Signs you are dealing with a 'Rooter'

the_pen_turner · 18-01-2021 11:11pm

J.O. Farmer wrote: »

He's hardly spending that though every year. If he is he'll have a perfect tractor or he has a dear mechanic.

or a bad one

19-01-2021 1:00am

Dunedin wrote: »

€1500 is hardly small money to spend on repairs. In 10 years he’ll have spent €15k and still have no tractor.

How much is a replacement tractor that's maintenance free? The chap is well into his 70s. Splashing out on a tractor mightn't appeal when he has one that does the job with TLC.

Cerveza · 19-01-2021 3:04am

I was in the local hardware today and your typical rooter landed. 01 cruiser with cow box on. Neither the cruiser, box or the driver had a wash in over 10 years. A dog riding shotgun with him. No lights on the box working, engine sounded good as he left it ticking over while he went about his business.

Dunedin · 19-01-2021 9:04am

Augeo wrote: »

How much is a replacement tractor that's maintenance free? The chap is well into his 70s. Splashing out on a tractor mightn't appeal when he has one that does the job with TLC.

I’m only following the poster earlier that said he’s probably spending €1500 on repairs.

€1500 is hardly TLC.........

19-01-2021 9:18am

Given the below limiting factors id say a lot of typical farms in Ireland have an element of rooting in them:

1. Time
2. Money
3. Help from others
4. Good weather
5. Reliable animals

Lets say if you are a part time farmer that spends about 45 hrs in work including the commute, surely you by default end up doing a bit of rooting?

The only way you don't is if your parents / spouse / kids are putting in the hours on the ranch when you aren't there?

Lets say if you farm full time and are on your own and not married then the temptation to be a rooter might be higher unless you have a relative that can take on the farm after you retire?

_Brian · 19-01-2021 9:31am

Deleted User wrote: »

Given the below limiting factors id say a lot of typical farms in Ireland have an element of rooting in them:

1. Time
2. Money
3. Help from others
4. Good weather
5. Reliable animals

Lets say if you are a part time farmer that spends about 45 hrs in work including the commute, surely you by default end up doing a bit of rooting?

The only way you don't is if your parents / spouse / kids are putting in the hours on the ranch when you aren't there?

Lets say if you farm full time and are on your own and not married then the temptation to be a rooter might be higher unless you have a relative that can take on the farm after you retire?

From what I see people are often confusing lads running a low cost system with lads farming via bad practice or poor practice.

We run two old tractors, balls of shiite I’d imagine many above would say. But our DB for example has been on farm for 30+ years and never been away for a repair, we’ve done clutch etc ourselves but at that age that’s expected. It rarely fails to start and feeds all silage all winter, agitates slurry etc. I just see that as low cost operating on a small holding, is this rooting ??
Our slurry equipment is old as well, 20+ years, but works year after year for our needs.

Things like having gates hanging, tidying up plastic wraps, decent fencing, no wild cattle, these things are important to us and signs of rooting if your not.

19-01-2021 9:58am

Dunedin wrote: »

I’m only following the poster earlier that said he’s probably spending €1500 on repairs.

€1500 is hardly TLC.........

.......... did you miss the bit where it's likely there's zero depreciation?

19-01-2021 10:08am

_Brian wrote: »

Things like having gates hanging, tidying up plastic wraps, decent fencing, no wild cattle, these things are important to us and signs of rooting if your not.

Id say some of your examples there line up with what I was saying on resources

fencing / tidying up plastic / having gates hanging = time / help

wild cattle = reliable animals

19-01-2021 10:10am

Augeo wrote: »

.......... did you miss the bit where it's likely there's zero depreciation?

Tractors don't deprecate much over time compared to cars

Buy a car for 10 k and a tractor for 10 k, after 2 years the tractor is probably wort 9 k and the car is probably worth 5 k

19-01-2021 10:13am

Deleted User wrote: »

Tractors don't deprecate much over time compared to cars

Buy a car for 10 k and a tractor for 10 k, after 2 years the tractor is probably wort 9 k and the car is probably worth 5 k

I know.
I'd just not be reckoning a lad in his 70s throwing a guesstimated €1500/annum keeping a tractor going is too far out of the way. Why splash out on an upgrade at that stage in your life if you're quite happy with the thing you have?
A €10k tractor could give trouble also.

Plenty fancy tractors out there with folk struggling to pay for them.

