Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 27, 2012 - 10:58am PT
Up in Woodland is the superb Fred Heidrick Antique Tractor and Ag Collection, the Hays Antique Truck Collection see at http://www.aghistory.org/
I've been in there a few times over the years and anyone interested in old trucks or tractors driving up i-5 out of Sacramento through the town of Woodland, you can't miss it, on the right as you come into Woodland out past the Sacramento airport, just past the Walgreens warehouse. Its backed right up to the freeway, take the first woodland exit, right at the stop sign, left at the light, left into the museum parking lot.
So the reason I even bother to mention it....
I was in Ft Lee VA this week on business. As me and my colleagues drove to our destination I glanced out the window and saw the Keystone Tractor Works museum.
I shoulda MADE time. Sometimes I hit on all cylinders when traveling, and get to see some unusual things. More often its like this... ah but if I had the time, the stories I could tell!
It had row crop wheels and when my pop up and moved us to Tennessee hill country he was afraid to take it with him. He sold it to the people who bought his house from him.
In the late 90s I had a chance to visit my old boyhood home on 7 acres in rural New Jersey (sssush don't tell anyone!) and lo! The tractor lived on!
My brother was offered the chance to buy it a few years back but he declined.
Check this photo out of this old bridge over the Harpeth River in Cheatam County, Tennessee.
A massive flood took out this bridge a few years ago... I loved it and always went this way, for its lovely old school single lane wooden planked deck and iron works (oh how I LOVE bridges!!!) when coming home from Ashland City climbing.
My buddy snapped this shot one day as he drove home, the way was blocked, lol
Hah! I bet that scared the sh#t out of the driver!
Proof that row crop tractors ARE dangerous in Tennessee haha. Though I bet Pop never figured on this one lol.
The Western Development Museum in Saskatoon has lots of plows and tractors and such, going back more than a century. Well worth a visit. http://www.wdm.ca/stoon.html
Standard Friday night date in farm country: Allis Chalmers and John Deere.
Growing up in the rural south, I think we all got to drive a tractor at an early age as one of our first driving experiences.
Mine was on one of these (think I'd driven the neighbor's 68 Chevy pickup on the deer lease when he had to open the gate or something once before getting on one of these): 40's era Ford
First driving experience above the lawn mower was the late 40's John Deer A. I was amazed that it was still running, the thing was tough, and as my young mind did the math I realized the JD and my dad were about the same age.
Neighbor had an old international and before we could play we had the farm work to complete. Rarely drove that one but caught a gazillion bail of hay off the backside.
Hey it's the weekend, let's get out there and enjoy.
Dingus, we had a bridge that looked almost exactly like that..through truss, wooden deck, about 100' span, 12' wide, 18' up to the top of the tress, 'cept the railing was 2" angle iron or similar, instead of round stock. On Conley Ditch road, over Jackson Lake, built in 1909, and my @#$%^&* schoolbus used to cross the thing! Sketchy. They finally replaced it in 2000 with a new concrete monstrosity.
It was about a mile and half from my folk's house where I grew up. Dirt road lead to it, where my bro taught me how to drive a stick (paved that when they replaced the bridge) , decent bluegill and crappie fishing under the bridge. Every now and then some drunk redneck would jump off the top and about break their legs since it was only about 6' deep in late summer.
Old saying is true, you really can't ever go home again...it's all gone...the people, the places, all the unique things.
Elcap thanks for posting. Dickson county and surrounding Cumberland Rim country had dozens of those bridges. We dove off of them all it seemed, even into four foot deep water.
Those Ford tractors were and are ubiquitous in the hill country of Tennessee - just some a sense, the most popular small farm tractor in those hills. Wide stance (lol) much harder to tip over... amazingly I watched my friend lose control of one while baling in the downhill direction on one of my Pop's steep hillsides. (shouldnta baled going down!, he almost had to bail!)
The tractor started sliding, the baler jack knifed and locked his back wheel and he slide like 50 feet, rode that sucker like a bull, one hand up the other on the steering wheel. He shoulda jumped but didn't, claimed he was 'ready.'
At the bottom of the hill, he turned that sucker around and started back up the row, finishing the job and learning his lesson about baling in hill country.
They were burly for sure. My neighbor got that one sunk into a bog trying to cross the little creek in the woods below his corn field where he'd cleared a little patch for some melons. Luckily my stepdad had a friend's front end loader, like a much smaller version of a D-9, sitting in our yard at the time (something about hiding it from the repo man!). We loved having it around, used it to skid out a ton of red and white oak from the woods behind the house to cut up at our leisure. So pops fired up the loader and went down there to pull him out. Big spectacle for us, way better than watching another block of Bill Dance and Orlando Wilson. I think payback was a loan of his bass boat for a weekend (both were church-going men, never seen either of them take a drink).
