The Ford 6000 Commander

Jul 21, 2016

Tips surrounding repair work on this tractor

IN THE SHOP with Rachel

The Ford 6000 Commander has a lot of horsepower and can be purchased for a rock-bottom price, but it is tricky to repair.

The Ford 6000 Commander was intended to replace the recalled Ford 6000. The 6000 was had a lot of mechanical problems and only produced from 1965-1967. After Ford recalled the tractor, it corrected the problems and re-released the model with a new designation. The Ford 6000 Commander is this re-release.

While Ford corrected the big mechanical issues with the Commander version of the Ford 6000, the tractor retained the Select-O-Speed transmission and the accumulator hydraulic system. Both of these features are difficult to repair.

The Select-O-Speed transmission was an early development of the hydrostatic transmission that allowed smooth shifting between gears during operation. Designers borrowed concepts from the automotive industry to make this transmission. The Select-o-Speed was a huge advance for the time.

Compared to modern transmissions, the shifting is not as smooth as you would expect. While this wouldn't be a big problem in a manual transmission (where you stop to change gears), it's an issue when you are still rolling along.

More significantly, the Select-O-Speed transmission very difficult to repair. When it breaks, the shrapnel is spread throughout the entire transmission. Each separate clutch pack must be replaced, and the valves that hold these clutch packs in place are tricky to install.

A second repair difficulty with the Ford 6000 Commander is the accumulator hydraulic system. The tractor's hydraulic system is equipped with a pressurized tank. This tank builds up to 1500 psi. At the touch of a button, the farmer can lift an implement out of even the most sticky soil, making the turn-around at the end of a row quick and efficient.

If you are repairing the hydraulic system on a 6000 Commander, be very careful! It is very important that you safely bleed off the pressure in a controlled way before beginning work on the system. Carefully inspect your hydraulic lines and hoses, and replace them at the first sign of wear. If you are not careful with maintenance, it could result in injury. While I’m a big fan of making repairs yourself, this one might be worth turning over to a qualified professional mechanic.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators