Operation Bolens 600

[OldBuzzard 186]

Gentlemen,

 

Sometime back, April 16 in fact, Andrew (Triumph66) sent me a PM over on the GTTalk forums.

 

There was a 1962 Bolens 600 listed on eBay that he was interested in, and he wanted to know if I would assist him in getting it shipped to him if he bought it.

 

One reason for his request was that it had been posted on the GTTalk forums and I told folks that I was VERY close to where it was located and that I could pick up and store it if anyone was interested.

 

I replied that I would be more than glad to help, and Andrew got VERY interested.   Since he was so interested, I decided to go take a look at it in person as it was only 20 miles from me.

 

I took a good look at it and took it for a spin around the barn yard, and was VERY impressed with it.

 

I asked the seller if he knew anything about the history of the tractor and he explained that he worked in a scrap yard, and that someone had brought it in to be scrapped     Since he is a bit knowledgeable he set it off to the side so that they could sell it rather than scrapping it

 

Why on earth someone would do that is beyond me.  As you will see in the following pics, it's one of the nicest original tractors that you will ever see.  It's absolutely beautiful

 

It was listed with a starting bit of $300.00 and for one reason or another no one bid on it and Andrew STOLE it for the minimum bid.

 

PM's started flowing fast and furious, and after wired bank funds finally arrived (that was a story in itself), I contacted the seller and made arrangements to pick it up.

 

So today I hooked up the trailer and went to fetch the mighty Bolens.

 

One thing that Andrew mentioned was maybe I could take a pic of the Bolens with an 'iconic' American building in the back round,  I hope I succeeded  :D

 

I did stop on the way home to take a pic or two of some "iconic' bovines as well.  You don't see them often in this part of the country, but if you ever watched the old Westerns, you should be able to figure out what they are :D

 

So without further ado, the pics, starting from hooked up and ready to go, to back home with it one the trailer.  I will be taking more pics as we go along and most likely a video or two as well.

[OldBuzzard 186]

Oh by the way, when I was taking the cattle pics, I had my little camera at max zoom, and with the glare on the LCD screen it was a bit hard to see just what I was taking a picture of.

 

Here are a couple that I didn't include above  :D

[Chris 642]

Mighty Bolens. Its so small you could put it in a suitcase on the plane

 

Lovely little thing for Andrew

 

Look forward to seeing it one day

[meadowfield 1,900]

What a fab story, look forward to the rest... Andrew was lucky to get a steal and even luckier to be helped by you across the pond!

That's what I love about our site, no barriers to help and support.

Great pics too

[HeadExam 1,783]

Oh by the way, when I was taking the cattle pics, I had my little camera at max zoom, and with the glare on the LCD screen it was a bit hard to see just what I was taking a picture of.

 

Here are a couple that I didn't include above  :D

My eyesight in the sun is much the same, frustrating, around here in Oklahoma we have lots of those cows as well as their furrier cousins, the American Bison, fortunately folks around here don't slaughter for fun like they did in New York a few weeks back.

[neil 524]

One of the best parts of this story is that you were prepared to help a fellow collector manage to purchase a lovely tractor thousands of miles away & that you are prepared ship it for him.

Documenting its shipping with photos is also really cool .

For those that are considering shipping from USA,How easy do you think the shipping process is ?

[OldBuzzard 186]

We haven't gotten too deep into that.

 

It appears that Andrew will be making all of the arrangements over there for the actual shipping.

 

I will be prepping/crating/getting it ready for shipment.

 

If it ships from the Port of Cleveland which is only 40-50 miles from me, I'll be able to deliver it to the port which will save some money.  If it has to go to New York, that's 500 miles from here and it will have to be shipped from here to there.

[OldBuzzard 186]

... fortunately folks around here don't slaughter for fun like they did in New York a few weeks back.

 

That wasn't done for "fun".

 

They were in a populated URBAN area and it was something that had to be done for safety reasons.

[slf-uk 914]

That really is a great 600 and looks even better in these pictures than the ones the seller had. Even better, one of the pictures is a great help for me to see the details of a bracket that is missing on my 600.

 

The assistance Dave is providing to Andrew is unbelievable and inspiring. I believe Andrew is also using shipping information provided by Neil and me to sort that side. For me this is just another example of the goodwill and support that forum members on here are willing to provide. This is a great place to be!!