I don't miss much about the south, but there are definitely things we got out there that you'd never get growing up in the 'burbs.
tractors were a family business for us--oliver tractors, formerly hart-parr of charles city, iowa.
my great uncle george managed the factory there for a long time. when he retired, they gave him a plaque that said, "you made tractors, george, the best in the land", and they were right. john culbertson, one of his assistants, has published a couple books on the good old days there, when everybody seemed to be on the same side and pulled together. these people knew how to have fun and work at the same time, a long forgotten pairing in most of america. the downside was that, due to the engine foundry, the factory eventually became a superfund site.
uncle george
Credit: Tony Bird
my dad got a job through his uncle and stayed until oliver got bought by white motor corporation and merged with minnie-mo, cockshutt and other inky-dinkies, all of which died their corporate deaths in the 1970s. there are basically three companies left in this field, john deere, ford, and caterpillar. if you think teddy roosevelt's trust busting and subsequent antitrust legislation means a damn thing in the united states of america, i hope they have a job for you in china.
you'll still see olivers once in awhile. i see them in the fields around oxnard, ancient, but still running like tops. the philosophy was that farmers don't like to buy cheap equipment, they want things that'll last. the first time i heard the term "planned obsolescence" was while visiting my dad at corporate headquarters in downtown chicago shortly after they were acquired by white.
dad was a lawyer for the company, but he was a ham actor at heart, and he once did a great job of playing drunk at a business meeting with uncle george, one of the anecdotes in the book, which became legendary. he also liked to address farmers with the opening line, "we stand behind all our products ... except the manure spreaders."
One Saturday afternoon, before our monthly management club meeting at the armory, George had a pre-meeting cocktail party in his basement. His nephew, Bob Bird, from the Chicago office, was the evening's program speaker. When I arrived, the party was just getting underway, and I chatted with Bob. He was immaculately dressed, smiling, and in great shape for his presentation. But as the cocktail hour went on, Bob looked and acted as though he had spent too much time at the bar bending his elbow. By the time we left for dinner at the armory, Bob's tie was loose at the collar, his shirt was partially unbuttoned and hanging out at the belt. In fact, he looked a mess; his speech was slurred and his walk was unsteady.
George was beside himself, and for once, he didn't know what to do. At the head table at the armory, Bob was boisterous, dropped his silverware, and created quite a disturbance. All eyes in the room were on Bob, as he proceeded to make an absolute ass of himself. George was embarrassed beyond words and tugged at Bob's sleeve to calm him down. George leaned over and urged him to give up trying to make a speech. This riled Bob all the more and set him off on a loud tirade against George.
Those of us who were seated close to George were mortified, but there was nothing we could do about it. Anything George said was brushed off and to no avail. After dinner the president of the club warily approached the podium, opened the meeting, and quickly conducted the business. With a furtive glance at George, as if to ask, "Do I close the meeting now or introduce Bob?", the president realized it was up to him to decide. Without dwelling on Bob's impressive background and wanting to get this bad scene over as quickly as possible, he simply said, "It is my pleasure to introduce Bob Bird from our Chicago office," and quickly returned to his seat.
As the crowd of more than 200 men and women politely clapped, Bob lurched to his feet, knocked over his chair and kicked it out of the way. His hair was disheveled, his shirt was hanging out of his pants, and he was more out of than in his suitcoat. Everyone gasped, and you could hear some whisper, "He's drunk." One even murmured, "My God, he really is stoned!"
Bob fell twice as he ascended the stairs to the podium. On the podium, he tried to grab the microphone, but in his apparent tipsy condition it took him three attempts before he conquered it with both hands. He wiped his nose with a sweep of his coat sleeve, rolled his eyes, opened his mouth, and struggled to stay on his feet. The room was hushed, and everyone including George was appalled at what they were witnessing. Bob closed his mouth, opened it again, then shouted, "INTERCOURSE!" The men blinked, looked at each other, and thought in disbelief, "What did he say?" The women bowed their heads, closed their eyes, and tried to hide their embarrassment.
While reactions swirled around the audience, Bob turned his back on everyone and disappeared behind the podium curtain. We all sat there stunned and looked at George to see what he was going to do. He just sat there as if someone had shot him. But momentarily Bob emerged from behind the curtain, and the audience had reason to gasp again in disbelief. It was a miraculous transformation. Bob was smiling; his hair was neatly combed; his shirt was buttoned and properly tucked in, and his tie no longer loosened. To my astonishment, he was as immaculately groomed and dressed as when I greeted him a few hours earlier. What's more, he was steady on his feet. He stepped confidently to the microphone, deftly positioned it, and in a clear, crisp voice and with a broad smile said, "Things aren't always what they seem." George looked as if he were a balloon that had just been popped with a pin. He, along with everyone else, had been taken in bigtime with Bob's carefully contrived charade.