19-01-2021 10:19am

Augeo wrote: »

I know.
I'd just not be reckoning a lad in his 70s throwing a guesstimated €1500/annum keeping a tractor going is too far out of the way. Why splash out on an upgrade at that stage in your life if you're quite happy with the thing you have?
A €10k tractor could give trouble also.

Plenty fancy tractors out there with folk struggling to pay for them.

To me a fancy tractor is more tractor than I need

1500 a year sounds like a lot on maintenance but I guess it all adds up, maybe that includes fuel and insurance etc?

19-01-2021 10:29am

Deleted User wrote: »

To me a fancy tractor is more tractor than I need

............

I would agree, I would guess the chap doesn't need anything more than the ole yoke he has.

whisky_galore · 19-01-2021 10:13pm

Finty Lemon wrote: »

Old kit is not a sign of rooting, quite the opposite in many cases. Nothing better than an old classic running like a clock.
Broken up machinery on the other hand...

Lads with places full of scrap on public display, then complaining about all the visits from "any oul scrap dere bass" types.

whisky_galore · 19-01-2021 10:24pm

Oul lad with a car battered from ramming the gate open as he was too lazy to get out and open it.

Another pair who killed both cow and calf by pulling the calf with the tractor.

Usually owner of a demented dog permanently chained in a shed for his natural life.

Household rubbish gets fcuked in a big hape in the ditch.

One, or more, cars with trees growing up through them, won't sell or scrap.

Cut down wellies used as shoes.

minerleague · 19-01-2021 10:24pm

Cerveza wrote: »

I was in the local hardware today and your typical rooter landed. 01 cruiser with cow box on. Neither the cruiser, box or the driver had a wash in over 10 years. A dog riding shotgun with him. No lights on the box working, engine sounded good as he left it ticking over while he went about his business.

01 jeep ticking over nicely - well maintained so - hardly a rooter
stop start driving bad for diesel engines - see above
brings the dog with him - better than the poor designer breeds locked up in tiny suburban gardens with an x marks the spot to do their business

20-01-2021 12:19am

If its a suckler rooter then cows calving every month

Another rooter trait might be cattle/sheep breaking out and grazing the long acre

Cerveza · 20-01-2021 12:24am

minerleague wrote: »

01 jeep ticking over nicely - well maintained so - hardly a rooter
stop start driving bad for diesel engines - see above
brings the dog with him - better than the poor designer breeds locked up in tiny suburban gardens with an x marks the spot to do their business

A landcruiser is not a jeep, the most abused landcruiser of that era had engines that just went on and on. A dog who has wrecked the interior yea that’s not a router.

Dinzee Conlee · 20-01-2021 12:58am

I wish I had a 01 land cruiser...

Fcuk it - I don’t even have a dog to wreck the interior...

And with the way prices of both land cruisers and dogs are going, I won’t be getting either anytime soon...

That man ye speak of - he has it all... fair play to him...

Birdnuts · 20-01-2021 1:59am

The classic Rooter keeps his poultry in scrap cars - my Dads cousins in Tipp spring to mind;)

PS: also operate a number of "cabless" old rusting JCB's for jobs around the farm:D

davidk1394 · 20-01-2021 9:28am

Swaps the one good battery between the different machines in the yard.
Vince grips fixes everything
A window broke in at least one machine
Uses baling twine to hold up their trousers
Slurry and dung is full of netting, twine and pallets and has no idea how it got there.

Stihl waters · 20-01-2021 9:45am

A load of concrete will stretch twice what it would do for anyone else

_Brian · 20-01-2021 11:46am

Birdnuts wrote: »

The classic Rooter keeps his poultry in scrap cars - my Dads cousins in Tipp spring to mind;)

PS: also operate a number of "cabless" old rusting JCB's for jobs around the farm:D

Must be careful. Find myself looking at old diggers wondering how useful it would be.

foxy farmer · 20-01-2021 11:50am

Stihl waters wrote: »

A load of concrete will stretch twice what it would do for anyone else

Or the other extreme - never orders enough and you have to mix a metre to finish the job.

