I know there are a number of rural members here, so I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has any particularly interesting equipment for dealing with multiple acres of property and/or roads and/or whatever else you have going on.
I've got two I rather like: A 1939 Ford 9N tractor (2400lb, plus filled wheels, with about 25hp out of a 2L motor) that I use for plowing the driveway in the winter, and will be using more this upcoming year for discing some fire breaks, scraping flat areas for gardens, etc. It was a family member's tractor, living at my inlaws place (we live on a corner of their property they gave us), and I was using it last winter, which meant it wasn't being maintained very well at all. And I'm not going to drop a grand of work into someone else's tractor.
So, I purchased it (for $1100) and have been putting some time and materials into it to get it ready for this winter - the carb was shot, exhaust manifold was leaking, generator wasn't working, and the ignition wires are comically bad. I've got the parts to fix all that, plus a new battery (the old one was pretty weak). I'm keeping it a positive ground 6V system since, well, I'd rather keep it original, and I'm not sold on an open frame alternator instead of a sealed generator. This year is basic mechanical work, and tire chains, then next year will be a bit more cosmetic work and probably some paint. Plus, maybe, new tires.
The other bit I'm kind of happy with is an old (original generation) DR Trimmer. This is basically a walk behind weed eater on steroids with a 5hp motor on it. It was sitting in one of my father-in-law's sheds, and I'd mentioned wanting something like it, so he dragged it out and gave it to me. I've put new wheels on it, a new starter rope, redone the head a bit, and generally kept it behaving. It's cranky, it burns oil, but it does a very good job, and I've put dozens of hours on it in the last year just mowing down weeds on the property (and cutting firebreaks).
The other stuff I bought when we got the property gets used a bit less. The weed eater works fine, but I mostly use the DR trimmer now that I have it (I can clear an area in a fraction of the time). The lawnmower gets used some, since we've got grass over our septic field (yes, I know, there are people who think grass is a waste of space, but I use it as mulch and feed for compost bins, and I've got enough space that I don't have to grow edibles over the septic field). I did buy a heavy duty snowblower this year, because we only got off the property last winter thanks to borrowing a neighbor's tractor (my rear blade didn't do much against the 2'-3' deep drifts, and I had no way to get the windrow from the blade tossed into the weeds - the snowblower is intended to do a single pass after the tractor and reset the driveway to flat so I don't have the drifting issue). Yes, I could use a shovel, if I were willing to devote entire days to clearing the driveway every time it snowed, but I'd rather not have to take vacation from work (work from home) to do that...
What have you found particularly useful? Or what have you dragged out of a barn somewhere and restored? The tractor is a particularly interesting case in that it's 75 years old, and if I treat it right, it will easily outlive me. :) It's fun working on things like that - the tech I play with for my dayjob is not nearly so long lived!
