There is nothing I can do by myself. All credit goes to God.

Not one morsel have I ever provided for my own mouth, but what came from God. 'The Lord will provide', and He does, and has.

All good things come from God, and He has bestowed much upon me, and I hereby humbly issue my thanks and gratitude.

I am merely a miserable, humble servant, and the Lord is my Master, Teacher, Good Shepherd, Guiding Light, and Saviour.

'But for the grace of God go I'.

Praise the Lord.

Amen.

This time around, it's been an extra-long wait for our buk order. It's here in Customs, and we should have it Wednesday or Thursday, and then we can start getting back orders out to everyone waiting for them. Thanks for your patience, everybody!  

The growing movement has for some time now been towards sustainable fuels and electric or hybrid vehicles. Well, until some incredibly efficient batteries and electric motors are designed and produced, we're not going to see electric powered tractors of anything more than, say, 20 horsepower. And, needless to say, the ones that do exist won't do any kind of heavy draft work for more than 30 minutes to an hour at most without needing a recharge.

BioDiesel (aka: vegetable oil, veggie oil, used deep fryer grease), made from canola oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, etc., has been around for a long time in DIY cars, trucks, and vans, and has in the past few years been making headroads into the farm tractor arena. You can now buy ready-built vegetable oil presses that even run on small Lister-type Diesels from a small portion of the oil they press!

The thing with vegetable oil for use in Diesel engines is that it has to be substantially 'cut' (thinned) with Diesel fuel, gasoline, or kerosene to make it flow, and the more regular fossil fuel you have to use, the lower your overall savings will be per gallon. The upside of all this, however, is, if you preheat the veggie oil, you don't have to cut it as much. To help you out on that end, ITP has now introduced Coolant Heated BioDiesel Filter Units that are a direct bolt-on replacement for CAV/Lucas Diesel injection systems! (You can use these filter units in any other injection system, also; Bosch, Stanadyne, Roosamaster, etc.; these units will bolt on easily anywhere there is room for them with the mounting bracket that is built into the filter head.) They even use readily available CAV 296 filter elements, so there's no desperate hunting and digging for the right cartridge when the time comes for a change!

Yes, that's right; the biofuel is preheated by your cooling system (heated by coolant; that's kind of an oxymoronic situation, isn't it? ) in these integrated heater/filter units, and therefore readied to be burned as fuel. They have an integrated water jacket that surrounds the incoming fuel with hot antifreeze from your cooling system. You will still require a few other components to make a complete working system, but this is one fast way of taking care of the biggest part of the bioDiesel 'problem', and the rest can be configured fairly easily. Make sure you have a good thermostat in your system to extract the most benefit from your heater unit.

REMEMBER, THOUGH:

• Clean fuel=happy injection pump
• Dirty fuel=dead injection pump!

Fuel prices are not likely to ease back much further; high fuel prices are here to stay. Why not beat the system that's trying to beat you by converting your tractor over to BioDiesel, and thumb your nose at the greedy, spoiled, self-centered, incidious petroleum embargoes?

There are all kinds of tutorials online on how to make your own BioDiesel with very simple, inexpensive equipment. Just do a web search for 'make your own BioDiesel' and see for yourself.

Once you're convinced to try it and are ready to start, just go to your local 'greasy spoon', and ask to buy their used fryer grease (they make even give it to you, as they might have to PAY someone else to haul it all away!), let it settle out in drums for a couple of weeks to put the junk to the bottom, then draw off the upper two thirds, filter it clean, and dump it into your tractor. The 'junk' in the bottom is only potato and onion (rings) and maybe chicken, so you can feed that to your cows or pigs, and they'll love it and grow fat on it--at no extra cost to you! There's all sorts of incentives to use veggie oil.

Maybe you're the sort that wants to grow your own go-juice and press it yourself. Well, that's a great way to go, too, and you start with a much cleaner product. As with used veggie oil, the solids you end up with (along with your BioDiesel!) are great cattle or pig feed, and they really go for it and do exceedingly well on it.

