What were they thinking?

SO today is Sunday and I went out to feed cattle and my 8920 boy I do love her but she must have felt like acting up a little before church. The hydraulic hoses on the number one remote would not stay in! I went to lower the spout and out popped the hose. Thought ok whatever. Went out plugged it back in and popped out again! Did this three or four more times before it finally stayed! This sounds bad but it gets annoying crawling the steps each time you touch the hydraulics! Never had this problem with the 1086, or even the 966 hydro! So in all my rambling I wondered what changed outside of universal pioneer hose ends and the on off lever on the 86/66 series? Sorry about the long post, just kind of venting. Oh by the way the cattle did get fed and I did make it to church on time!

DK: You should have kept the old tractors. I farmed for years, nothing newer than a 66 series, probably clocked up 100,000 hours on 20 tractors. 60,000 of those hours went on 4 - 6 cylinder diesels. I was never without a main power horse in a busy season.

You think about it, there are hundreds of farmers with tractors built since 1980 that have been without a main power supply tractor during a harvest or planting season.

I posted on here about 6 years ago about a dead Deere. 350 horsepower with a 46' cultivator parked diagnol in the middle of a field for 48 hours with cultivator wings spread. They brought another machine in, tilled around it, planted around it. two days later there was a guy with a 60 hp tractor tilling then a 4 row planter, patching the gap. He had close to 5 acres to do.

Friend on mine had a CaseIH Magnium. Of his power shift speeds, it wouldn't go into the one used most on his forage harvester. CaseIH sent out a 6 million dollar man, they worked on it for two days. Finally it started working, but they have no idea what fixed it. Two days later it started doing it again. 12 months later there was a Deere on his forage harvester.

I could go on and on all night with stories I've heard. Progress is a wonderful thing.

That sounds like the trouble we had this spring. Dads MX 255 tried to commit tractor suicide by pumping itself full of diesel the second day of planting. Its not a good thing when tractors make their own oil! Then my uncles 255 locked the park brake and CaseIH had ot get a huge fork lift to get it on the truck! 3 weeks later and after the tractor had the cab removed and split twice it came back for use. Ended up planting with a week with the ol 7220 again, but a 12 row 36" Kinze with no lift assist wheels is quite a load for that tractor! Worked flawlessly. Next ooption would have been the 966, but I think by that time we would have been SOL! This all happened in about a week, but I guess when it rains it pours right?

The old stuff seems to be a bit more bulletproof. Dad informs the old dinosaur (JD 8630) is doing just fine again this year, starting to drool a bit out the front seal, but he figures he only put about 2 quarts of oil through it in 100 hours. Not bad for a rig with over 8300 hours on it and over 30 years old...