The theme of Bob's speech was about relationships--social and business intercourse--rather than sexual intercourse. He talked about the art of communicating with each other and how important it is to convey correctly the meaning that is intended. He made the point that when he shouted "intercourse" we assumed he meant sexual intercourse, which wasn't the case at all since the word intercourse has many meanings depending on the full context in which it is used.
It was a superb speech. It was provocative--one that was long remembered and talked about for many years. When Bob concluded his speech, he was given a standing ovation, and the club president adjourned the meeting on a happy note. George hastily called a post-meeting party in his basement, and for the rest of the evening he was subdued and not his old self. But he did manage to tell Bob, "You sure fooled me. It was a hell of an act, but God dammit, don't ever do that to me again!"
from The Tractor Builders by john d. culbertson
dad, properly groomed
Credit: Tony Bird
Credit: Tony Bird
i drove one of these during a summer job with the company in the 1960s. learned to plow--fun!
Old saying is true, you really can't ever go home again...it's all gone...the people, the places, all the unique things.
Yep. We had one of those bridges, too. Built in 1890 it crossed Bluegrass Creek on Heckel Road. The bridge is gone, as well as most of the cool places it led to, replaced by I-164.
Me and the dogs had a lot of fun on Bluegrass Creek, BITD.
One old guy on our school bus route didn't believe in tractors. Mid-'60s and he still had a pair of massive draft horses. He did farm a small parcel, but it was really quite a sight.
I was visiting back home in the '80s around the time of the farm crisis and farm-Aid and all that. I asked my Dad about all that, thinking he'd be sympathetic to the farmers, seeing how "farm hand" was listed as occupation on his army records.
Wrong! He thought it was all their fault, buying those fancy tractors with air-conditioning and tape players!
Dingus, I drove one of these for two years when I got out of high school. Plowing at 20 mph was fun, unless the AC broke and you were enclosed in a sauna when it was 110 outside! :)
No the secret heart is still there. The Romans said the same thing. It all comes and goes all the time. I've been back to my secret places, revisited my old haunts, some of them persist, the places of magic and power. You just have to have the time and patience to suss them out. Tractor pace, as it were.
DMT
ps I think that was a Farmall my pop restored. Looks a LOT like the one jstan posted, duddint?
I make a living supplying parts for all these tractor... Those old ones and the new ones.
Nice to see these machines getting some attention.
The Ford N series changed the fabric of this nation.
Cool stories everyone. I'm loving this quirky thread.
I recently had a pile of B&w old family photos dumped on me. My okie relatives from Kansas were all farmers. Included in the pile was the original patents with photos for some farming equipment they invented. I'll scan and post later. Pretty cool stuff.
Here's a little tractor story. Excerpt from a (true) story I wrote about growing up next to our neighbor "Cowboy Dave" as a kid:
The Old Backhoe.
The old backhoe sat quietly (or not so quietly) rusting in Cowboy Dave's horse pasture. It was one of those small- types and had been yellow at one point, but most of the paint had worn away. Once a year, Dave would attempt (not always with success) to fire up the old girl so he could drag around an antiquated disc-plow-thing to stave off the fire marshals. The broken down rusting heap was often left sitting close to our fence line for years, much to the irritation of my parents who found the backhoe to be an eyesore- especially when you added in its companions...the dead pincusioned speedboat ( also deposited in the middle of the pasture) with it's neighboring piles of hoarded old barbed wire.
Getting the backhoe running was always a lengthy ordeal. Cowboy Dave was no mechanic, and would be standing in the field all day, sweating through his cowboy uniform. There was much fussing with tools and grease, and bailing wire- lots of bailing wire. Using a toxic concoction of carb fluid and gasoline, and god knows what else, the engine would eventually fire. The entire canyon was painfully aware when the backhoe came back to life. It was always the same unbelievably loud BAM echoing through the hills followed by uneven rumbling and an ENORMOUS black column of smoke rising through the air. I always found it remarkable that such a small vehicle could create so much noise and pollution. In peak operating condition, the backhoe would break down 2 or 3 times a day, and the whole process would repeat itself...
"we stand behind all our products ... except the manure spreaders."
My best friend in my freshman year of college was a farm kid from Iowa who like many worked in the winter in a small town shop that made farm implements.