There's nothing stopping you but yourself--get out there and make your own BioDiesel, and you can forget all about 'Big Oil'!

Once you get started making your own BioDiesel for your tractor(s), Volkswagon Diesel cars will develop a whooole new appeal to you...

ITP: In The Present!

Diesel injector pumps are high precision, close tolerance, intricate and mechancially complex components. Really, they are machines in themselves. There are almost as many parts in an injection pump as there are in the rest of an entire engine.

Their very nature of extremely close tolerances leaves no margin for error in the supply of clean fuel. Change your fuel filters regularly! Change the little filter in your injector pump every few years, also. You should make a practice of changing all the filters in your tractor on a regular basis, but especially the engine oil and fuel filters. With the high price of fuel (and petroleum products of any sort) today, making sure your tractor is in top running form is essential to economy. Plugged fuel filters can actually make your tractor use more fuel than less!

Even more threatening to your pocketbook is the fact that if dirty fuel gets through a blow-out in your filters, then your precisely engineered Diesel fuel injection pump is wide open to excess wear caused by dirt. Injection pump failure is imminent once dirty fuel hits it. An injection pump, due to it's reliance on very close working tolerances required to produce the extremely high injector opening pressures, is extremely susceptable to wear and failure when exposed to contaminants. Remove those precise internal tolerances and finishes by introducing any sort of grit, and you disable your pump through fuel bypassing practically invisable scratches. Keep your fuel supply CLEAN, and change your filters every single year! This simply cannot be overstated. 

Diesel fuel no longer has the high sulphur content it used to, and therefore is much 'drier', resulting in markedly less lubrication for your injection pump--and injectors, also. Just rub some Diesel fuel between your thumb and forefinger and you'll see what I'm talking about. Remember when it was oily, and was even called Diesel oil? Well, those days are over. Now you need an additive to protect your precision injection system from excessive wear. Adding a little ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil to each tank of fuel will go a long, long way towards extending the life of your injection system. It's cheap insurance that, while invisible, WILL provide great returns by keeping you from having to have an expensive injector pump rebuild or replacement sooner than necessary.

We've been asked a fair number of times for injection pumps for Long or UTB 850 or 1010 tractors, and now we have them! Excepting for the 650 model, now, we have brand new pumps in stock for all the UTB-built tractors from the little Long 260-C, right on up to the big 6 cylinder 1010.

Keep your 'I' on ITP!  

Y'know, for someone looking for the first time at ITP, it would look like a pretty breezy way to make a living; just take orders for parts and ship them out. Well, it couldn't be further from the truth...

The mistakes I've made--and learned from--over the years would pay for a lot of nice stuff, let me tell you. Vendors, customs brokers, shipping companies, contractors of all sorts have ripped me off and snickered behind my back as I picked myself up from their sucker punches. Looking back on it all reminds me of part of the AC/DC song, 'It's a Long Way to the Top' (if You Wanna Rock'n'Roll):

Gettin' robbed
Gettin' stoned*
Gettin' beat up
Broken boned
Gettin' had
Gettin' took
I tell you folks
It's harder than it looks

It's a long way to the top

if you wanna rock'n'roll...

*okay, definitely not that!

Man, the mistakes I've learned from... It would sure help at the forks in life's roads if there were signs saying, 'Dead End', or 'WARNING: Don't Take This Route', but there aren't. There sure are some nasty bumps and grinding stops along the way without proper warning signage.

I've read lots of entrepeneurial material, and the gist of most of it is, 'if you get knocked down, get right back up again', and 'the best business people were ready to throw in the towel at least five times before they finally 'made it''. Well, I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to throw in the towel! Sheer, dogged (maybe downright stupid) determination... and also being an absolute glutton for punishment, is what it took to end up with ITP making a regular income. It's been one long, hard struggle, but things are settling into a fairly regular routine. The worst of the bloodthirsty Baskerville hounds that prey on blissfully ignorant greenhorn upstarts in the independant parts/shipping industry have ripped out and rendered their raw chunks of flesh (and money), but finally got their mangy, raggedy butts beaten off and sent slinking on down the road to their next unsuspecting victim...

