The News Reel
Latest News - 6/26/15 - Unplanned site updates plus rant
Happy Friday Tractor Fans.
Sorry about the site being down for 24+ hours. I had an unplanned upgrade done by our provider. At this time, I want to say thank you for now eight years. I missed the 6, 7 and 8th anniversary notes there. I had two kids in this time frame and well... my four year old tells me she loves tractors.
Hoping everyone a great coming eighth year, back to tractors and kids.
Latest News - 2/26/12 - Fifth Anniversary
Happy Sunday Tractor Fans.
Tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of five years of providing information and communication resources for this hobby. We've had a positive increase in participation and are continually adding new friends. The plans for this site continue to provide a place everyone can always come back to visit and join in. To maintain a friendly environment sometimes we will need to make a choice in material suitable for the non-tractor discussions. To help keep the site easier to maintain, please avoid the photos and socially shocking topics. The rule will be if a photo or topic offends we will side on removal.
Hoping everyone a great coming sixth year in sharing this hobby.
Latest News - 2/27/11 - Four year anniversary
Happy Sunday Tractor Fans.
This is the anniversary of four years of providing information and communication resources for this hobby. It is our little lounge in the great sea of the web. This all could not be done without everyone's help. We've seen the friends come and some have moved on. The plans for this site are to provide a place everyone can always come back to visit and join in.
Hoping everyone a great coming fifth year in sharing this hobby.
Latest News - 10/18/10 - Site pictures
Good Day Tractor Fans.
I'd like to ask for your help in keeping the site easy to read and help on the long term value of pictures. If you can please keep your pictures you post to less than 720pixels wide, it helps people read the sentenances. Also, if you can please attach your resized photos when it comes to the Tractor talk areas and gallery so that long term your pictures will stay around.
Also, I will be writing a job which is going to go though posts to update the pictures. If a picture is too wide, the picture will be changed so that you can click on the photo for more detail. If a picture is not uploaded to the tractor talk areas and gallery, the picture will be automatically uploaded to the site. This will happen in the background and I'll keep a log incase I need to fix what the job does. Due to time commitments, I am not sure when this will start or how much I can correct.
I will also try to fix some of the Simplicity links using this batch job so that they still pull up the manuals. If manuals are no longer available, I'll upload them to the site. Please if you see things we should know, talk about it in the suggestions and questions forum.
Thank you! Let's get those tractors ready for some fall and winter fun.
Please see the rest of the old news in the News Reel
Latest News - 9/28/10 - Site organization
Good Day Tractor Fans.
It's been a while since I posted any news about the site. We've had an increase in membership and activity recently so I'd like to ask your help in keeping the site organized. There should be no worries if you post in the wrong place, but your help would be appreciated. Please try to keep the yaking in SimplyYaking, if it's anything about Tractors please choose a tractor talk area, and finally please try to keep the Gallery as an area to show off your projects/tractor and attachments verses a yacking place. Otherwise, back to Tractor Fun.
Latest News - 2/25/10 - A nice contribution to our hobby
Good Morning Tractor Fans.
I received a link from ZippoVarga regarding some of his work on documenting tractors and the repair of them in our hobby. I choose this particular video because it was such a nice restoration.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/ZippoVarga
If you have a chance, please visit his link and let's discuss some of his fine work in the forums!
Latest News - 2/27/09 - Two Year Anniversary
Good Evening Tractor Fans.
It's the evening of the two year anniversary from acquiring the WebSite Names "MichaelsTractors". We're also going to be known as the http://www.acsimplicitycollectors.com/ as that site name was reserved to make a backup site and extend this site. Please enjoy the open environment we're creating here.
I've also reserved the Paypal name "MichaelsTractors" which will be used for advertisement and sponsors assistance in running the site. This site is intended to alway provide a common meeting ground for this hobby and provide all information for free, sharing everything in the public domain.
Latest News - 1/24/09 - Welcome a new moderator
Good Morning Tractor Fans.
I've asked Oldron to be a moderator on the PowerMax forums. I'd like to thank Ron for graciously accepting to help.
One other side note, I'd like to extend my best wishes to BiggieRat whom is going through a public ridicule on another website. I promise nothing like that will ever happen here. He will be always welcome on this site along with his friends.
Now go out and have a great day on your tractors and/or other fabrication projects. It's getting cold again out in New England today.
Latest News - 1/21/09 - A New Year Post (late)
Wishing fellow Tractor Fans best wishes in this new year.
The most important news of this post is to mention the loss of Gary Hinkle (MikeFox) of Melborne Florida from this site. There is an announcement posted where folks can wish their best to the family. I'm going to print that out and include that in a card that I'm going to send. So please post a reply if you feel comfortable doing such.
I would also like to thank all of you for making this site what it is. A relaxing fun place to discuss tractors and perhaps some spin off topics.