Don't remember the brand name any more, but he worked for an outfit that made a side unloading manure spreader.
My Ford 8N tractor was responsible for the house I'm sitting, ( with a little effort on my part).
I started logging a 60 acre timber track, on the side of a small mountain in N.H., in 1970, right out of Vietnam.
I can't tell you how many times I almost tipped that rig over while pulling a big log,( for Eastern standards).
That little tractor could pull an oak log
measuring 18-24 inches in diameter X 30ft. long, out of the woods, as long as you weren't going uphill.
The clutch plate was smooth steel, and real slippery when wet. When pulling a real big log, I had to be real careful to keep my foot on the clutch, while steering with the brakes, since the front end was off the ground at times.
You had to react REAL fast, if you hung up, since the front end goes up and over damn fast because of those big wheels churning. Almost as nerve racking as a long A4 pitch.
I'm very fond of that 8N, which took much abuse, from me. I made all the beams for my timber frame house in the woods with a Jonsered chain saw. Since the 4 sides of the log were removed, and discarded, the resulting beam, was in some cases, half the weight, of the original log.
Nevertheless; I have one beam, in Oak, measuring 12X14 by 24 ft. long. I weighed it, before putting it up. after drying it for 20 years, under cover, ( I'm not lying). It tipped out at 2400 pounds!
I'm diverging off the subject, but that little 8N, can pull like hell, and I'm still logging occasionally with it.
i took the tour of the desert queen ranch last year. the guide was a ranger who had grown up on a ranch in colorado--i forget his name, but he was the ideal guide, offering insights into the resourcefulness of the keys family that only someone who had lived that life could know about.
bill keys basically inherited hidden valley from an outlaw, the kindlier of the mchaney brothers, who wound up spending his old age there--unlike his brother, who landed in the pen. keys took care of the fellow during his last days--you can see the outline of the shack on the backside of indian wave boulder.
keys's strategy for making a living on desert queen was many-faceted--mining, ranching, hunting and foraging, farming (some of his fruit trees still survive), and tourist cabins. the only gold he missed was the rock climbing. the ranch site, back in the wonderland and only accessible with a tour appointment, remains close to the way the family left it, just a bit worse for weathering. there is a large area which can best be described as a well-organized open-air parts warehouse--everything you need to get a tractor running.
our guide pointed out a giant diamond reo truck, 1930s vintage, which he said keys picked up for free out in the desert after it was abandoned stuck by the county highway department. it looked like it hadn't run in decades, but he said he was surprised a few years ago to find it parked about 200 yards from where he had seen it the week before. he learned that willis keys, just for the fun of it, had shown up with a few quarts of oil and a can of gas, picked some spark plugs out of the parts collection and got it going--something to do on a sunday afternoon.
take that tour if you're a josh regular--well worth a half day off from climbing. and willis's book, growing up on the desert queen ranch, available at the visitor's center, offers a lot more of the colorful history.
Consider the photo above of the dad and his kids on that little tractor.
To those kids? They think its as mighty as that 8-wheeled drive monster Jody used to drive. Its not 'a tractor,' no, its 'THE Tractor.' They will remember it all their lives, that tractor, like I and a lot of you remember our own tractor mythology and legend. As they mature?
The tractor will actually grow in size (in their minds), particularly if they move away or are somehow separated from their tractor.
But then, if they are lucky (like I was) they might get to visit their old home and go visit the tractor of their youth.
And they'll be shocked at the changes... not to their old home, yard, woods, town, bridges, strip malls and whatever. Oh all that's shocking enough, it deserves its own thread.
No they'll be shocked at how much that tractor has actually shrunken with age - like a wizened old man. They'll walk up to it in wonder, clearly remembering the days when that tractor TOWERED over them and climbing the wheel (they now look down upon ) was a BIG DEAL.
I know, it's not officially a tractor but it was classified as one in the UK back in the day. It has a front and rear PTO and all sorts of farm equipment could be ordered and run off it. The man I bought it from said he used to run a haybailer off the rear PTO.
These ones were also called tractors for all their solidity: Gammal Volvo Amazon och Volvo PV. Some of the PV drivers are now using rollator when walking. A lovely attitude. The Swedish comment "Så här är det nog i himelen" means "This must be how it is in heaven"
Talked to an old Mexican rancher south of Ensenada about the history of his ranch. He was the first to settle there, and did so before the road was graded down the steep escarpment to his valley with the springs and oak trees. The existing road was up on the far side of a ridge, about 2000 very rugged vertical feet above the coastal plateau part of his property, downstream from his rancho to be.
