So this home and land I'm looking at have an odd feature in the middle of it there is a flipped over John Deer agricultural tractor! It's the type I have seen on famers ranches that cost around $500,000+!

Yet it's flipped over in the middle of the land. The Realtor said she had never seen anything like this and would get the story for us satellite imagery shows the agricultural equipment was up and running 11/01/2017  from the Google Earth image.

What I'd like to know as it seems everything that is on the property if I buy the home will be ours as I don't think the grandkids are going to come out from CA and  Florida to clean out the home.

What I'm wanting to know is could I get someone to buy it for parts? How would I go about doing that? I know this machine costs more then the home I'm buying!

When I go out there next I'll take photos of the tractor maybe get more information!

IN!

someone owns it, be it the insurance company that paid, out, the farmer or john deere finance.

$500,000+?

Not many tractors worth more than $500k... pics please!

Anything big enough to be in the 500k range I'd be more curious as to WHAT flipped it over.......and I'd probably not buy based on that.

As for selling for parts you'd get no where near that much for it. If it was free and clear to you the salvage/tractor junkyard would lowball you worse than a someone on Craig's List.

My thoughts too... tractors like that don't flip over. They might drive off a cliff and land on their top, but they don't flip. I'm waiting for pictures....

A crane could likely flip it back over and move up by the road to put a for sale sign on it. Might just find that special buyer looking for a fixer-upper. Depending on age, model, & condition he might get 5-figures out of it. But at this point I'm very suspect of what I'm being told. I'm wondering why OP didn't take a picture of it right then. Everyone has a camera with them all the time these days...

In for pics and "the rest of the story".  

Come on OP, don't leave us hanging here.  I want to believe.

Don't turn this into a safe thread!!

I'm going back to look at the house next Tuesday or Wednesday so take photos then I did not take photos the first time as I left my phone at home.

Also looking at agricultural tractors the estimates $500,000 was way off closer to maybe $200,000.

I don't know how to described what type of tractor it was it seemed like it had a hopper like where the bed would be on a truck not sure if that makes sense? If I find a photo of what it should look like right side up ill post a link to it.

#1


#2

Looks more like #2 but John Deer.

In for pics

Go to a "neighbor" and ask if they know anything about the accident on the property, don't volunteer anything, see what they say.

Then stop by the local JD dealer and ask them.

could it have been a tornado.

We thought about that but there is no other damage and I believe it would have to be an F5 and there has not been one that size in over 15 years I have been told.

ahh probably a contract service spreader. Neither the landowner nor probably farmer own it.

So the realtor talked to the family and they say a storm came in a blow it over.??????

Now, this is several thousands of pounds machine I don't see a "Storm" blowing it over and causing 360 damage.

My thought is vandals! That is fine I know how to deal with that type.

Yes agree burnt is one thing! This is a several thousand pounds machine that was rolled over! It has 360 degree damage to the body.

If it was burnt I can understand but a heavy item like like this that looks like it was tossed around is different.

I’ve heard of cow tipping but never spreader tipping.  

Never understood the big three wheeled machines having flipped many a three wheeler in my youth

Must've been one crazy storm! I'm not entirely sure an F5 tornado could tip one over...

Microbursts are crazy strong man. We had one ruin our entire deck furniture set, along with uprooting several banana trees when I was a kid.

Empty weight of it is 31,000 lbs taken off the John Deere website that's a lot of weight to toss around. Now it says it's Max speed is 46 MPH getting that bad boy to that speed then doing an evasive maneuver with it's high center of gravity I could see that suck roll!

Dude! Pics!

Seriously, talk to the seller and find out who owns it. If you buy the property and the seller says it gos with the place, do an addendum to the your contract demanding a bill of sale for the tractor. I'd want a title, bill of sale, or even have the tractor described with serial number added into the contract, that way it goes through the escrow and covers your butt if you start working on it, trying to sell it, whatever and somebody comes along saying they own it.

That said, if all it did was flip in a storm, the running gear is all good. Watch out for hydro lock before starting it. I'd rent a dozer or something and flip it on its wheels, get it running and you'd have the coolest swamp buggy around. Get some junk cars and let your kids run over them like a monster truck show.

They don't go into details, just that the grade was too great for how slippery the ground was.
You've got to go in about 4:30 to see it recovered.

The farmers son is buried underneath the tractor

I bet the land is leased to the farmer who actually owns the equipment and it does not "come with the property" if you buy it. Most likely waiting on insurance company and/or better ground conditions for recovery.

What a good site to use to link the photos up with. My Photobucket went to crap and they deleted all my photos.