Suffice it to say, on the learning curve, it's been ugly.

Sure, there's been a few customers that have taken me for a good ride, too, but the VAST majority of the fun (oh, I'm laughing so hard here it hurts...) has been on the part of unscrupulous vendors and contractors. Those bottom dwellin' scum are freakin' history...

I've got terrific suppliers, with top quality parts, good prices, and reliable delivery.  I've got the best customs broker in the world now, whose name is Kelli, and she sure makes my life a LOT simpler. I couldn't do this without her and her expertise and efficiency. The good people I have doing the stuff I can't or don't want to do leaves me free to do what I do best, and that's talk tractors and tractor parts. That's all I've really ever wanted to do, but turning it into a way to eke out a living was where things got tricky!

For those of you with brands of tractors other than what ITP catalogs parts for online, we have now started a couple of new projects. The first of these is FTP, or Farm Tractor Pumps .com (www.farmtractorpumps.com). It is an exceedingly simple website, enquiry driven, not catalog format, and tailored to make all contact information with us quick and easy. If you need a new hydraulic pump for your tractor, chances are we can supply it, and at a reasonable cost.

There's only so much time for anything. When I started this business, I had no idea I'd be out of bed lots of mornings at 4:30-5:30, and maybe not see it again until after midnight.  But, that's the way it is. There's more to do than I ever thought there would be. The getting out of bed early thing is nothing, really, after 16 years of rolling out of bed at 3:00-3:30AM for my paper route, but at least with the route, I could pile back into bed again at about 8AM for a couple more hours. It's the length of hours I put in. Everything there is to be done with this business is mine and mine only to do. If I don't do it, it just don't get done--period. Some things are a vicious circle, and this is one of them--it goes right back to 'there's only so much time for anything'.

The parts that are needed the most is what gets addressed first on ITP, and the stuff that's less likely to come up gets left. When time permits, then it gets done. That's the case for flywheels and ring gears, for your Fiat, Hesston, or Long tractor. One tractor usually only ever--if it ever does--wears out one starter ring gear in it's lifetime, or, a little less rarely, a flywheel due to excessive wear of a clutch, but the latter is more due to neglect to repair the primary problem of a shot clutch in due course than it is to long term wear and tear.

Anyhoo... now there's a new flywheel and ring gear page on ITP, and all the owners of Fiat or UTB-based tractors, such as Allis Chalmers, Cockshutt, Oliver, White, and Minneapolis Moline, can grab whatever they need to complete their major starter, or clutch repair.

ITP: we're here to help, but boy--we wish we could get to bed sooner!

It's a sign of the times: every time we turn on the news, we cringe at what the new price of gas is going to be. Right along with it is Diesel, propane, butane, acetylene, etc., and trailing a little behind in volatility are lubricants like motor oil, transmission fluid, and grease.

With prices the way they are, you sure can't afford to have precious fluids leaking out of your tractor all over the place. Plus, the city born and bred enviromentalists visiting in the country would turn you in to whatever authorities in a heartbeat (because they're so moral, y'know, and know what's right for the planet and humanity at large), and that would be pure disaster. Let's not even think about that...

Well, for you Fordson Major fellas, it's just got a little easier to keep that black gold where it belongs -- in your tractor, because ITP now has a new page up that we've been wanting to incoprorate into the website for a long time: a new end-to-end Fordson Major seals index! Just check your tractor over for whatever seals are leaking, refer to the seal page and item description AND size given, and place your order. It couldn't be easier.

Motor oil and gear oil is too expensive to just let drip on the ground now. It's too expensive to leak while the the tractor is working, much less while it's sitting idle doing nothing, so grab the seals you need, roll up your sleeves, and get to it! You'll be glad you did. Your FMD will be nicer to use when it's not leaking all over the place. Your wife might even let you keep it in the garage once she sees the leaks stopped!