A special thanks to the moderators who also contribute to the fun! That's what we're here for! Gary will be missed from this lineup.
Note we'll be starting our second year of operating this site in late February.
Latest News - 11/27/08 - Happy Thanksgiving
Wishing all Tractor Fans (and new ones) a happy Thanksgiving Day (where celebrated  ).
Some administrative news... I set the site clock back to non-daylight savings time. Otherwise, coming into the winter months hope to bring some new stuff on line soon.
Please have a safe holiday!
Latest News - 7/4/08 - Happy Independency Day
Wishing all Tractor Fans (and new ones) a happy Fourth of July.
Some administrative news... I made "The Tractor Gallery" which was discussed with the moderators. Also moved a resource page I was working on into the Buyers/Pricing guide. I'm going to recommend we post resource information there for tractor fans and interesting finds, etc. Work on the details later.
Go have some tractor fun and a safe holiday!
Latest News - 5/2/08 - Bounced Emails
Good Day Tractor Fans and welcome new ones!
A little administration stuff at lunch time in Connecticut today. If you are newly signing up at this site, once and a while I get a bounced email because someone uses an invalid account or for some reason you're email server bounces the server's email. If you don't get registered, please feel free to contact me at:
Michael@MichaelsTractors.com
Please wait at least a day before contacting me as all approvals to access the site are manually done by me to reduce people spamming the site. I am in the process of reconfiguring the software to reduce spam emails.
Anyway, I am off to play with a small backhoe today. Yes, there will be pictures! The fun part of this hobby!
Latest News - 4/30/08 - Server Outage
Good LATE Evening Tractor Fans and welcome new ones!
We had a Server Outage this evening due to our ISP performing an unplanned upgrade. We've been down since 8:31pm on 4/29/08 and the last down alert I received was at 1:11am today. I quickly updated the website as best I could with a page to alert you folks. In the future, if you notice something strange you can look at two alternate locations:
1. http://www.ACSimplicityCollectors.com
2. http://www.ACSimplicityCollector.com
For any outage information and potentially an up-time. I regularly make backups so we were very well protected on data loss. I am working on some additional solutions and hopefully those will be more ready for potentially avoiding any future outages.
I appolize for the inconvience. Technology at it's best.
Brief Update - 4/11/08 - Server Time Adjustment
Brief update: The server time was updated today at 3:01pm. It's been an hour off for a while.
Latest News - 4/10/08 - All work and no play ...
Good Evening Tractor Fans and welcome new ones!
It's been a long time since I made a little news article about anything interesting. Sorry, it's the story of all work and no play and you can fill in the blanks. Well we skipped right through the aniversary date of this site (2/28/07), I'll try to do better next year.
Anyway, here's two departing videos from the winter season. I'm actually going to be skiing a few more times, so I'll probably actually miss the snow. I'll be getting the boat ready soon, so I really won't miss it that much. Enjoy these videos and let's have some spring time fun. Perhaps we'll see some folks at the shows, a special big thanks to Jeff who kicked off that section.
Thank you all for visiting and all the help in building something really fun! 
Latest News - 2/13/08 - Pictures-Pictures
Good Evening Tractor Fans!
I'd like to welcome all the new fellow tractor collectors joining the site. We're an Ad-hoc Simplicity and Allis Chalmers Collecting Club which invite other brands and size tractor collectors to join us.
One thing I'd like to remind fellow tractor fans is to please respect the copyright of other authors, photographers and creators of material. Please do not post pictures with "watermarks" which are meant to protect copyright because those will need to be removed. If you find a photo or copyrighted subject you really like to share, then just provide a URL link to that site's page so that fellow collectors can find it easily. Most sites are only happier if you reference their site as it drives traffic and interest.
One fact that folks helping to collect information is that "Data" can not be copyrighted, only the original formating a creator has developed in showing data is copyright worthy.
Thank you all for visiting and all the help in building something really fun!
Latest News - 1/22/08 - Hunting the Net
Good morning Tractor Fans!
This is just a quick reminder to keep an eye out over at the Briggs and Stratton site every so often. I've not seen new changes in the news post on the Simplicity site since 2006, but I have noticed that Briggs and Stratton has been putting more consumer help information on their site. So take a look at the two links below for updates.
This first link has some basic information, but as you dig further into their documentation, I've noticed some new stuff being provided:
http://www4.briggsandstratton.com/display/router.asp?DocID=76082
Also I've updated the "Your Engine" topic where I am outlining the engines on the early Simplicity and AC Engines:
http://www.michaelstractors.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=64
(Check out the online repair manual)
Have a great day.
Latest News - 1/16/08
Good day Tractor Fans! (The friendly site!)
