Tractor woes

Remember when Cliff sold off the last of his classic tractor collection, intending to find a used 7040 Kubota tractor with a cab and front loader?  He loves his little John Deere, but once in awhile he'd like a little more "umph" than an under-fifty-horsepower tractor can provide; we'd like one with a cab because Cliff has developed asthma in his later years; the heated cab in winter and A/C in summer would be helpful for his breathing.  If we lived in Texas or Georgia, that 7040 Kubota might be feasible, because there are a lot of them for sale there.  Unfortunately, we live on a hill looking down on the Missouri River in God's Country; surely everybody knows that God's Country consists of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas.  When you try to find a certain kind of tractor, it always seems to be a thousand miles away.

The particular tractor he's looking for can be found nearby, but without a cab.  The model he's looking for could even be bought new, around the desired price range... without a cab.  There are other problems with buying new, though:  First of all, if we buy anything from a dealer, it will be taxed.  Real farmers don't have to pay the tax.  We have always been "pretend" farmers.  The taxes on $30,000 are significant and actually put the price of the 7040 out of our range.  

But there's another big issue that explains why certain used tractors are not being put up for sale, and that's Regen, pronounced re-gen, accent on the first syllable .

What does regen mean?  I found an article HERE that explains it, although it's still way over my head.  Here's a snippet from the article:  "The device used to deliver clean emissions is called a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), and it can get gunked up with soot every now and then. The cleaning process is called the regen process. Your tractor has a dash symbol that tells you when regen is necessary. The symbol is the same across all major brands."  

Just click the link in the above paragraph if you want to know more.

You can thank our politicians for regen.  They're all about clean air, you know, and apparently tractors have been polluting the atmosphere for many years.  My own opinion is that farmers are in the minority, so any law that might hamper them can be voted in by the majority of folks... who live in the city and never heard of regen and probably don't worry about where their food comes from.  But I could be wrong.  I may be looking at things from the wrong perspective. 

There's a reason I tend to think farmers don't like it:  They're keeping the tractors we want to buy second-hand.  They are hanging on to what they have because that regen process, if not done right, can really mess up a brand new tractor, at great cost to the owner.  Cliff follows the Kubota board on Facebook.  It's amazing how many people are saying they want a new tractor but they don't like the regen, so they're keeping what they have.

So I don't know what will happen with our search.  Cliff has his stash and surfs the net every day looking for the tractor he wants.  Perhaps a miracle will happen.  A different tractor isn't a necessity, not by a long shot.  But Cliff did without a lot of things he'd like to have had, throughout most of our lives together.  I like to see him happy.  Right now, he's just happy that I'm so happy with my new stove.  But I wish he could find that tractor.