Do you ever clean out your tractor toolbox?

The other day when it was raining, I started to clean out the tool box on one of my tractors. It is amazing the amount of stuff that can collect in such a small space. I even found stuff from the previous owner, which was several years ago.

Christopher

did once, but i found so many parts that i couldnt remember went where,I wound up putting it all back so i'd have it if i remembered!besides that ,I think something was growing down in the bottom,I swear I saw movement a couple of times.dont want to get those grease worms scattered all over, half my stuffs held together with hardened grease!

When it gets to full of beer cans for the lid to close. LOL

Bought and sold tractors for several years, and must have a dozen or more assorted wrenches, screwdrivers, etc. left by former owners. Seems to run heavy to 1/2 and 9/16 wrenches.

Broke a bill hook on a baler, on a Sunday, so put in a couple of very well worn ones found in the baler toolbox. Worked so well that I never did replace them with new.

We seem to have a new type of yellowjacket around here in the past few years- Smaller than conventional 'jacket. They make a little un-protected nest, attached by a slender "stalk"- about a dozen bees or so, usually. They really prefer toolboxes, and when I open a toolbox on a tractor I haven't used in awhile, I go armed with a can of spray.

That little box is a handy thing to have, holds the bare basics in tools and small spares.

I was real pleased to find some original tools that came on my 1945 caterpillar D7 tractor, still in the tool box, good idea to keep them organized with some essentials, I saw the value of that during the spring planting this year, mostly implement repair and or adjustments.

You have to be real country to understand that question!.

What a memory puller that is! Fortunately I have the tools and one of the tool boxes still. I wish I still could have had the one off Dad's M farmall. It was a old mailbox thing that was real steel. It was what I sat on between the fender and the left side of his seat. Sitting there backward, I could watch the dirt being worked or the hay being mowed or the road being graded. I had a real love for dirt. (Still do but it is real thin around here!) All this came to and end when he figured if I was going to be in the field anyway I should be driving a tractor so he bought an LA case for me at age 8.

And NO, it was never emptied. He did however have a special old wooden handle screwdriver that I never saw him use for anything but diggin around in the tool box for a need bolt or fence staple or sickle rivet, etc!

The M platform was just big enough to hold all the good stuff which was allowed to rise to the top of the rust and dirt while digging for the treasures.

He bought a new MF180 in 65 and filled the new tool box he bought for it with more of the same which he found in the shop. This box, I still have. When he traded the 180 for the 1100 he took off the box and sat it in the shop and bought a new one for the 1100.

All these boxes were big enough to hold his constant friend, the 18 inch craftsman adjustable wrench. This wrench I inherited and took it to a Sears store in Vegas and got a brand new for it.

Sometimes I wish I had kept the original as it carried 25 plus years of scars. The biggest which was having the handle bent from using it for a hitch pin for something really big.

Mom told him he really could have double wrenches for the tractors so he wouldn't have to move them around. He musta thought it would be wasted money.

Now, when harvest came around, outfitting the combine completely screwed things up.

And,,,,his son still keeps piles and containers of crap,,,just in case!!

only when I sell them. Wonderous, fascinating stuff goes comes out of there. I have no idea where it came from or what it fits.

Never again.

Did it once. For the next year I was always looking for something that should have been in there. If nothing else I am scared too, there's some scary stuff when you get close to the bottom!!

Looking for a shear bolt for the pto shaft on a fert. buggy today I found half a pack of watermellon seeds from where I planted a few hills along the creek bank two years ago, wander if they are still good.

Dave