20-01-2021 12:20pm

He'd keep a 5 gallon drum of burnt oil for medical emergencies

minerleague · 20-01-2021 12:38pm

Cerveza wrote: »

A landcruiser is not a jeep, the most abused landcruiser of that era had engines that just went on and on. A dog who has wrecked the interior yea that’s not a router.

whist my 3 mutts will be upset if they cant come with me, interior is fine ( liner ) whats he going to do trade it in for a few 100 more? call everything a jeep or a digger ( or hoover ! ) Yopur ould boy is happy out ( prob has the price of a new Jeep and/or tractor in the back pocket anyway

Sacrolyte · 20-01-2021 2:21pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

He'd keep a 5 gallon drum of burnt oil for medical emergencies

He uses it for the ring worm.

the_pen_turner · 20-01-2021 2:28pm

No spanner or socket set has all its bits. The latches or hindges are broken the box and has to opened or closed in a special way to stop dropping everything.

There are more tools on the ground than in the tool box or bench

laoch na mona · 20-01-2021 4:07pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Household rubbish gets fcuked in a big hape in the ditch.

This one boils my piss a lad near has his own personal dump, everything from dead calves to old fridges goes in a hole in the back field.

Never heard the term rooter though, we'd always call them raw lads

Oops! · 20-01-2021 7:43pm

laoch na mona wrote: »

This one boils my piss a lad near has his own personal dump, everything from dead calves to old fridges goes in a hole in the back field.

Never heard the term rooter though, we'd always call them raw lads

Or just dog rough!

whisky_galore · 20-01-2021 8:37pm

the_pen_turner wrote: »

No spanner or socket set has all its bits. The latches or hindges are broken the box and has to opened or closed in a special way to stop dropping everything.

To be fair, even with the most careful, at least a few get rounded, break or get lost. It would be a genuine achievement if you actually had a full set for years unless you never used them.

the_pen_turner wrote: »

There are more tools on the ground than in the tool box or bench

That's more like it.

whisky_galore · 20-01-2021 8:42pm

Hoarding. I've seen batchelor brothers hoard years upon years of newspapers.

Putting the broken part back into the box that the new one came out of.

Saving sh1t like worn out grinding discs, broken tines, broken bolts, broken tools in case they'd find a use for them.
(Spoiler: they almost never find another use)

Lime Tree Farm · 20-01-2021 8:45pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

Hoarding. I've seen batchelor brothers hoard years upon years of newspapers.

Putting the broken part back into the box that the new one came out of.

Saving sh1t like worn out grinding discs, broken tines, broken bolts, broken tools in case they'd find a use for them.
(Spoiler: they almost never find another use)

Not until you throw them out, and then you could have done with one of them.

the_pen_turner · 20-01-2021 8:50pm

whisky_galore wrote: »

To be fair, even with the most careful, at least a few get rounded, break or get lost. It would be a genuine achievement if you actually had a full set for years unless you never used them.

That's more like it.

a good guy will replace tools when something like that happens.

kevthegaff · 20-01-2021 10:29pm

the_pen_turner wrote: »

a good guy will replace tools when something like that happens.

Ibe misplaced the 24 spanner, their a rip off separate

NcdJd · 20-01-2021 10:44pm

Rooters are great have to say. I've about 300 black plastic pallets at home and there is some of them broken / cracked at this stage. My neighbour came into me this morning and took 4 broken ones off me as he has cattle housed and one part of where the cattle are has no gates but various barriers put up and electic fencing wire then near the top to keep them in. I said to him to take the good ones and he insisted on taking the cracked ones. Anyway I've now an outlet for these broken plastic pallets so long live the rooter.

whelan2 · 20-01-2021 10:46pm

kevthegaff wrote: »

Ibe misplaced the 24 spanner, their a rip off separate

13,17,19 and 24 most used.

the_pen_turner · 20-01-2021 10:57pm

whelan2 wrote: »

13,17,19 and 24 most used.

dont forget the 10mm .

20-01-2021 10:59pm

whelan2 wrote: »

13,17,19 and 24 most used.

1/2,11/17,3/4 and circa an inch for those who happen to have a traveller set of imperial sitting around

7/8 is circa 22mm

The Rabbi · 20-01-2021 11:04pm

whelan2 wrote: »

13,17,19 and 24 most used.

But the rooter needs the 1/2",11/16",3/4"and15/16" for his auld yokes.
The 13/16"or7/8"might fix the leak on the loader if he hadn't used the vise grips last time.

zetecescort · 20-01-2021 11:05pm

Deleted User wrote: »

1/2,11/17,3/4 and circa an inch for those who happen to have a traveller set of imperial sitting around

7/8 is circa 22mm

and if you need two of a certain size just use the correct one and the closest one from the metric/imperial set

whelan2 · 20-01-2021 11:06pm

The Rabbi wrote: »

But the rooter needs the 1/2",11/16",3/4"and15/16" for his auld yokes.
The 13/16"or7/8"might fix the leak on the loader if he hadn't used the vise grips last time.

