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.
Let us know!