 

Iain

[Triumph66 1,256]

Dave, thanks for collecting the 600 yesterday. It looks brilliant and the photos of the long horn cattle are wonderful. Thanks also to Iain and Neil for their help and sage advice in this covert operation. As Dave said it was nearby to him and unknown to me close to port too. As a additional bonus, Dave got contact with a local CC dealership who will let him have a crate free. Luckily Dave got a fork lift on his Bolens so that is another complication sorted.

The only snag was the bank transfer. Last Saturday I organised the money to be sent. It didn't arrive until Tuesday evening UK time. So I learnt that it is not automatic and don't do it over the weekend.

Thanks for the encouraging comments and yes MOM us a great forum hence my green supporter badge.

[C-101plowerpower 548]

One of the best parts of this story is that you were prepared to help a fellow collector manage to purchase a lovely tractor thousands of miles away & that you are prepared ship it for him.

Documenting its shipping with photos is also really cool .

For those that are considering shipping from USA,How easy do you think the shipping process is ?

 

depends, family friend does shipping in large containers from Milan IN USA to about 15 miles from here and back, things like GT's get hung up on the roof of the container and parts get put between bigger items

[OldBuzzard 186]

The assistance Dave is providing to Andrew is unbelievable and inspiring ...

 

Not really.  I've done pretty much the same here in the States when I've done some of my long road trips.

 

For instance, when I was going down to Virginia to pick up the Bolens forklift that I had refurbished I made two extra stops on the way. One was to pick up a tractor for the fella that did the refurb, and the other was to pick up some Brinly attachments for a fella that lives very close to him. 

 

Since both items were on my route, it just made sense for me to pick them up and save the other guys from having to make a trip or have them shipped.

 

Over on the GTT Forums there is a sub-forum just for that purpose.  You can post your route, and available space when you make a trip, or ask if someone can help get something to you.

[HeadExam 1,783]

That wasn't done for "fun".

 

They were in a populated URBAN area and it was something that had to be done for safety reasons.

Yeah because buffalo are worse than the black bears that are in the same area. Nope it wasn't done for fun it was a intentional and inhumane slaughter, God forbid your urban area has a withstand 15 "cows" until they could be herded up. They did the same thing to starve the Native Americans, this time traffic and urban safety are at risk, real mature human beings at work. I apologize and will refrain from commenting any further.

[slf-uk 914]

Not really.  I've done pretty much the same here in the States when I've done some of my long road trips.

 

For instance, when I was going down to Virginia to pick up the Bolens forklift that I had refurbished I made two extra stops on the way. One was to pick up a tractor for the fella that did the refurb, and the other was to pick up some Brinly attachments for a fella that lives very close to him. 

 

Since both items were on my route, it just made sense for me to pick them up and save the other guys from having to make a trip or have them shipped.

 

Over on the GTT Forums there is a sub-forum just for that purpose.  You can post your route, and available space when you make a trip, or ask if someone can help get something to you.

 

Going out of your way (even slightly) to help someone is surprisingly uncommon in this country. A request is often met by sucking through teeth and a list of reasons why that is not possible. I can live with that, what is annoying is the people who say yes when they mean no and they are really hoping you won't remember you asked.

 

As we say in these parts, your a good sort.

 

Iain

[Charlie Smith 192]

Great looking machine, like others have mentioned it's good that we've got friends across the pond willing to help out, if there's a little room left in that crate chuck a plough in there for my wheel horse im just kidding,

I see a wonderful green 600 has just popped up on the bay

[OldBuzzard 186]

Believe me Iain, we have plenty of those kind of people here as well.  They are mostly 'city folk' and pretty much wrapped up in themselves.

 

Out in the small towns and rural areas, people are more neighborly and will help each other just because "that's what you do".

 

They do small things like removing the snow from the elderly widow's drive, to the big things like harvesting a farmer's crops when he has an illness or injury.

 

 

[Triumph66 1,256]

The green 600 is being sold by Jack the Hat I believe. I was interested in it when it was listed a few weeks ago but the listing ended earlier. Anyway I got one now!

[Triumph66 1,256]

Dave,

When the 600 arrive in the UK I will take some photos of it outside Buckingham Palace and the Houses Of Parliament for comparison. Might take one outside Waitrose too! All three will have Her Majestry formal approval!

Cheers

Andrew

[rgrottk 3]

I mechanically restored a Bolen's 800 about 6-7 years ago for my niece who called me today and wants me to come get it since they are moving. So I will have it in my hands in a couple of weeks. Let me know if anyone out there is interested in a classic. At the time I put a brand new 10HP Tecumseh in it and it ran great..... don't know what condition it is in now but will find out soon.   Attaching some pics (TAKEN 6-7 YRS AGO). I love the look of this tractor and mower..... Will be available at my home in Brewster, NY 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OldBuzzard 186]

A bit more progress to report.

