck was the only vehicle that ran (was thinking tractors as they all have problems). But he didn't knock on wood and POOF, the engine started having problems. You can ask Mike exactly what is wrong but all I know is that "it no go". Which means, more money into vehicles instead of horses.


So we had two options.


Option 1: tear apart the motor, send in some sample and figure out what's wrong. But there's a lot of waiting involved and it could be that we wouldn't get the farm truck/snow plow back up and running until late October. Not having a plow truck in winter is out of the question. Yes we have a tractor that could push snow, it has a bucket. But it's also the tractor we put hay in with so it would mean switching out the bucket and spear every week. Not going to happen in winter.


Option 2: Buy a new motor and replace it.


We went with Option 2.


And for those asking, No, buying a "new" old truck was not in the cards. To find another vehicle, fix all the quirks, and get it up and running would be less cost effective. Buying the motor was more expensive than we'd planned but it was really the only option as there's just not enough time and the results could come back saying we'd need a new motor anyway.


So here we are. We have a new motor and now we just need time to get it in. It would be lovely if someone would donate towards the new motor but I doubt that'll happen.

We use the farm truck for just about everything. Mike has the back of the farm truck set up so we can do spraying. That's how we discovered the truck engine was broken. He pulled out the truck and was getting the 10 gallon sprayer going (which also broke). We had hoped to get the sprayer and truck out into the pasture so I could spray but now we are relegated to spraying with the 1 and 3 gallon hand sprayer. But I'll do whatever it takes to make it work. Maybe next year we can take the truck.

We do have other tractors that can do the job of the farm truck but its' so much easier with the truck. It's not glamorous, it's not even pretty to look at, but when the motor gets back in, it'll be functional and that's what we are all about at the Sanctuary. We don't have pristine white fences, we dont' have well manicured lawns, we don't have shiny new vehicle or tractors. We make due with what we have, which is old fencing, old vehicles, and just about everything old. But hey, we are a Sanctuary for the old, so I guess we might as well toss in the old vehicles while we are at it.