[AT] was 8N Ford, now add-on trannys

[Indiana Robinson]

>
> That's interesting information in the website on the Behlen gear for the
> F-20.  It isn't completely clear to me but from the way I read the
> messages it appears it added a 5th or road gear (only?).  I know the
> Heisler overdrive for the F-series was like the Step-Up Sherman
> transmission in the Ford-N's; that is, it was installed between the clutch
> and factory transmission resulting in a doubling of the gears from 4 to 8.
>  If the Behlen only  provided one new gear I am guessing it was some
> gearing installed inside the factory transmission???
>
> Dudley>
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I have never seen inside of one but I believe everything you said is
correct. As I understand it you must place the regular transmission in
neutral to use the road gear or it would be like being in two gears at
once. I do not know if the road gear has any kind of built in lock-out
to keep that from happening.
-
-
There was a guy not far from us that did some occasional custom work
for us in the early 1950s who had an F-30 with a Behlen road gear. It
was a pretty nice running well kept tractor. It had the fairly common
wooden platform bolted on the drawbar. He told us that one day he was
going down the road in road gear with his brother-in-law riding on the
platform when his BIL asked him about those cables running up to the
front from the turning brakes. He explained about how they operated
the turning brakes when he turned sharply especially when he was using
the cultivators. He said that he then throttled the engine way down
and when it was going slow that he cranked the steering wheel all of
the way to one side to demonstrate how the brakes worked. The brake
took hold but then so did the governor and he was pretty sure that he
went around at least 3 times before he got it stopped...   :-)
There was no mention of whether or not fresh underwear was needed by
either party...
-
That fellow had always wanted to farm but the only way he could do it
then was to work full time and do custom work. He had that nice old
(minimal paint) F-30, a good IHC 3 bottom plow, an 8' wheel disk (I
think with a hand crank lift) and a Newish John Deere 12A combine.
Later he bought a Farmall M and a 2 row IHC mounted corn picker for
it.
Around the late 1950's he rented some ground and was finally able to
buy a small farm and quit the factory job. Sort of a happy ending. The
sad part was that all of those hours out on the tractors (and the rest
of the time too) he had a cigarette in his mouth... Always... Well,
you know... He didn't get to enjoy that farm too long.


-- 
Have you hugged your horses today?

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com