If they (there's good ol' 'they' again ) say, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", then Allis Chalmers must have been especially proud of their baby 'G' back in 1953 when it's unique configuration was, for the most part, copied overseas by the 1953 Roymond Simplex.

Now, for any of you not familiar with the Allis G, it was a purpose-built row crop cultivator tractor, and the (albeit dimunitive) king of them all. Utilizing a very unusual rear engine configuration, and a pipe frame in front with no real discernable operator's area other than a seat sitting practically in thin air that gave the operator the feeling of floating over the crop, the G was the undisputed champ of forward visibility. The little Continental 62 cubic inch engine was housed in a neat little streamlined sheet metal body behind the operator's back, and the radiator was towards the front of the tractor, but what would normally be the rear of the engine.

The Allis Chalmers G

Now, hop across the pond and take a gander at this lil puppy:

These are the only pics I can provide, and my dumb camera decided to refuse taking a clear closeup picture for some reason, so much of the detail is lost. What you can see, however, is the rear engine, forward operator configuration, and the streamlined engine compartment with the radiator right behind the driver's seat. The pipe frame is much like the G, but shorter. Differing from the G is the neat, streamlined fairing (to break the wind at high speed? Just kidding...) up front with the single headlight. Speaking of headlights, the G only had a single headlight, also. Even more bizarre is the single red dot taillight, again, just like the G.

Parked next to a Ferguson TE20 of the same scale, one can readily appreciate the compact size of the little Simplex (Implex?) tractor. What it's primary function would have been is anyone's guess, but a good one would be the mounting of a side mounted sickle bar mower, because the view would have been fantastic.

Whatever the case, four things can be immediately recognized in the Roymond Simplex:

1. the designer(s) REALLY liked the Allis Chalmers G
2. the designer(s) really liked streamlined sheet metal
3. the designer(s) really liked pinstriping
4. the designer(s) weren't afraid of being copycats

Twenty years later, the ground breaking (pardon the pun) little G was once again granted the ultimate compliment of imitation by the Hefty G, right down to the Continental F62 engine, although the tractor itself was presented in a slightly updated format, with a full operator's platform. They even chose the model designator 'G' in honor of the original. Who would have known in the beginning the ugly duckling little G would end up garnering such admiring attention?  Imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery!

I have long had a fascination for real entrepenuers. I'm talking Howard Hughes here. Man, if it was needed at the time, or in the forseeable future, Howie found a way to get it to the marketplace. His idle projects would be a life's work for most people. His big projects? Legendary, like the H-4 Hercules; the longest wingspan and highest tailfin plane ever to take to the air. Also the largest flying boat ever built, no matter what the specification. And he did it 60 years ago!

Well something on a much lower scale of impact on the world, but cool as anything on wheels were Reuben 'Ruby' Allende's 1956 and 1957 El Morocco automobiles. They began life as 1956 and 1957 Chevrolets. They were the result of Ruby's desire to put a 'Cadillac' in the hands of the less fortunate folk.

A big time surplus dealer, both of military and the mundane, Ruby assigned the second floor of his Detroit warehouse to the scheme. Aquiring new Chevys from an accomodating dealer for $50.00 over invoice, he set to morphing them into Cadillacs. Precious little was done to the interior, but the exterior became a symphony of swoopy upscale 1950's sheet metal, complete with 'EL MOROCCO' in block letters adorning the hood and trunk of the completed car.

Showcasing Ruby's peerless resourcefulness, on the '56, '37 Dodge headlight buckets were reversed, reinforced with fiberglass, and chrome plated to become it's 'Dagmars'; the missle-shaped protrusions on the bumper. He reworked a Kaiser-Frazer horn button for the '56's hood medallion, and the trim on the top edges of the doors were 1955 Willys dash panels! More examples of this recycling were found in other areas of the conversion, but some trim was specific to the El Morocco, and was produced by local casting shops.