Vice grips will still be in place from last time

20-01-2021 11:10pm

The Rabbi wrote: »

But the rooter needs the 1/2",11/16",3/4"and15/16" for his auld yokes.
The 13/16"or7/8"might fix the leak on the loader if he hadn't used the vise grips last time.

has the set for old tractors....deosnt use the 7/16 on the fuel filter bowl,because "takes too long to find it"

Instead uses vice grips and now nut is rounded to ****,wont tighten right,draws air,

complains its "leaking/wet underneath" when lying up and cuts out/runs like crap 15 to 20 mins into topping and now wants to take out injector pump and diesel tank to sort it :rolleyes:

carrollsno1 · 20-01-2021 11:40pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

1/2,11/17,3/4 and circa an inch for those who happen to have a traveller set of imperial sitting around

7/8 is circa 22mm

Do ye go buy nut size or bolt size?
27 is 5/8
32 is 3/4
36 is 7/8
41 is 1"
46 is 1"1/8

And as always a 1/2" bolt is like a hens tooth around our place.
We go by bolt size for good measure.

20-01-2021 11:51pm

carrollsno1 wrote: »

Do ye go buy nut size or bolt size?
27 is 5/8
32 is 3/4
36 is 7/8
41 is 1"
46 is 1"1/8

And as always a 1/2" bolt is like a hens tooth around our place.
We go by bolt size for good measure.

Jesus,i only go by nut size as be using same for opening pipes/hoses etc,force of habit more than anything

For bolt size,use metric M10,M12 etc

mayota · 21-01-2021 12:13am

kevthegaff wrote: »

Ibe misplaced the 24 spanner, their a rip off separate

Grind out the 23

Sacrolyte · 21-01-2021 1:24am

mayota wrote: »

Grind out the 23

Ya rooter

Base price · 21-01-2021 1:46am

NcdJd wrote: »

Rooters are great have to say. I've about 300 black plastic pallets at home and there is some of them broken / cracked at this stage. My neighbour came into me this morning and took 4 broken ones off me as he has cattle housed and one part of where the cattle are has no gates but various barriers put up and electic fencing wire then near the top to keep them in. I said to him to take the good ones and he insisted on taking the cracked ones. Anyway I've now an outlet for these broken plastic pallets so long live the rooter.

Those black plastic pallets (with the holes in them) are fierce handy. We use them under the water drinkers in the slatted shed that we bed up with straw to rear calves.

A few years ago a dairy farmer friend got auto feeders to rear calves and he couldn't keep the straw dry under them cause the auto feeder was always washing even though he had a drainage channel underneath. I suggested he get a few black pallets with holes in them and put them around the drinker stations. He bought some and uses them ever year.
Edit - you could turn those plastic pallets into €€'s yet.

NcdJd · 21-01-2021 2:06am

Base price wrote: »

Those black plastic pallets (with the holes in them) are fierce handy. We use them under the water drinkers in the slatted shed that we bed up with straw to rear calves.

A few years ago a dairy farmer friend got auto feeders to rear calves and he couldn't keep the straw dry under them cause the auto feeder was always washing even though he had a drainage channel underneath. I suggested he get a few black pallets with holes in them and put them around the drinker stations. He bought some and uses them ever year.
Edit - you could turn those plastic pallets into €€'s yet.

They are handy as they slot into each other and don't take up much space. I use them in the polytunnel stacked 3 high as temporary areas I can put seed trays on and then remove them when finished. I could have got a 40 ft loads of them but had to stop myself

The pharma industry use them alot.

Base price · 21-01-2021 2:37am

NcdJd wrote: »

They are handy as they slot into each other and don't take up much space. I use them in the polytunnel stacked 3 high as temporary areas I can put seed trays on and then remove them when finished. I could have got a 40 ft loads of them but had to stop myself The pharma industry use them alot.

That's them although we use them the other way round with the larger surface up. Your missing a €€€ trick

carrollsno1 · 21-01-2021 5:51am

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Jesus,i only go by nut size as be using same for opening pipes/hoses etc,force of habit more than anything

For bolt size,use metric M10,M12 etc

Havent got going on the M system yet, it took a but of getting used to the guide we do use.

Signs you are dealing with a 'Rooter'

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