He broke the tractor down to its components and hiked them all down to the flats, and then hired 8 hombres to carry the engine down intact, slung between two poles made from tree trunks. Once the parts were down he reassembled it and proceeded to build his new home. It was decades before the road finally got put in, and in the meantime he lived there with no car or truck, just the tractor.
The only spot in Baja I've ever rinsed off after surfing in a clean, spring fed stream, right on the beach.
Funny, when I try to load the second and third pages of this thread Google chrome sez
www.supertopo.com contains content from www.crownequipmentmaine.com, a site known to distribute malware. Your computer might catch a virus if you visit this site.
An early Case: I'm a steam guy myself. Back in the olde country we called these traction engines. Just throw a long leather belt on that flywheel and you could thresh a whole mess of wheat. Not practical to plow the field, though. Steam power was best for pulling torque but not practical for quick startup. These days you need boiler certification before she blows and takes out a crowd of innocent bystanders. The good old days when machines had personality and practical function.
Around 1970-75 Belarus tractors were imported and sold by a local salesman at the place where I grew up. People from the whole area came to see the tractors. Here is one from the same period of time being restored (not a local one).
Was up @ my sisters dairy farm this weekend for her anual redneck party/cornroast. I play three sets in the pole barn and we have a 5 piece country band as well. Roast 500lbs of beef and a huge potluck. BYOB and roughly 500 people show up.. No matter that there is a big party you better kick you hangover in the ass and get back to work the next morening@ 4:00 am.. there was haying to do on sunday so I got a few shots of some of the tractors. Holy crap they got a lot of tractors.
Knocking it out of the park there tradmanclimbs. Thanks.
Twice in the last two days I drove by a small vineyard / winery in the foothills to see 4-5 orchard tractors parked out front along the fenceline. Two old farmalls there for sure, one nicely restored (or maintained) like my pop's.
Twice I didn't 'have time' (read, too zoned out and road weary) to stop and snap a freakin photo. Turning around there is difficult.
I will get a shot of them next time up that way, promise (its on the way to my favorite bouldering spot)
Thanks DMT it is a bit mind boggeling how many tractors my sister has. it is a special place up there.. Don't get up there as much as I should. then again they don't have much time for socializeing and you feel guilty unless you are working......
I was not totally usless out there while I was shooting photos.. I hitched up the kite rake.. then I slunk back to the house and hung out on the porch with the rest of the slackers... At least I was not hungover;)
I think this is the last one of their tractors not counting the bobcat and the big front end loader? annother big one, JD7710 hitched up to a sh#t spreader last thanksgiveing.
Cool thread enjoyed all the pictures. The one of the small bulldozer in France reminds me of the day an old partner and I were bushwhacking into a new area we had found on a topo, and there sitting in a field abandoned was the smallest bulldozer I had ever seen, upon close inspection it had lifting hooks at the corners and a military nomenclature tag that mentioned airborne something or other. I still think I should have tried tracking down the owner what a cool thing to restore, I think the tag mentioned being made in Wisconsin, anybody know about these?
must have seen a hundred tractors today in the Del Monte pineapple fields. I know they are thoroughly modern versions and that most of you all are posting about older ones, but hey, a tractor is a tractor in my book. Here in Costa Rica they call a tractor a "chapulin" which means grasshopper, them things with the big hind legs. Here are 4 different makes that I could get close enough to take pictures of. They even named a tractor after our very own "Silver"
Those are some bad ass tractors, Little Z. Thanks. Blown away by the content of this thread. Let's go for 200. I'm in love with the Minneapolis Molines though. Wow they are real beauties.
and here they are at work on Stately Pleasure Dome above Tenaya Lake too. Lots to get done on The Great White Book before winter sets in!! Big rush here!!
Cool thread enjoyed all the pictures. The one of the small bulldozer in France reminds me of the day an old partner and I were bushwhacking into a new area we had found on a topo, and there sitting in a field abandoned was the smallest bulldozer I had ever seen, upon close inspection it had lifting hooks at the corners and a military nomenclature tag that mentioned airborne something or other. I still think I should have tried tracking down the owner what a cool thing to restore, I think the tag mentioned being made in Wisconsin, anybody know about these?
There were many manufacturers of crawlers in days of yore, including Lindermann in Yakima WA and Windorf in Portland OR. But... Struck-Magnatrac is still operating in Wisconsin
Well, as much as I love the older tractors I ended up being "practical" and just today bought a ~1987 Case-IH 275. 4WD, diesel, w. front-end loader, backhoe, etc etc.
