Tractor Pulling in the off season!!

Here is a video of tractor pulling in the off season.




Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts,

The Face of Rural America!!!!!

While I was at the NTPDA meeting in Orlando, Florida I set in on a presentation on Social Media by Micheal Libbie from Insight Advertising. His blog is listed on my blog list also. Yesterday, I commented on his blog about how I enjoyed the presentation and had actually brought some ideas home to use in my business, Southeast Tractor Parts. This morning he emailed me some questions about my business and today he featured me and Southeast Tractor on his 1 hour long Webcast. This is like radio except only on the World Wide web. Here is a link to the live webcast. Scroll down just a little and go to the 48 minute mark and listen for my name.
Wow!!!! I answer a few questions and I am on a live webcast!!! Look for my picture!!!

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, Expanding our market!!!! WOW !!!!

Florida Trip

Last week I went to Orlando FL. for the National Tractor Parts Dealer meeting. As usual there were a bunch of vendors set up to advertise their products. They also had 2 speakers, Michael Libbie who gave a presentation on Social Media and Ed Mcmillian who gave a presentation on Fraud and Embezzlement. The speakers by themselves were worth the trip.
I left home last Wednesday morning about 5:30 am and it was 25 degrees here. When I got out of the pickup in Florida it was 76 degrees. It was hot again!!!!
One of the ideas I brought home and I recommend to all of you is used a gel pen when you write a check. The gel ink is supposed to bind to the fiber in the check and cannot be washed off. A crook can take your check and wash the ink off the pay to line and the amount and leave your signature on the check Then they can fill it out payable to whoever and they can write in any amount that they want to. And the check has your signature on it. The gel pen ink is not supposed to wash out. If you use a regular ink pen the ink sits on top of the paper and will wash off with the right solution.

When you come here to buy a parts I will loan you my Gel pen to fill out your check!!!

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts,

Snow 1-10-11

I am setting here looking out through the front door of the shop at the snow while drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Looking at what is left over from the snow storm from Monday. We had 8 inches of snow. Mr. Planning Disaster Expert (LM)give yourself a pat on the back. You planned a good one!! I know you will read this and I saw how you artfully curved that band of heavy snow around to include me. Next time push it a little farther south or throw it at Charlotte, again. You should get medals like they do in the army. You could wear them and people would know what you have accomplished. A medal with a little building and and a playground, You could point to it and say "Yep, I closed all the schools in Chesterfield County for 2 days with just one snowfall." A brown truck medal with a white pile of snow on it would mean "Closed UPS for 2 days". A medal with a glass of milk and a loaf of bread would mean "Sold every gallon of milk and every loaf of bread in just 24 hours in Chesterfield County". I think Wal-Mart and Food Lion are going to send you an award for being the number one salesman for the month!!!!
However, Southeast Tractor Parts is still open for business and I sold some parts yesterday and have already had calls today for parts. So you will not get a medal for STP this time.

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, picking at Larry

A Snowy Day

I went to bed last night with rain lightly falling about 11 pm. And I thought well no snow for us. Woke up this morning with 2 inches of snow on the ground and snow still falling from the sky. The flakes seem o be getting larger and are falling faster than they were earlier. I'm going out to take pictures I will try to post some later.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!!

Eric Benton, Just watching it snow !!!

Snow

I came out of the house about 6:30 am this morning and it was still dark and as I was standing there I could see little flakes bouncing off my jacket. It was lightly snowing. It was 29 degrees on the thermometer. It tapered off in a couple of minutes and as I was driving out the drive it turned to rain.


Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, just trying to stay warm today!!

Cold Weather

Monday morning it was 21 degrees, Tuesday morning it was 16 degrees, Wednesday morning is was 16 degrees, Thursday morning it was 21 degrees, Today it was 24 degrees! A regular heat wave!!! Monday morning the pond did not have ice on it. Every other morning including this morning the pond has been covered in ice. Since we have had few days this week that the temperature got over 32 degrees the ground is frozen which probably is why the pond was frozen over at 24 degrees.
Last night I went and looked at a JD 3020 that a friend of mine is repairing. The owners son was pulling stumps with the chain hooked to the lift arms. He would back up to the stump, put it in a high gear and pop the clutch and let it run to the end of the chain. When it reached the end of the chain it would yank (and yank is the proper word) the front end of the tractor 6 to 7 feet off the ground. I think he is lucky to still be among the living. The lift stopped working somewhere in this assault. I looked at the control valve for the lift and pressure checked the lift piston and it worked. I pressure checked the control valve and could not get anything to work. It had a pressure valve that I could not open with 175 pounds of air pressure. It normally requires about 1700 pounds of pressure to open the valve for oil to go to the lift control valve. I then back pressured the valve and with the lift lever in the down position I could blow air through the return side of the hydraulic system all the way to the oil cooler in front of the radiator. I could hear it bubble in the cooler! I moved the lever to the up position which should have closed the down/return valve in the control valve. It didn't, I could still hear it bubble through the return side in the oil cooler. We pulled the control valve off and all the valve looked OK. We installed a used control valve I had on a tractor and everything went back to work. The only thing I could think that had happened is the wall between the high pressure incoming oil and the return oil had been cracked by the shock wave created when he hit the end of the chain. The repeated yanking on the lift had evidently beat a large passage out between the two oil passages.
The used control valve fixed the problem and made it an expensive stump pulling!!!

Eric Benton ,Southeast Tractor Parts, Used parts not availible at JD anymore!