[Farmall] Tulare, CA swapmeet

[Karl Olmstead]

Returned from the Tulare, CA swapmeet yesterday hauling two rough F-12
tractors and an O-12.  I bought the F-12s at the Heidrick auction a couple
of months ago for very little money.  They aren't worth much.  Stuck, rotted
tires, etc.  May salvage a set of 36" round spokes from the rear of one
tractor.  The other one has a early set of 'cake-pan' rear steel wheels,
unfortunately converted to cutoffs.

Also got an O-12, s/n 676, which must be the 165th one made back in 1934.
It is in fair shape.  Engine isn't stuck and it has some compression, but
there's more noise than I'd like from the engine as I turn it over; probably
wrist pin or piston slop.  This particular O-12 has the 7" front wheels and
a foot clutch.

One of the F-12s is missing its s/n tag, so I took the number off the engine
block.  It is something like FSR 688.  I'm thinking that the 'R' must stand
for Replacement engine, because the tractor looks like about a 1936 model,
definitely not a 1933 unit.

A nice, late model F-20 sold at the swapmeet for $800.  It was certainly
worth that.  Looked complete, and it ran very nicely.  Good (but undersized)
rear tires.  They just don't look right with 9" rubber.  I might have been
tempted, but I already have two nice F-20s, and my trailer was full.

Thought I was going to have mechanical problems with the truck on the return
trip; the pump which powers the steering and brakes began to moan when I
stopped to check the trailer.  The pump was simply low on fluid, so it was
easy to fix.  The remainder of the trip went smoothly, despite having the
trailer loaded to somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000 pounds.  Knowing I was
going to be 'heavy' on the return trip, I had bumped truck tires up to 80
pounds, trailer tires to 100 pounds before I left home.

The swapmeet itself was unimpressive.  I bought a rusty tiedown chain and a
frozen chain binder for $10; nothing else caught my eye.  Best part was
having dinner with a number of ATIS members Saturday night.

-Karl