[Farmall] THT's

[olmstead at ridgenet.net]

Congratulations, Bob!  That's quite a change of pace from your beloved
gray McCormick-Deering tractors!  91 years old; that's an old tractor.

Did I mention rough roads?  When I went to detach the 5th wheel last
night, the release latch wouldn't work.  I climbed in the back of the
truck and peered at the offending hitch.  The release latch parts were
lying under the hitch.  That powerful slamming up and down that I
experienced dismantled part of the hitch.  Guess I'd better go over the
trailer carefully and look for damage.  I never expected hitch problems;
the unit is rated to pull a 25K pound trailer.  I was loaded to about half
that.

-Karl


----------
> Karl, great story and sounds like another venture down to Paul's place?? I
> remember years ago making that same trip with you, and buying that Farmall
> Regular from a guy named Rudy..Interesting enough, January 10th was also a
> THT day for me. Same scenerio mostly. After doing some annual wheel
> bearing
> and brake maintenance on my 25' goose neck trailer, we took off on a trip
> down to the north San Francisco bay area. Round trip was 374 miles, and it
> was a day full of snarling traffic, rough 'n bumpy slow lanes on
> Interstate
> 80, grouchy waitresses, and not so good coffee at McDonalds. But the lust
> for rust treasure hunt and adventure is never bad! I finally cut over
> through the Napa Sanoma wine country and made it to the small town of
> Cloverdale in order to take possession of a 1918 Heider, Model "C"
> friction
> drive.  My friend Jimbo "GB" Farber was hauling the Heider into Cloverdale
> from his place in the mountains. We met at a lonely, wide place on the old
> Highway, put our trailers bumper to bumper, and made the switch using two
> 9k
> electric winches. The hand off went real smooth, and so followed it up
> with
> some lunch at Cloverdale's famous Italian Restaurant. The Heider is in
> very
> good original condition, has excellent compression, no strange noises, and
> should run with minimal effort. It's always a challenge for me when I
> start
> tinkering with the real old machinery, and since this is the first time
> I've
> ever messed with a friction drive tractor, it should be quite a learning
> experience. This tractor rolls and steers good, thanks to Jim's repairs,
> and
> much of the cab structure, dash, and operators platform still has it's
> original wood framework. Maybe that's where the word "dash board" came
> from.
> No transmission to mess with, and the entire motor slides back and forth
> on
> rails when one wants to speed up or slow down using the friction drive
> system. If any of you are curious, have a look at
>
> www.heidertractor.com
>
> bobcurrie,
> greenwood, CA