Sorry no pictures of the tractors
I was sent to Illinois to start my first real job at 12 on my uncle’s farm mowing and plowing down government acres. $1.25 an hour, $10.00 a day I was rich!
Government acres, is land we were paid not to harvest but mowe
Best uncle a guy could ever have
Credit: rich sims
down and plow the wheat back into the ground.
So I made two mistakes my first day. I stopped and turned off the tractor to pee.
So my aunt flags me down as I pass the drive way to the highway.
She then scolds me for turning off the tractor to talk to her and then again for turning it off to pee.
She says can’t you just hang it out and pee while the tractor is moving.
Oh that crossed so many boundaries for this shy 12 year old. LOL
What a summer for a city boy from San Diego, learning to drive tractors and trucks on the roads between the three farms.
Riding a stallion given to me that hated girls/women but would let me ride him and guide him with just a halter. Flirting with the not so old trainers helpers at the show horse’s stables made me feel years older, at least 15.
It was defiantly a summers of firsts.
Imagine skidding logs out of the Maine north woods in January, sitting in the fore-end wheelhouse freezing your toes off. At least during blackfly season it's too muddy to log much, otherwise the drivers would require transfusions weekly.
tradman, i've seen a firewall forward remnant of an AMC muscle car outfitted
so that it would attach in place of the bucket of a front end loader.
the 396 c.i. engine was powering a rotary snowplow where the back
of the vehicle used to be.
Surely EKat can throw in a few photos of old and new Zambonis? They're a kind of tractor, after all. Maybe even those snow-grooming machines she so likes.
This makes for a great Sunday afternoon read on one of the last lay hot days of fall (I hope). Great stuff here.
Loved Rich's story about the correct way being to "hang it out" and pee while the tractor is running. This is Guy 101! Ha ha!
I worked at a summer camp right out of college in Southern Wisconsin (Oconomowoc). I was the leader of a unit of younger teenagers and counselor. We lived in these giant surplus canvas army tents on concrete platforms. The camp had an old tractor (a Ford I think, don't recall much other than the fun of driving it) and it was a blast fer sure. Used it mostly for hauling a flatbed of camp equipment or a boatload of teenagers. More fun that you can swing a stick at. If I have photos, they are deeply buried.
There was also an old unregistered Plymouth Duster (or similar Mopar make) that was my "camp" car. Bald tires and beat up to hell, had some fun in that thing too, driving it around the dirt roads and fields.
TPFU!
Would definitely welcome eKat input on this thread!
My big unrealized dream in life is to be a snowcat operator. At least for one night to see what it's really like.
This is my tractor. just arrived today. needs lots of work. The crappy plow comes off tomorrow and the Fisher goes on. needs brakes, heater core,wireing,carb work, shifting linkage, etc, etc but man is she Cool!
There's a little spot on the Appalachian Trail, somewhere near Grayson Highlands in Virginia IIRC..been a long time ago since I was there... where you're crossing this big open area of rolling grassy hills. And someone took about 4 or 5 old tractor seats and sank the posts into the ground making a sort of park bench type setup.
Maybe I can find a pic, I sat there and enjoyed some medicinal and a nice sunset. Had to be the most comfortable a tractor seat in all my life (it helps that it ain't bouncing you all over and that you just spent the last 6 hrs hiking 20 miles with a pack)...EDIT: sumbitch, here they are:
OK, I agree... that Swedish Tractor video is the best! I'm a quarter Swedish and this COMPLETELY explains my younger brothers' behaviour over the years! Ha ha!
Probably explains some of my own, but I'm not admitting it! :-)
Funny (maybe) story: We were looking at some land up by Big Oak Flat, owned by this wonderful lesbian couple. We really hit it off and they spent hours showing us around the property, their property, and another neighbor's. At that neighbor's place they had a really nice John Deere. As we walked up to the huge array of disc, box scrapers, blades, roto-tillers, and just about everything you could imagine, the one woman, surveying all this, says to me with a wild look in her eye: "I have implement envy".
They left and moved to Hawaii, didn't they? Lost the best damn coffee shop in the world, that day..... oh man, to live in Modesto, climb in the Valley and coffee up at Buck Meadows, those were the days!
this is a pretty unique sort of tractor setup used for mashing down aquatic vegetation and churning up a flooded bed of mud in preparation for growing rice. When in use the thing is under water up to the axels. I'll try to get photos of one on the job tomorrow. Got here too late today - the sun was going down...
What a funny, weird, wonderful thread for a climbing site! My main connection with tractors was the 2007 Gibsonburg,Ohio, classic tractor show. I was cycling solo cross country and stumbled into it at the end of the Labor Day weekend. It was cool to see all that old hardware. Some photos here.