Lunchtime over in CT and a beautiful day for a walk (and perhaps go for a ride on one of my tractors). Anyway, a little biz about the website, we allow Anonymous users, but most of the folk in the hobby and on this website prefer to not have anonymous users. That being said, as you get familar with people on the site, please just fill out a little information about yourself. Age, general location and a reasonable name are appreciated by all. Pen names are ok too.
The one important piece which must be present, you must keep a valid email address. If a moderator, or I electronically send you an email or we personally send you an email asking for you to reply, we need you to do that. That's just a requirement about the website rules.
Anyway, please continue to enjoy the freedom AND FRIENDSHIP on this website. Be proud of our hobby, it's a fun thing. Have a great day.
Latest News - 1/4/08
Happy New Year (Belated) and Good morning Tractor Fans!
It's an early Friday morning and the start of a new year. I want to remind folks that when you write articles and/or replies on other sites, if you feel they are also appropriate here, you can republish them here also. You always retain original copyrights to your work, unless someone has paid you to do the work. So please feel free to publish any of the works you have created. It's a good thing to get your work published. That way your techniques, solutions, or observations can be learned, challenged and you get your skills recognized.
So to close, be proud of the work you are doing and thank you for visiting.
Latest News - 12/16/07
Good morning Tractor Fans!
It's an early Sunday morning and the middle of the month of December, the middle of the holiday season. In Connecticut we have tough Sleet/Snow storm today and everyone is being asked to stay off the roads.
I'd like to welcome all Tractor Fans who've been signing up and getting involved in Michael's Tractors a.k.a. a new resource for AC Simplicity Collectors and clubs. I'd like to remind folks who are signing up that a good email address is important, otherwise the registration process will not complete. Folks are invited to sign up with or without a fullname, but a little more information is preferred by the folks who frequent the site. You'll get more help if you use a fullname and provide a location.
To close, I'd like to wish all a fun, safe holiday season. Thank you again for visiting. All are welcome!
Latest News - 12/2/07
Good morning Tractor Fans!
It's an early Sunday morning and the start of the month of December. I've gotten some suggestions from folks that I should help clear up some of the organization of this website. That, I will do.
In the meantime, I will mention that I am happy to see people breaking out and helping to define what the other forum areas are. You all are doing that simply by posting things relative to the titles. Think of the open forums as rooms to go in and you find those types of discussions there. What I don't want to be is the ogar in the room saying your conversations don't fit. What we've seen so far is people trying to come together and use the site for what it is. A central place to talk about Simplicity and Allis Chalmers tractors.
Latest News - 11/22/07
Happy Thanks Giving All! I hope you enjoy your day.
In the near very future Mikefox and I will be moving topics which are focused on the Simplicity 4040, 4041, 9020 Powermax & Allis Chalmers 616, 620, 720 tractors will be moved to the forum "Simplicity Powermax & AC 616 620 720 Discussions". At that time, I'll post a news article which either has or points to an index of these discussions.
Latest News - 11/8/07
I just noticed that the server time wasn't adjusted since the weekend. In the future I may do a data update to all posts which were effected. At this point, please just realize the times were off from Sunday morning 11/4/07 to today 11/8/07 6:00 am (approx.)
Latest News - 10/19/07
While busy traveling, I noticed in USA Today that Cubcadet and Yanmar put a full page advertisement in the paper. While not part of my Simplicity and Allis Chalmers hobby interests, I found it interesting that the article was there. If you want to see their new 32hp machine, take a look at this website:
www.cubcadetyanmar.com
I'd be afraid how many PowerMax tractors I could buy for the cost of that machine. It was interesting to see a 900lbs lift loader on the machine.
News for 10/8/07:
Good early morning to you tractor fans wishing you all a good start to a new week. I'd like to thank everyone who's been signing up and getting involved. There are many new articles and discussions being talked about, this news article is only a quick capture of some topics which stickout on the first page. I hope you all enjoy them.
Some discussions which will be of interest to you garden tractor fans:
1. MifeFox is busy writing his articles on Simplicity PowerMax repairs and improvements. Many new articles.
2. Biggie is explaining his techniques on resolving problems with the http://www.michaelstractors.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=404.
3. Skunkhome is showing how to remove use a Northern Portable Mini Tire Changer machine along with remounting his tires on his finely restored AC Garden Tractor.
4. fuslit has taken the time to detail his engine repair to his Simplicity 3012 Briggs and Straton 300421 12 hp engine. See Valve sticking on the 3012
Also take a look at this news article: Tractors are one man’s hot rods This super star is helping promote his hobby restoring 1975-1989 Simplicity Tractors.
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/LIFESTYLE/710080312
News for 10/5/07:
Good morning! I would like to wish all a good holiday weekend coming up. A little business note, I'd like to just let everyone know a little bit more why I built this site and some safe computing concerns.