 

Andrew found and purchased a sleeve hitch for the Bolens tube frames. He arraigned with the seller to send it to me for inclusion in the shipment. 

 

I have one pic of it, and at a later date I'll have a few more when I get it mounted on the tractor.

 

We also have the beginnings of the shipping crate.

 

It turned out to be a bit more of a project than I first thought.

 

I went over to the dealer, and discovered that the parts of the crate were too large to fit in the truck bed.  I have a Dodge Dakota with the crew cab, so the bed is a bit on the short side.  So, I said to myself  "Self, let's just go get the trailer and use it". Self replied, "I do believe that is a splendid idea".

 

Now this dealer is also the same dealer that originally put my forklift together.  They used and abused it for 30+ years, and about 2 years ago I managed to get them to sell it to me,  It worked great but did need some help both cosmetically and mechanically.  That was done over the winter before last.  You can see a long thread on that over at the GTT forums: http://gardentractortalk.com/forums/topic/29815-bolens-1886-forklift-refurb/page-1?hl=+refurb

 

They were also holding a Cub Cadet open house, with all of the new CCs available for a test drive, etc.  I sat and talked with then for awhile, and was talking to the father who was the original owner, and he expressed interest in seeing it now that it had been refurbed.

 

Once we got back home and I was hooking the trailer up to the Dakota, I once again opened up a conversations with Self.  "Self" I said "since we are taking the trailer anyway, why don't we load the forklift as well, and we can let the folks over there see what it looks like after the refurbish?"  Self replied "Brilliant!"  (I think I've been spending too much time on this forum and watching old episodes of Top Gear and the language is rubbing off on me  :D )

 

So, the forklift was loaded onto the trailer and back we (Self and I) went. We shot the breeze some more, and I finally started loading up the crate.  Now I gotta tell you, that was WAY too much like work!

 

There was a big stack of knocked down crates, and I spent a lot of time moving parts around until I finally found one of suitable size, and all the parts thereof.

 

Finally, I was all load up and back home I came.

 

Here are a few pics.

 

As you can see the poor Dakota had all it could handle with the forklift on the trailer

 

Another couple of pics of what will be the shipping crate.

 

And, a couple of pics of Andrew's 600 parked next to my HT20D.  The HT20D is sitting there because it's being shifted from the Winter mode to Summer mode.  The blade will be coming off and the flail mower will be going on.  I just HAD to take those pics as it so clearly shows the difference in sizes between the first of the tube frames and basically the last (size wise) of the large frames.

 

Andrew's 600 is there because I was attaching the sleeve hitch. However, I ran into a problem, so the hitch isn't on it yet. I will describe all of that in a later post

[Triumph66 1,256]

Great photos and a great story too. You can really see the difference in size between the tractors. The 600 look fantastic. I would love to get a Haban flail mower as well. I take it that they come in different sizes? It must be a joy to move your heavy implements around with your fork lift. I have seen your fork lift tractor before but on the trailer it look really cool and unusual. Did the previous owners/ users appreciate its rejuvenation? I see you have the Haban sickle bar mounted on another Bolens. Which model is that one?

Thanks for sorting out the crate and you got a great set up there with that very American timber frame building in the background.

[OldBuzzard 186]

Yep, the good folks over at Worcester's were most appreciative, and glad to see that it had a new lease on life.

 

Yes, Haban made the Flail-Mo in different widths.

 

They made the 36" models 502 and 503 for the tube frames and the 48" models 513 and 514 for the large frames.  The one in the pic is a 514A and I also have a 503 which needs a bit of TLC and isn't usuable at this time. It's an attachment that you don't want to use with a gear driven tube frame unless you have the optional hydraulic lift.

 

The Sickle-Mo is a model 415A and is mounted on a 1250 with the optional Bolens Dual Wheel Kit.  The REALLY nice thing about the 415 is that it uses the tractor's hydraulics to raise/lower the cutter bar.  Sure makes it easier to use than the 405A that I have on a 1256.  With that you have a lever you pull to raise/lower the cutter bar.

[Triumph66 1,256]

Mine is, I think the 415a model. It's a beast to move around. The plan is to hitch up to the 1254 sometime. Here are some photos, albiet of poor quality. I will take some properly.

[OldBuzzard 186]

Not sure what model that is, but it's not a 415 nor is it a 405A for a Bolens tube frames..

[Chris 642]

   

 

So what does it fit then??