Part of a young buck's passage to manhood; learning to tractor. My nephew, on my 1974 JD1530
Credit: Tobia
Neighbor on Kubota, a newer tractor.
Credit: Tobia
Other tractors (of sort).
Another nephew, another tractor, Mack Ch613. (1995)
Credit: Tobia
Credit: Tobia
younger nephew
Credit: Tobia
They loved the air horns.
Biggest "tractor" I ever handled, a Lorain 50 Ton "Moto" Crane. I went to the factory and drove it home ( to a local construction company). The paint was still wet (literally) when I left the lot in Tenn. (1979)
210' hydraulic boom with jig installed.
Tobia, what a monster that crane is, seeing one of those things always reminds me of that killer chase scene in the 3rd Terminator movie.
so here's some shots of those mucking tactors in action
he loves the slop
Credit: little Z
his father was a mudder...
Credit: little Z
his muther was a mudder...
Credit: little Z
these tractors mash everything in their path including lots of little critters and so there are always birds around coming to snag a moist, mashed, morsel (in this case the birds are Great, Snowy, and Cattle Egrets, Little Blue Herons, and Great-tailed Grackles).
Eric that looks like an old frieghtliner or International, I can't tell with the door open. Early 60's, cab-over type. Cab-overs were popular during late sixties through late eighties; but conventional type rigs came back due to safety, noise and other problems. Driving one is a strange ordeal; especially if you are usually in a conventional.
I think cab-overs are a thing of the past now; like a lot of the tractors on this thread.
My first cab-over experience that I can remember: talking the YPCC truck drivers into letting me jockey their trucks around the YPCC warehouse. I had to show them my CDL before making a bet that I could dock it, drop and hook to another trailer.
Sweet additions.
Little z's mudder rigs look like steamship paddlewheels.
I like the b/w Ford in Fletcher's pic - running on tubes?
In BAd's link, looks like a Minnie? and the third grill showing below might be another Cockshutt?
Anyone here with experience on the Kubota L2550? Is this a tractor or a big toy? I will be using mainly the loader but the back hoe will be very good also. 27 horse. Grading and footings in sand. No 12 bottom plowing or any plowing for that matter. Might want to rig a grading blade. Thinking in sand a little urban machine is about right.
Jstan, I have used that tractor and it's an excellent machine. Absolutely not a toy. The Kubotas tend to be a bit lighter for the size and HP, but that's not really an issue if you aren't plowing or cultivating.
Probably if I'd found one of these or similar at a decent price I'd have bought one. Getting a backhoe with it is a real bonus.
Do you know the weight capacity of the loader?
You may wish to consider a box scraper as much or instead of a blade.
I get a lot of google-delivered ad content on the Taco. I have not disabled banner ads, as I like to see them. I am always interested in how what I type into and view on Supertopo translates into paid advertisements.
So of course today I noted that once again the Tractor Pushers are coming for me!
Yeah, Tobia, I'm not an expert on cab-overs, but my brother's were, so they are on my radar (one of those brothers is in that photo). Back in the 70's they were totally into tractor trailers. This was also in the era or CW McCall's "Convoy." I think that played a role in this. Anyhow, they took a trip from Massachusetts by car to New Orleans with my Mom. Their car "game" was to count and identify (pretty specifically) all the trucks they saw.
A mathemagician friend once insisted to me that there's no such thing as an "odd" number. He said that some numbers simply have more interesting properties than others. As he had a doctorate in math, I was willing to take his word for it.
Lawyers, when wanting to make such a reference, say "numbers not evenly divisible by two".
I used this B2100 Kubota on an geological dig. There wasn't much it couldn't do; it just took a little longer to get it done. I moved tons of overburden, shale and dug a decent trench with it in some hard clay. Kubotas are good machines.
My 1974 JDeere was built in West Germany. JDeere took over-stocked major components of other models and designed a tractor to utilize them.
It's a 3 cylinder 43 h.p. agricultural tractor. It wasn't in production for long. They made a 830; following the same formula.
I hate to hear that about Kubota moving to China. I wonder if they have been bought out, going after cheap labor or just trying to increase output. They make fine machines and have been for the past 25 years. The price is right; especially on parts. J Deere parts are ridiculously priced! Although my tractor is well built, things wear out.
Worst part is it is only 2 wheel drive; whereas modern tractors are 4 wheel drive.
I had a 1974 JDeere 310 backhoe that was a well built machine also.
I am going to my neighbor's house to take some pics of his antique truck and tractor collection. My favorites: 1948 Ford dump body and a 1961 B-Model Mack. He has restored them from the ground up.