The consumate recycler, any parts or trim removed from the Chevys for the conversion became surplus, and were set aside for sale to local body shops.

The El Morocco was indeed a distinctive automobile. Even though they were, in all reality, for their vast majority, stone stock Chevys, Ruby somehow managed to get them registered as 'El Morocco' on their titles in Michigan!

Two of the finer views of these rare works of art are shown below.

The 1956 El Morocco: Pure class with a finish like glass

The 1957 El Morocco: A swoopy beauty

For comparisan: The 1957 Cadillac El Dorado; the El Morocco above actually has a nicer roofline!

Alas, the El Morocco was too much more money than a Chevy, and not enough less money than a real Caddy to give them the mass appeal Ruby had hoped for. Also, the 1958 offerings from Chevrolet varied too much from a Cadillac to be restyled with any economy, so the El Morrocco project was concluded, with only about 40 examples of Ruby's gems all told being sculpted.

Some people are just plain rude.

Last Friday, towards the end of the day, we had some orders left over that really had to go out. Our courier's route had been all messed up, so no noon-1PM inbound pickup and dropoff, and return pickup trip later in the day; just one late afternoon stop. Three starters came in that had to go out. We always take things like starters and fuel pumps to be priority shipments. Three starters? They had to go out. There was another two box, multi-part order that needed to go as well.

The Purolator depot is a 60 mile round trip drive. We loaded the three starters (three different customers), and the multi-part order in the car and made for the depot. It was raining, and there was several areas of construction to slow us down. We got to the depot at about 5:03-5:05PM, and the front door was locked. Well, that wasn't too much of a problem, because the trucks keep pouring into the depot until about 5:30, so we went around to the back to drop the orders off. I grabbed a starter and walked in. There was only one guy in the receiving area, a big bohunk ('bohunk' here is NOT a compliment) that didn't know what to do. He directed me to a lady at the rear of the room. I walked up to her with the starter and asked where I could set it and the rest. She just snapped at me that it was after hours and she couldn't take them. Nonsense, I'd done this different times for people. I tried to tell her I had several important orders to send out, but she just cut me off and told me they had to "get that semi loaded", and that I should leave, in no uncertain terms, and pointed at the door. Sheeesh.

I walked out. As I went out to the car, one of the courier trucks rolled in. It was one of the girls that often picked up here at ITP when our regular driver was off. I walked up to her truck and asked if she could scan in the orders I had. She was going to do so, when the manager walked out and motioned or yelled at her (I couldn't tell; I was on the opposite side of a running truck from her) that she wasn't allowed to take my orders. She just turned to me and said, "Call 1-800-PUROLATOR", and I could tell she meant, "And issue a complaint". She said, defeatedly, "It's my job" (on the line), so I quickly excused myself to keep her from being getting on Little Miss Sunshine's bad side, too.

We came home with three starters and a multi-part order sitting quietly in the trunk, and me fuming in the front.

I spent the weekend considering ditching Purolator if that manager wasn't yanked up straight. My main supplier told me, "Fedex is hungry for business, and their rates are really good", when I related my delightful Purolator customer appreciation experience with them. I was sorely tempted, because four people had to wait an extra three days each for their orders for nothing just due to one hateful person being in charge of something she shouldn't be.

On Monday I called my Purolator rep, and told her exactly what happened, how much it insulted and infuriated me, and how much it inconvenienced my customers. I don't put in formal complaints very doggone often, but I sure did this time. My rep's summation of first part of the incident was, "There was no need for that--you're a commercial customer", and of the manager not even letting an incoming truck take the orders: "That's ridiculous". 

Yep, you're darn tootin'.

She promised she'd escalate the complaint so something would come of it that such an incident wouldn't be repeated.

As for the depot manager, well, some people are just plain rude.