Also it's going to be removed if we buy the home. Now we were told that someone tried to transport it and it felt off the flat bed trailer back around the summer of 2019.

Imgur.com

Or just upload them directly using select file/upload.   No need to use an image host.

I don't have those options. Team members only?

You don't have the highlighted option?

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Pretty sure that's a Team only feature, though I've never used it.

I use it all the time, but I've been a team member for years w/ a few lapses where I renewed late.  

Hope this works!

Sorry for how bright it is camera was on manual I was taking photo of the moon last and forgot to put it on Auto.

Looks like a fairly old combine.

Agree. Definately a combine.
Definately not a 1/2 million dollar combine

ETA, whoops.

From the looks of it I’d take the tires and scrap the rest. Maybe the engine is worth pulling for spares.

That’s a JD 484 cotton stripper. If you look at the pictures of the one that sold in the link, you can see why a microburst could tumble one. They’re a giant sail off broadside in the wind. It’s also not worth much more than scrap value, which is why they probably left it to sit. The operating one in the link sold for $2400 a few years ago. If you buy the place, take the wheels off the thing, list them as a set, and scrap the rest of that heap.

https://www.auctiontime.com/listings/farm-equipment/auctions/online/28900245/john-deere-484

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I am SSSSOOOOOOOOO disappointed...

Here I was, expecting a legitimate piece of high end machinery that someone left in a field for some unknown reason after it was damaged.

As it turns out it was a piece of scrap to begin with and we know why they never bothered to recover it...

Contrary to popular belief your average farmer is probably a better businessman and manager of money than most.  If it was worth it it wouldn’t be there. Especially if there was an outstanding note on it.

You can afford to trash a $20k+ machine? This was a person's investment! Now just trash! Glad you feel $20k+ is nothing!

Ummmm that’s not what he said at all.

It is now worth scrap only.....and since even the scrap value is minimal, it hasn’t been worth messing with. Which is why it’s just sitting in the field. Call some local meth scrappers and they will remove it all for you.

I think scrap is like $100 a ton right now, so not much. I'd want the running gear out of it. I'm not sure what motor it has, but I'm sure it'd be a good swap in something. It'd probably still be a good swamp buggy, even if it's only front wheel drive. Strip off all the stuff on the back, all the weights on the front wheels. Put flood lights 360° on the roof and drive around shooting hogs at night. Look how high the cab is, it'd make a good platform for that.

But it doesn't matter, he already said they are removing it before the closing.

No offense intended but there is a high likelihood I know more about the average farmer than 99% of this forum. And you're exactly right. There is a reason it was left there. You'll see from my posts that I was intrigued by OP's claims that someone left a $500,000 tractor tipped over in a field. Primarily bc no farmer or insurance company would leave something that valuable unrecovered. Then he revised it down. And even now, with evidence that a decent looking specimen WITH a stripper head included sold at auction for $2400, he still claims it's a $20,000 machine.


FTFY

For real, no offense intended but I don't see how you could confuse a rusty old crunched up cotton stripper for a $500,000 tractor but who am I to judge?

Just voicing my disappointment that I was excited for pictures and a good discussion as to how it happened and why it was left. Now that it has played out, I'm just disappointed that the climax of the story wasn't as exciting as the cover of the book led me to believe.

Oh, and any farmer that has equipment that isn't insured knows the risk he is taking. Farming carries risks, and cotton strippers are prone to fires. Don't pretend that some farmer's livelihood was horribly crippled by the loss. Either he had insurance and the insurance company decided it wasn't even worth the cost of recovery or he chose not to insure it bc he knew it was nearly worthless anyways.

But for real, if you think it's so valuable, tell them to leave it. And make something from it. It's certain to have some hydraulic cylinders and pumps on it that may still be good. And you can cut bits of metal off and straighten them out for use on things around the homestead. When I was little dad had an old combine out back that he bought just for the engine. I cut so much crap off that and made so many little projects growing up...


I wouldn't count on it. 2/3 of the weight is in the running gear and drivetrain so it's still going to be heavy; like 8,000 lbs heavy after it's stripped down. Massive castings and a hydrostatic drive that wouldn't be easy to "regear" for faster speed. 114 hp diesel and a ground speed slow enough that a hog could lazily saunter away when it hears it rumbling in...

Seriously, it's junk, there is a reason it was left in the field after it's unfortunate demise.

There is a lot of abandoned field equipment and tractors scattered around this part of the country in a lot better shape than that.

I think Sig pretty much covered it.  I am disappoint.  The Mystery of the Abandoned $1/2 Mil Tractor Thingy has been solved.

The tires look decent. They are probably worth more than the rest of the machine.