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Poor Man's "Sun Shades"
We stay cool baling hay on even the hottest days thanks to the "poor man's" "sun shades" that we installed on all three of our tractors. We used 4 or 5-ft. dia. plastic wading pools turned upside down. Uprights are made of 1-in. dia. pipes bolted or welded to the tractor. A light rod hoop, the dia. of which matches the inside dia. of the pool, welds to the up-rights. To anchor the pool, we simply cut small slits in the sides of the pool and use electrical tape to fasten it to the uprights.
We built our first pool shade five years ago and liked it so much we now have them on our Deere 5400, 6200 and our old M.
The pools cost only $11 or $12 (a far cry from what you'd pay for commercial sun shades). It doesn't matter whether pools are decorated with duckies or fishies, they all work great.
Incidentally, the Deere 5400 in the photo is also fitted with 24.5 by 11-in. winter grip radial truck tires on front. I find conventional bar grip tractor tires leave too many ruts in fields for my liking, especially on hay ground. The truck tires put more rubber on the ground. Also, there's tremendous strength in these tires; you never have to worry about wearing them out on pavement. They make the tractor ride just like a Cadillac. (Ernest Ivany, Ivany Farms Ltd., Box 533, Lister, B.C., Canada V0B 1Y0; ph 250 428-4509)


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1998 - Volume #22, Issue #3