I really love the diversity in the old tractor brands, but sadly, as with cars, consolidation is the name of the game.
From Wikipedia, regarding Case:
"Jerome Increase Case founded the J.I. Case Company in 1844 and it prospered with threshers, steamers and farm equipment.
Case and International Harvester merged in 1984 to become CaseIH
The Case Corporation was the company banner from 1968 until 1999, with a separate branch called Case CE for construction equipment.
Since 2000 Case, International Harvester and New Holland have all merged into one company called CNH Global."
I didn't know New Holland merged with anyone; other than Ford.
Ford and New Holland were good farm tractors. A lot 1960's-90's models are still at it. Who knows how many 8-N's are still running (pre-1960). There are 3 within 2 miles of my place.
Zephyr still around? They aren't big in the south; but I used to run one for a herbicide company. It seemed like a decent tractor.
I can't find where Kubota moved production to China; but I did discover Kubota has two factories in GA for assembling tractors and manufacturing ATV's and other yard machines.
Back in Kentucky, I accidentally missed a turn and ended up on a wavy, one-lane road that just went on, and, on and on.... There were houses pretty regularly spaced apart, and three churches in this dozen miles I kept going on... It was Sunday and they each were holding services.
FINALLY, I see a sign telling me about the road. It says "No Outlet - Road Ends In Water." It was a public fishin' spot.
But, there was also this fine old tractor sitting on the side of the field.
I looked up the history on Farmall. I can't believe our first Farmall A was only five or six years old when we got it. It looked exactly the same when we sold it 40 years later.
Credit: jstan
Here it has the row cultivator on it. Before I was full growed I had 130 times the power I have now. Damn! It really has been all downhill.
Khanom,
I figured that is what you meant. I remember the first kubota I saw. The state of Mississippi bought boat load of them to mow the right of ways with. I had to get out of the car and look at one; maybe 1980 or so.
Here's a strange configuration for a tractor used in South Georgia to haul long leaf pine and cypress out of the bottoms:
My neighbor Loyde with his home made Doodle Bug. The rear end is a chopped down suburban. The front end and stearing box/ collum out of a toyota. the motor and tranny are a model T Ford. The hydralics run off of a dump truck power steering pump. the man is genius and a damn good neighbor.
wow, great stuff, both the photos and stories. Seems like a lot folks are back home for turkey day, back where there are tractors a plenty.
Been seeing about 100 tractor an hour out here in the land of big agriculture. Yesterday missed getting some shots of real cool ones with these tall (like 8 feet) super thin wheels that they use in rice fields, however when I went to snap a photo there was no photo card in my camera. Left it in the computer.
Did get this monster today, on its way to level a field for sugar cane planting.
Bucyrus Erie 22B in the dredge tailings at Merced Falls on Mike B's acreage. Used for scooping out "bass ponds' fed by in-season ditches. Not a bass man, myself. He's got the Merced River in his front yard for trout, WTF?
Quick pic of this workaday rig on the way to T-giving.
Also, just scored this in the sale corner of a local bookstore.
Envy at will.
Dale
(Khanom - sorry; I missed your Irving reference before; I had vague rememberances of reading about a logging tractor, but I was thinking something by Carolyn Chute. Good reminder to go back and re-read some Irving. Thanks!)
J Forensic Sci. 1993 Mar;38(2):359-64.
Autoerotic fatalities with power hydraulics.
O'Halloran RL, Dietz PE.
Source
Ventura County Medical Examiner Office, CA.
Abstract
We report two cases in which men used the hydraulic shovels on tractors to suspend themselves for masochistic sexual stimulation. One man developed a romantic attachment to a tractor, even giving it a name and writing poetry in its honor. He died accidentally while intentionally asphyxiating himself through suspension by the neck, leaving clues that he enjoyed perceptual distortions during asphyxiation. The other man engaged in sexual bondage and transvestic fetishism, but did not purposely asphyxiate himself. He died when accidentally pinned to the ground under a shovel after intentionally suspending himself by the ankles. We compare these cases with other autoerotic fatalities involving perceptual distortion, cross-dressing, machinery, and postural asphyxiation by chest compression.
GhoulweJ, that Farmall is pimped!
We've also got a couple 8N's around here, show up at the usual fairs - sturdy little fellas.
Skully! The guy with Pettibone and Lull says the last owner of the Petti used it to move cars around a junkyard - that kinda cantilever action up high on a 4-wheel turning rig sounds skeeeetchy.
Brandon-, the potential for ending up in a ditch rubbernecking for old rigs is about the same as eyeballing for ice flows early season. Be careful and post yer pics.
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Let us know!