[AT] Ramble: I broke a MF 255 into 2 pieces

[Len Rugen]

I think that these tractors could have either dry or wet brakes, you can
tell if the axle housing has several dime-sized round notches along the
bolts, it has wet brakes.  Mine has wet brakes and all I've had to do was
adjust them a little to get the pedals even, they seem to be pretty strong
and lock well to park.  Reading the manuals, it isn't said, but implied,
that these were a major improvement over the dry brakes.

If these tractors were worked hard, the brakes get used alot turning.  I
remember using older tractors when I was a kid and had all my weight on the
brakes and was pulling on the steering wheel to get more pressure.

We had a bad hail storm and had to reroof everything that had shingles.  I
have a 14' hay wagon that was pretty easy to pull along side the house to
catch shingles.  I wasn't thinking about the weight we were getting with a
wagon load of shingles.  I know to start down hills in a low gear and low
throttle, but these roads have a lot of gravel that will roll under a
tractor wheel.  I had a speedy ride down a pretty good hill with that load
of shingles.  The tractor started speeding up, one wheel was holding and the
other was turning BACKWARDS on the gravel.

> Anyway I was surprised when I first drove it a couple of months ago to
learn that its'
> emergency brake system appeared to be no better than that of the
1940/1950's
> tractors that I have.  If the emergency brake on the 255 is similar - and
it
> has Multi-power - that sounds to me like an accident waiting to happen.
>


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