In my earlier entry on PTO parts for BMC, Nuffield, Leyland, Long, Marshall 9/16 Mini, 4/25, 132, 154, 184, 302 tractors, I mentioned that their weakest link or Achilles' Heel seems to be their PTO section. Well, the second most requested parts for these tractors are not necessarily weak links, but high wear items that are just plain hard to find. Those parts are the steering column bearings.

Now, of course, engine reciprocating and rotary parts, and all the transmission gears and shafts are subject to a lot more continuous use than the steering column or shaft bearings, but they are running in a bath of circulating oil, beit pressurized or splash. The steering bearings, however, while they SHOULD be in a bath of lubricating oil, just may not be. They may have been run dry for years due to bad gearbox seals. If your steering gearbox grinds or the steering is just harder than it should be, it's almost certainly the bearings in your gearbox are worn, and the seals are shot. These bearings, part number (PN) 7H 6116, 7H 6079, and 27H 4710, have been hard to find for years. The seals, as well, PN 17H 6490, have been hard to find, leading to the problem of bearing wear and failure.

Well, not any more! ITP now has a Mini tractor steering parts page! Now you can grab what you need (baby, we've got it! sorry... ) for your nimble Mini tractor's steering right off the website. Drag link ends and steering arms are available on that page as well.

So, there's no need to put up with hard or sloppy steering from your Mini, 4/25, or 154 tractor any longer. ITP has the parts you need to loosen up the gearbox, and tighten up the rest!

ITP: your partner in preventative maintenance.

A lot of times people ask me for a part by part number, and I have to look it up, but I know what they want right away by description. Well, formatting ITP is made a LOT easier by not adding part numbers to the listings.

Why?

Because there are so many part numbers for the same part. There are of course Fiat and Hesston part numbers, but there are also Allis Chalmers part numbers, Oliver, Cockshutt, and Minneapolis Moline part numbers, White part numbers, Long part numbers, and Universal/UTB part numbers... all for the same part! I'd either lose my eyesight or my marbles going back and forth through all of those parts books for each and every part!  

That's why!

It's bad enough being cooped up in an office with stacks of parts books everywhere, but to have to digest all of that information for each and every part and upload it on to a website? Uh-uh. No way. Nope.

Now, that said, man, I love those AustinMorris/BMC/Nuffield/Leyland/Marshall tractors--all the brands use the same part numbering system!  

Further to this, I have a soft spot for those cool li'l Mini tractors. I just think they are neat and well thought out. Harry Ferguson Research did a pretty good job figuring them out. They have their weaknesses, yes, such as a dependent PTO, and over-complicated brakes (the latter part really being a Nuffield trait, not a Ferguson one), but other than that, they are just terrific little tractors. They are neat as a pin, and will turn on the head of one as well. They show their Ferguson lineage throughout, except for their unusual, Nuffield-derived, three pedal braking system.

Every chain has it's weakest link, and the Mini tractor's weakest is probably it's two speed PTO system. It's a good idea, of course, but perhaps the money would have been better spent on a live setup rather than a two speed one. To make matters easier for Mini owners in the US and Canada, ITP now has a dedicated Mini PTO Section--with part numbers!  Yes, you can go through your parts book and match up the part numbers directly with the entries on the page. It should make your Mini 9/16, 4/25, 132, 154, 184, or 302 PTO parts search a lot easier.

ITP--we're here to help and serve.

Those cool li'l BMC/Nuffield/Leyland Mini 9/16, 4/25, and 154 tractors are generating more and more attention at ITP all the time. Henceforth, we are increasing our stock of parts for them. We now stock drag link ends, water pumps, cooling fans, hydraulic pump kits, hydraulic hoses, electrical switches and ballast resistors, oil and fuel filters, gauges, tachometer cables and drive parts, PTO gears, etc., for these nifty, nimble tractors. 

We are now adding more front end parts, air cleaner hoses, radiators and radiator hoses, thermostats and thermostat housings, a seperate PTO section, front and rear wheels and rims, etc... Keep your eye on the Mini - 154 section for these new additions.