I've been interested and active in forums for many years. I've been into computer development for over 30 years now. I wished to contribute and join in the fun with other sites similar sites, but found they were closed to contributions for whatever reasons. I'll be humble and take the blame on myself. I didn't fit in for whatever reason. So, I took what I originally was developing as a blog and well... Here we are www.MichaelsTractors.com which will become www.ACSimplicityCollectors.com The goals are what's stated in my goal statement and I'm open for influence on those goals. My immediate concern is to help grow and legitimize the hobby (with the wives?) Anyway, please enjoy what many folks are doing.
I will ask that you use what is considered a "strong" password (not 123 but has an uppercase and number type of password) and you make it unique between other sites. Any website you sign into has the ability to see the password you are entering. If you use a password on another site, it could lead to someone knowing your patterns and using it on this site. Please see this page for more infomation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password This is just safe computing and identity management.
Again, please enjoy!
News for 10/4/07:
Early this morning, I added a new forum area where notes, discussions and any reference materials can be gathered about the AC/Simplicity Lawn Tractor class machines. I'm new to those machines, but intend to restore at least one.
News for 10/3/07:
Well I hope everyone is having a great day today. I'd like to welcome all the new visitors to this website and let you know we will be changing the website name to the "AC and Simplicity Garden Tractor Collectors" at some near future date. We've purchased the name http://www.ACSimplicityCollectors.com or you can call this ACS site for short. The focus on this website is to open this hobby up to folks who want to share in a fun friendly environment.
I would want to mention that this site was developed to improve communication a skill which is probably always being refined. Please keep sharing and communicating! Welcome!
News for 9/27/07:
Made the forum "simply yakking" in the general information area. Please keep it PG13. For now it open to all, but in the future we'll ask for some validation/first-last name to enter that forum. A donation of a $1 with a check or a phone call or something like that. No rush, everyone have fun.
"If we don't know it, let's figure it out together. If we get it wrong, let's just smile and fix it. Let's forgive and/or forget bad memories, lifes too short. Don't mind a smile every so often." - b112.
News for 9/26/07:
Below is some non-tractor news, but you can possibly reflect some saftey planning you might need in working and using your tractors.
- CNN reported tonight that "Staged cyber attack reveals vulnerability in power grid." Well to all you home automation hobbists out there, I've been for years telling people that in the future people will need to deal with the potential of hackers attacking the "future home". I've said hackers will learn how to turn on/off devices in a house and start fires. Well, here's your proof that that's actually possible... on a slightly bigger scale:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/26/power.at.risk/index.html
News for 9/25/07:
Yes, I appologize again for any inconvience and I'm looking into a small 5 to 10 min outage again today. Shortly, I will have a backup site (it will be a test box) and in the near future at minimum you will be able to get a health report on the main site. I will mention it's not due to any load which we are inducing. We're fine, it's the ISP.
News for 9/24/07:
Yes, the site went down from 7:36:40 PM to 7:43:21 PM, I appologize for any inconvience... Hopefully we're ok now.
Here's a 707 Simplicity video by MarksA-C:
And MarksA-C 6518:
And The S.E. Wisconsin antique and collectable society Plow Day:
(September 14th, 15th, and 16th at the Racine County Fairgrounds) Union Grove, WI. www.FallHarvestDays.com
By MarksA-C.
News for 9/23/07:
Sunday night, the end of a fun weekend and start of a work week. The new website name "ACSimplicityCollectors.com" now forwards to this site in preparation for a new look. A quick reminder that this website is not "the club", but the people who frequent it can consider themselves "the club". IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE! I am giving us all a conduit to communicate freely. I will hope that one day a fine club can be made from the folks joining this site. For now, just enjoy the lack of politics in running a club. New stuff is on the way.
News for 9/22/07:
Future new name change for this website is in progress. The new website will be http://www.ACSimplicityCollectors.com please bookmark that site for future use. Thank you for your support!
News for 9/11/07:
Today the six year since 9/11/2001. For the past six years, I've lived in an area where I regularly visually see the change evil has brought. I will never forget, may our good intensions overcome the bad and evil. May you have a good day.
News for 9/10/07:
Good morning and best wishes to all starting this work week. This is also six years since 9/11, so a moment of rememberance will be in order. Again thanks to all joining up and yes, happy to see you all coming in the door. Friendship and knowledge sharing will be high on the goals for this site. Carry on with talk and have fun with those tractors.
- One additional request from you all as you get time. If you can list the features you like from other forum sites you've seen that I'm missing in the intros/suggestions area. I'll try to add those as I have time. Knowing what you want will help me deliver those features.
News for 9/5/07:
The News Reel was divided and the old information is linked at the bottom of the page.
- Now you can display "You Tube" videos right on the pages. Just wrap your URL with a set of "(video)(/video)" tags using brackets.
Prior News Reel:
http://www.michaelstractors.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=248
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News Reel
Forum Locked
Posted - 03/05/2007 : 18:48:37
