The Tractor Runs Again!

by Melissa Weinblatt

Finally, the good news…the tractor runs again!

I had the pleasure of spending a day with Carina Mortola while in Bella Vista a week and a half ago. She and her husband Pablo run an impressive operation - cattle, rice, soybeans, etc. During my visit, Carina mentioned to me that they had a tractor with a T444E international diesel motor that was currently inoperable. This particular tractor is an integral part of rice harvest.

Apparently, they had isolated the problem to one specific part, however, it was virtually impossible to find. They had exhausted every resource in Argentina over the past two months and were preparing to travel to Brazil the next weekend to look for the part one last time before having to purchase a NEW tractor.

When we were done preparing to ship cattle that morning, Carina and I returned to her house for coffee and I offered to try to help. I went to the International Motors website, and sure enough, you can’t find a single dealer in Argentina! And, if you try to search for International Motors on google.ar, good luck!

So, I looked for dealers in Oregon and got really lucky - Brattain International Trucks of Eugene! My first phone call was difficult because the line had static and I was trying to translate an International parts manual from Spanish. However, thanks to modern technology, I was able to email Randy at Brattain a digital picture of the part. Within ten minutes I called him back and we started the process of gathering all of Carina’s information so we could ship the part that day! She was nearly in tears and couldn’t wait to call her husband!

It took a little over a week for the parts (we ordered extras) to arrive - I just got confirmation via email from Carina this afternoon that the tractor is running! Oh, and by the way, the parts were around US$45 each and expedited 2nd day air shipping was around US$100. So for about US$250, they have a tractor that works.