Follow up on tractor hobby going down

Well I think our show is going boots up. It was always a good
time, saw and learned a lot. Funny with how the hobby goes
though, asked 4 guys younger than me if they were interested
in my nice M. "Why would I want that?". That's what I
thought. I think I came in on the tail end, not as many with any
direct ties to equipment or the farm. And too dang many
addicted to their cell phone or video games. Oh well, I still like
'em! I love to plow with my little H!

You just need to ask the right people. Not all are wound up with themselves. Jim

It's certainly changing.
There's a young kid here who likes tractors and tractor shows.
Thing is, the tractor he takes to the pulls is a Case/IH 2 wheel
drive cab tractor.
Says it's too small to do anything but pull with but the rules say
its too new to pull. "It will be old enough soon" he says. LOL

Here's a picture of his tractor. The BN hiding behind the hood
and the Allis Chalmers C to the right are mine. The little wheels
in between are on the back of my Bolens RideMaster.

There is no shortage of young folks interested in the older iron around here. High school kids pulling Ollie 77's and 88's. Buddies young female cousin bought herself an M a year or so back. There is a thriving antique pullers club around here, all the small towns in the county host a pull.

Our club has several younger members.The problem I see is the tractors made in the 90s with all the plastic and computers wont last long enough to be collected.I agree everyone walking around texting or talking on their phone[young and old] bothers me,especially when they are driving something.I have some younger help and if they start texting while helping me I politely tell them to use both hands or go home.

I know what your feeling. In my club we have a average age of mid to late 60's. Problem is the board is all under 40. The Old Guard sometimes won't let go to let us make the decisions we need to make to progress. We are on the up swing right now and have more of the older members stepping up to help which tells me they must think were doing it right. The other big thing I see is what is there to do for the kids? With out them the future of any club is dead. We allow our kids to pull the big tractors,have pedal pulls,have garden tractor games just to keep them interested.

Probably in the long run it'll be a good thing for
tractor collecting as interest in tractors with some folks wanes and prices fall others will be able to afford an old tractor that couldn't afford one the last few years.Also with gas prices down some, using a gasser isn't cost prohibitive anymore for small jobs and use around a homestead and older tractors still have the advantage of being simple and easy/cheap to repair compared to
the newer compacts.

Local club started out good as it was mainly about old tractors and farm equipment. We had some good shows twice a year. Got some new blood involved and they decided we needed to own our own land. OK we bought an old farm. Now we needed some modern buildings for meetings and display of old stuff and then a bigger one for food vending {chicken, burgers and dogs] and now more buildings to replacate some old village.

And yes their show only draws pullers now and is mostly empty of old tractors. I stay away.

Yup. I know a guy who told me that "I don't consider anything without a 3 point hitch to be a tractor...."

He is 70 years old next spring....

When people start to really want to use their imagination to make things to sell rather than play games on electronic devices the old tractor interest will come back. The talent is being tamped down at this moment in time by lack of reason to dream. This will not be forever but how long it takes to wake the imagination of the talented is not known at this time. People do not stay depressed for ever.

Look at muscle cars now. The hobby is on its last legs. The young dont reemember them "they ain't rice burners" and a good rebuildable classic costs more than a house.

What you are saying doesn't add up if its 'on its last legs' as you say the rebuildable units would be dirt cheap not real expensive.Muscle cars I've seen for sale latery are sky high.

i still enjoy them ,of course i have ties to the old tractors too,growing up when i was a kid the farm had red tractors, a M and a C, both bought new, grandpa would not have a green one on the farm with him, even though the neighbor had green ones, when my uncle took over the farm, in '68 he sold the farmalls and bought allis chalmers so i learned to run those, [ i wasnt there for the conversation he and grampa must have had about the color change, but it must have been interesting] around my area we dont have a club ,as the area is just to large to get everybody togeather, there are about a dozen of us who know each other and actually fix up old tractors then there are many of them in the county that are still working some of these are in sad shape and barely run, and not fixed up, one thing that will affect show attendance is a lot of these guys are gettin up in years and dont feel as safe as they once did hauling the tractors to the shows, also like rv'rs the fuel cost is a big factor at the big shows many of these guys are long retired, and when they worked and made their money wages were around a buck or so per hour, if they had a city job, and with fuel between 3 and 4 bucks a gallon they just cant afford to haul a tractor or 2 or 3 long distances

The investors ruined it. The rebuildables are so expensive because people are using them to make clones of cars with rare combinations. A couple years ago (about the time I lost interest in cars) there were more of the last-year hemi-cuda's at Barrett-Jackson than were built that year.

Last legs? You're joking right? I have a '67 Z/28and 69 Indy Pace car Camaro, a '67 Nova, and a 69 SS Chevelle. Just bought the Chevelle, just recently sold a big block '70 Nova. While prices did peak about 5 years ago due to down-turn in the economy, they're still VERY strong. A Camaro almost identical to my '67 just sold (on Barret Jackson Auto Auction) for over $75,000. In the last few months. prices are starting to go back up towards where they were 5 or 6 years ago. Good original or well restored muscle cars are a good solid investment.

(quoted from post at 05:51:42 11/17/13) Last legs? You're joking right? I have a '67 Z/28and 69 Indy Pace car Camaro, a '67 Nova, and a 69 SS Chevelle. Just bought the Chevelle, just recently sold a big block '70 Nova. While prices did peak about 5 years ago due to down-turn in the economy, they're still VERY strong. A Camaro almost identical to my '67 just sold (on Barret Jackson Auto Auction) for over $75,000. In the last few months. prices are starting to go back up towards where they were 5 or 6 years ago. Good original or well restored muscle cars are a good solid investment.

Click to expand...

Cars should never be considered an investment. Buy them because you enjoy them and have fun with it.

Not so....They can be valued for a number of reasons. I enjoy them, but I enjoy NOT tossing my hard earned money into a bottomless pit.

I think there are a lot of reasons that old tractors are not as popular as they once were. Some have been stated already, like the economy, old age/death and young people not interested. The biggest failure is getting young people interested. I've been to tractor shows. They can be pretty boring. Oh an H, OH another H, OH another H, OH another H, OH another H, well you get the idea. Plus in the evenings what goes on? Setting in a camp ground? Maybe some form of entertainment that young people find boring? You want the kids involved you gotta do something to make it fun. I'm not talking 5 year olds. I'm talking the 12-30 crowd.

Just my thoughts.

Rick