More to come: sections listing gaskets end to end, and seals end to end. Possibly bearings as well.

It's too bad how little parts support there is here in North America for such great little tractors as these, but your friendly ITP is working hard behind the scenes to change all of that!

Due to a massive 50% return rate for incompatible parts, ITP has reluctantly discontinued all parts support for c0mpact tractors. All sections of the website in reference to Japane$e tractors has been deleted. We have never handled parts for Chine$e tractors, and the Japane$e ones have been thorns in our side since we started dealing with them, so they are history, and we're relieved not to have any more frustrating and expensive messes that incorrect specifications by suppliers have caused.

We will continue to make Fiat tractors and Long/UTB tractorsour main focus. We do not ever endorse buying a Japane$e or especially a Chine$e tractor, due to their major parts availability issues. If you are looking for a utility tractor, buy a Fiat or a Long. If you want a smaller tractor, a Long 260-C, 310, 310-C, or 360-C will be FAR tougher, and much more reliable, and we keep almost all necessary parts on the shelf for them. Don't add to your headaches like we added to ours!

One of the things we're trying to do at ITP is make the more complicated parts of the website as much like your parts book as we can. That format is evident over the entire transmission section of the website. It makes going through your parts book and the website much less confusing and frustrating. Just look up what you need in your parts book, look it up on the website, choose the number referring to the same item in the exploded view image, and add to cart. It really takes the guesswork out of selecting the parts you need for your tractor.

That format applies to the latest addition to ITP: the differential lock control section. Like the recently added PTO control section, it appears much like it does in your parts book, and, as such, really makes a parts book redundant to the point of being un-necessary.

We've also improved the nav box throughout the entire rear end section. All inter-related sections are available in one click from where you are. We get complimented on this format a lot, and, as such, are encouraged to improve it.

We're trying to make it easier and easier to grab what you need and go! ITP: your one stop grab and go shop for your Fiat or Long tractor!

One enquiry we've not been able to service here at ITP has been the rear mount (or) "loader pump" for OliverCockshutt, White, Allis Chalmers, Minneapolis Moline, or Hesston tractors.

That has gone on for year after frustrating year, but we have finally found a supplier for a replacement pump, so now we're happy to say we've got them.

Yes, we now have a replacement for the "loader pump" on your tractor. It's been a long time coming, but the wait is finally over.

This is just the replacement pump--and it looks a little different from the original--but not a kit to retrofit tractors without this system. That is something we still have on the drawing board. Yeah, for any tractor that has a loader but doesn't have this setup, it's the cat's meow, man. If you want awesome loader performance, the rear mount "loader pump" setup is the way to go. It turns your tractor into a self-propelled hydraulic pump bank. Your power steering pump is independent, your regular hydraulic pump is independent, and the new loader pump is independent.

An example of the value of this is if you wanted to handle round bales or logs with a grapple fork on your loader. There is no 'sharing' or priority selection when you steer to make a turn; the power steering system is self contained with it's own pump and fluid supply. The original hydraulic pump is independent, and runs the grapple via the remote valve. The loader pump is independent, and runs the loader through the loader's valve bank. You can lift, turn, and squeeze, all at the same time, depending on how good you are with your hands!

The regular pump on your tractor delivers about 5¾ - 6½ gallons per minute. The loader pump delivers over 12, so it's a dramatic improvement. The cycle times are cut in half.

Being that we haven't had the loader pumps, much less loader pump kits, what we've done for years to help owners frustrated with slow loader cycle times, is to sell a 42 litre/minute (sorry for the metric) pump for the engine, to replace the 21.6-24.5 l/m pump the tractor came with new, resulting in an increase from almost 75% to almost 100% in cycle times. A speed increase like this makes a tractor seem like a totally different one, making it respond with much more authority when you pull a loader or remote lever. A slow loader is a frustrating thing, especially in repetitive work like manure handling. Sitting at the spreader with your foot on the floor revving the engine to get the loader up to dumping height before you can move over the spreader is hard on the patience. The rest of the tractor works great/the loader? Not so terrific. Upgrade to a high volume pump, and the loader is easily up to dumping height before you get to the spreader. Loader cycle times are cut in half, and crowd to dump tractor cycles are reduced by about a third by not having to wait for slow loader cycles at the spreader. The bucket crowds at the pile with much more authority, too.

