[AT] new duties
Cecil Bearden
crbearden at copper.net
Fri Jul 7 09:38:17 PDT 2017
Back about 50 years ago, we took some land out of the conservation
program to cut for hay due to the drought. It was some river bottom
land owned by a neighbor. It had not been grazed or hayed for about 4
years. The Johnson was over 10 ft tall in some places. We went
together with 2 other neighbors to put it in the silo. It was too rank
to bale for hay, so we borrowed a silage cutter with a cutterbar.
Since Dad had the highest horsepower tractor in the area with a live
clutch, they put the cutter on the MF50 diesel. I was pulling trailers
out to the edge of the field and switching them around and using a TO30
Massey Harris Ferguson. It was a fun tractor to drive, and had the
exhaust pipe broken off, so it had no muffler. Perfect for a 13 yr old
kid who loved to drive. There were 2 trench silos about 6 miles away,
only 2 as the crow flies. At the silo, one of the neighbor kids was
using their Z Moline pulling the trailers into the silo. Dad would pull
the trailers on the road with our 66 Chevy pickup, it had a 283V-8 and
automatic. We started work on the second day and I pulled up with 3
empty trailers behind the tractor and the cutter was stopped for
service, so I killed the tractor and got off. A few minutes later we
looked and the tractor was in a swarm of Bumblebees. There were a
bunch of nests in the ground, we found at least 5 a day, and I found the
first one that day!!! I had parked over one of the nests. We waited
for nearly an hour while they calmed down and then I slipped up from the
opposite side and started the tractor and took off!! The grass was so
tall that to open a field, a man would stand on the hood of the MF50
with a rope tied to the headlights and direct the driver which way to
go. There were 3 big drainage ditches in the 200 acre field. It
rained a week after we cut that field, and 2 months later we cut it
again for hay. It was a good thing, for it made hay for 2 winters.
Cecil
On 7/7/2017 10:47 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Oh yeah, I know about the hornets too! Funny story,
> I was mowing a small corner of a piece of property for a
> neighbor. It war right beside his side porch and he was sitting
> on the swing watching me work. I got in a place where I was
> all tangled up in vines and at the same time got into a nest of
> some sort of hornets or bees like I've never seen before or since.
> They were kind of lime green colored and they were tearing me up.
> I think I got 6 or 8 stings before I got loose and away.
>
> My neighbor saw me fighting the bees. I looked up and made eye
> contact with him. He jumped up off the porch and ........ went in his
> house!
>
> He gave me a $20 tip! LOL
>
> I have a couple of buddies that mow shooting lanes on deer hunting tracts.
> Both of them, like me, are too old to be doing that stuff. In the last two
> seasons
> both of them have had very close calls that could have killed them. One of
> the guys
> is in his 80's. He somehow ended up in a canal with the tractor still in
> gear and running
> and he was mostly under water, under one of the back tires. He was alone
> and it took
> him about 10 minutes to figure out how to wiggle out from under the spinning
> wheel and
> out of the canal and to turn off the tractor. He got away with just some
> road rash from the
> tractor tire rubbing against him. Now that's too close!!!!
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Spencer Yost
> Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2017 7:52 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] new duties
>
> I stopped mowing and Bush hogging the 1990s for that very same reason
> Charlie. There was no telling what I was going to hit. I used to hog field
> edges for farmers but now in this era of clean farming that business was
> dwindling and the business that was left was tough on my disposition and
> equipment.
>
> The most memorable thing I hit was a hornets nest that managed to somehow
> attach and thrive on a small thicket a BlackBerry brambles. I had to wait
> till the next day to finish that field :-)
>
> Spencer Yost
>
>> On Jul 6, 2017, at 6:15 PM, charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> It nearly did a few times Mike. Most of the time the hole was only a foot
>> or so deep and maybe
>> 3' in diameter but even that can toss you from the seat if you happen not
>> to
>> be holding on tight.
>> The time I hit that big hole, I don't know how I stayed on the tractor and
>> really don't quite know
>> how it made it through the hole except that I was probably going 4 1/2 mph
>> or so. I don't know,
>> how fast will a D-14 Allis with over size rear tires go in 3rd gear high
>> range? The weeds were primarily
>> dog fennel and some small one season growth bushes. Nothing that the bush
>> hog cared about cutting.
>> No matter how it comes out, it's over before you know what is happening.
>> I
>> was lucky!
>>
>> One subdivision I mowed for probably 15 years, about 3 times a year, I
>> could
>> depend on having a new hole somewhere
>> every year, or a pile of bricks or and old bbq grill, piles of oil
>> filters, you name it, I have hit it.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mike M
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2017 10:02 PM
>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] new duties
>>
>> Yikes, that could have ended badly!
>>
>> Mike M
>>
>>> On 7/5/2017 8:10 PM, charlie hill wrote:
>>> Carl, I can tell you something worse than a woodchuck.
>>> I used to do a fair amount of commercial bush hogging.
