A little history. The last Deere dealership I worked at was next door to a car-crusher/scrap-metal yard. We used to fix much of his heavy equipment and I was pretty friendly with the owner, starting around 1979 onto the early 90s. If I wasn't on the road somewhere, I'd often spend my lunch hour at that scrapyard. The stuff that gets scrapped is amazing. The owner would let me take stuff home, and I'd give him some case or scrap in exchange. Our dealership closed in 1991, the scrapyard is a 50 mile round-trip from my home, and - it's become a big business. More of a scrap-yard "empire" now. Almost feel like you need to wear a suit to visit there.
Yesterday, I had to go to the "big city" where the yard is. It was 5 below zero and snowing a bit, and I figured the place wouldn't be crowded - so I stopped in. To my surprise, a "young" guy I knew well who was a torch-man in the back yard, was still working there - and still - a torch man. Not so young anymore (30 years later). His job is to torch apart big equipment that cannot be crushed. Guess what he was working on when I walked in? Three Deere 440 crawlers. All with dozers, reversers, and some with newly pin-and-bushed tracks, new sprockets, etc .
Along side the 440s was a Deere 450B turbo dozer with 6 way blade. The guy told me it was driven in. New tracks, sprockets, front idlers and hydraulic adjuster assemblies. All is sitting there waiting to be cut up. And, to add insult-to-injury. There is also an IH backhoe sitting there. There is on part I've been searching the country for - to fix my IH hoe. And, there it is. Two bolts, and I could pluck it off, and it looks like new. IH uses a top yoke with internal splines on most of their old hoes on the swing-motor. Tends to wear and I can't find one anywhere - new or used.
So what happened? I had to track down the owner of the place - the guy I used to be friendly with. He's sort of retired and seems to do what he wants. I got hold of him 6 a.m. this morning and asked if there is any way I can pay him to salvage any parts - from the IH or any of the Deere crawlers. I got a strong "no." He says the state of NY can fine him $25,000 if lets anyone take any parts once he's bought anything by weight as scrap-metal. So, I'm sick over it. Maybe it's a mental illness - but to stand there and see someone take a torch to stuff like this seems to be a sin. What a waste.
I had no tools and I had no camera. So, I reached over an pulled on ID tag off one crawler - that's it.