High volume pumps are great for log splitters, too, greatly reducing their cycle times as well, or in any hydraulic motor work.

So, for the time being, until we are able to put together a retrofit rear mount loader pump kit, you can email us for a high volume pump for the engine end of your tractor, or buy a replacement loader pump for your existing, but tired one, and get the kind of loader performance you've always wanted!

ITP: your enthusiastic source for parts support for your efficient and precision-built Fiat tractor.

Ever since the beginning of ITP, special orders have been a problem. A special order meant a bare minimum wait of 6 weeks, often 8, and up to 10. It was unavoidable. Nobody likes having their tractor down for that long, but when parts aren't available sooner, there just isn't any choice. We dread having to tell someone it's going to be x number of weeks until we can get their part in.

Well, hopefully those days are over--we've set up a new way to take the sting out of special order waiting times--we are now implementing monthly air freight of special orders from overseas! This is big. It'll drop your special order time down from a maximum of 10 weeks, to a maximum of 4 weeks, and down from a minimum of 6 weeks, to a minimum of a week. It will just depend on when you put your special order in.

Ok, that was the good news, now the bad news--you have to pay for the service. Sorry. It isn't cheap to have parts flown in from the other side of the world, so we can't absorb it ourselves, especially since the special orders are for YOU, and we wouldn't be getting them otherwise. We wouldn't be doing this except to expedite orders for you. The prices will be variable. For instance, small packet air freight over here is a minimum of about $95.00. That's just for an 11x15 inch cellophane pouch with 2 or 3 pounds of parts in it. It can get a lot worse, up to hundreds of dollars. A few hundred dollars maybe wouldn't seem so bad in the middle of haying when a tractor's down, though, given the other much less desirable option of waiting it out for 6-10 weeks.

The best part about this is that the more people put in a special order, the cheaper it gets per person, as we will devide the cost up among you. Now, if only two people put in an order, and one guy just orders a special washer, and the other orders a rear axle housing, it's not going to be split 50/50, because that wouldn't be fair. A fair split will be made at all times, the final decision being up to us. If duty or brokerage charges are levied, the charges will be passed on to the customer(s) as well, but this isn't so likely, unless the orders are fairly large.

If this service really takes off, and lots of special orders keep coming in every month, then maybe we will be able to begin to absorb the cost ourselves, or at least reduce the cost for you, the customer. This is only an experiment at this time. It may become regular practice, and it may not, depending on it's reception. It's all up to you.

We expect this service will be used most by bigger or newer Fiat or Hesston owners, as we have most everything shown on ITP in stock for the smaller, older tractors. Of course, we can run out of stock on practically anything, given the way we find sales of slower moving inventory seems to go in spurts. Predominantly, though, it will be parts for newer or larger tractors that will be special order items.

Well, we just thought we'd let you know, and see what you think. We hope you like the idea, but for your sake you don't have to use it!

It's been a while since any new entries have been made to ITP, but it's been a busy, busy spring.

Today, we've added a few gaskets, to the gasket section, namely trans body gaskets, shifter cover gaskets, and PTO shift cover gaskets. These parts being compatable with other parts on the website, they've been added to the 6 speed section, 8 speed section, and the shifter parts section, to make it faster and easier for you to grab the gaskets you need to finish up a job.

We've added a section today, namely the PTO Control section, although it is relatively minor in size and importance. There isn't much to go wrong with this section of the tractor, and seldom does. The only real reason for it's inclusion is for the #6 engagement pad or tang, and the #11 spring. The rest of it seldomly ever needs replacing, but we're going to have the parts in stock--just in case.