>>> Primarily I would mow vacant parts of partially developed
>>> subdivisions. When you mow the same field two or three
>>> times a year for a few years you get to know the lay of the
>>> land and the hazards pretty well and tend to relax, pull the
>>> throttle open and roll on. But then there are those jerks that
>>> live in the subdivision that decide they need some dirt for
>>> their yard. Do you think they skim it off the top? NO! They
>>> dig a big, deep, straight walled hole. I've seen them as big
>>> as 5' in diameter and 3 feet deep. Of course by the time I "found"
>>> them the weeds had grown up high and I "found" them when a front
>>> wheel dropped in followed by the rear wheel before I could get on the
>>> clutch.
>>> It's very dangerous. Luckily I never got hurt but I really don't know
>>> why.
>>> Luckily I never hit one straight on enough for both front wheels to drop
>>> in
>>> at
>>> the same time. It's one heck of a jolt at 4 to 5 mph!
>>>
>>> Charlie
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Carl Gogol
>>> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2017 3:32 PM
>>> To: 'Antique tractor email discussion group'
>>> Subject: Re: [AT] new duties
>>>
>>> I Hate woodchuck holes. You don't see them when raking hay. You hit
>>> them
>>> full on and it wrenches the steering wheel so hard. I hate woodchucks.
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
>>> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Grant Brians
>>> Sent: Monday, July 3, 2017 2:43 PM
>>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>>> Subject: Re: [AT] new duties
>>>
>>> It is interesting to hear the Narrow Front Tractors referred to as
>>> Tricycles, as the tricycles here were actually three wheel tractors. I
>>> still
>>> have multiple tricycle tractors that we do use and with the true
>>> tricycles,
>>> I have only once seen one time where the front wheel got caught in a
>>> strange
>>> hole and then it tried to kick to the side. Even then not a disaster.
>>> On the question about the wheelstands, those are something we heard
>>> about every so often, always with an improperly attached implement, an
>>> incorrectly connected cable or chain or an overloaded loader (overloading
>>> is
>>> something I have been guilty of - oops) and when those happened, usually
>>> someone got badly injured or killed. On the wheelstands, the type of
>>> tractor
>>> doesn't seem to make a difference although they are a little more
>>> possible
>>> with higher horsepower to front end weight ration. Mostly since they are
>>> almost always operator error, look out for operator error!
>>> Grant Brians
>>>> On 7/3/2017 8:47 AM, Len Rugen wrote:
>>>> I remember the first driving lesson on tricycle tractors, "Thumbs
>>>> OUTSIDE
>>> the wheel, not thru the spokes". There were lots of broken hands from
>>> the
>>> Farmalls around here, never heard of any on others, but Case SC's were
>>> rare,
>>> I remember one, but I never saw it move.
>>>> Len Rugen
>>>>
>>>> rugenl at yahoo.com
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Monday, July 3, 2017, 10:03:01 AM CDT, Indiana Robinson
>>> <robinson46176 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I don't believe I ever heard of a tricycle SC or DC Case having
>>>> trouble with the a front end steering gear... :-) Maybe they were
>>>> just going for simple.
>>>> Steering wheel kickback was common on a number of manual steering
>>>> tractors but the only guy I knew personally (close neighbor) to get a
>>>> broken arm from one farmed with a tricycle SC Case. I have no idea if
>>>> the steering design had anything to do with it at all, I never drove
>>>> one.
>>>> On a branch note, my father bought a 1941 Ford/Ferguson 9N new in
>>>> early
>>>> 1942 and he bought an add-on unit for it that mounted under the
>>>> steering wheel that was claimed to stop kickback. I guess it worked, I
>>>> drove that tractor a lot from a very young age and it never kicked
>>>> back on me. The Ferguson TO-20 did a few times and the Ford Jubilee
>>>> kicked back more than anything else we owned I think.
>>>> That 9N attachment was smaller than later after-market units that I
>>>> recall seeing on other tractors that included a steering wheel. The 9N
>>>> unit was kind of triangle shaped and you pulled the wheel, bolted it
>>>> to the top of the mount and re-attached the original wheel. It raised
>>>> the wheel maybe 1 1/2".
>>>> I believe he bought it through the Ford dealer. It may have been
>>>> Sherman, I know they made one. I have never seen another like it on a
>>> tractor.
>>>> Cecil, I have a pair of Case DC rims I got for the tires on them but
>>>> I'm quite sure both rims are total junk. I also have a Case DC rear
>>>> wheel cast center. I don't suppose anyone ever breaks one of those
>>>> things. I also have a pair of those DC front cast wheels. Son Scott
>>>> has been using them for weights for a small harrow. :-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jul 3, 2017 at 8:55 AM, Herb Metz <metz-h.b at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Agreed John, however the only tractor I ever heard had wheelstands
>>>>> problem was the early Fordson. Herb(GA)
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: John Hall
>>>>> Sent: Monday, July 03, 2017 7:27 AM
>>>>> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
>>>>> Subject: Re: [AT] new duties
>>>>>
>>>>> I think the reason for the wheels being out in front is 2 fold. One,
>>>>> the tractor is lower to the ground than a Farmall M or Deere A--at
>>>>> least the engine and clutch housing. It would have had to have tiny
>>>>> wheels to get them under the machine. Second is weight. I can't
>>>>> recall pulling off one of those front tires, but they are cast
>>>>> wheels. Stick them way out front and no problem keeping wheelstands
>>>>> to a minimum. Just my thoughts, could be all wrong.
>>>>>
>>>>> John Hall
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