[AT] HayWagon build up.

Thu Nov 2 01:07:14 PDT 2017

Indiana Robinson,, I truly enjoy reading about your 1940's and 50's
experiences. Your experiences parallel mine in so many ways.  Many of our
wagon gears were made out of model A axles and I didn't know there were such
things as store bought wagon gears until well into the 50's. But then a
really Monster wagon arrived on our yard that was a bright Red 300 bushel
rectangular steel box on truck axles with truck split rim wheels with a PTO
driven dual cylinder hydraulic hoist. Right now the name of the brand
escapes me but maybe it will come out of the fog while I write this. My Dad
pulled it from the Manufacturer somewhere in Illinois all the to NW IA
behind a 1947 Plymouth with a bumper strap-on hitch. Now let me tell you ...
that wagon was big and heavy.  How he did that without destroying the
Plymouth is beyond my imagination. Damn, I can't think of the name. I think
you would recognize it. 
The reason Dad bought it is we had several pieces of land scattered around
within 5 miles or so of the home farm and hauling small wagons was not very
efficient. When that wagon was loaded it drove the tractor whether you
wanted it to or not. Actually loaded it was dangerous with the weight of
tractors we hauled with it but...  nobody got hurt.  I only dumped one flare
wagon in the ditch full of ear corn when I was watching Tornado funnels more
than watching the road I was driving on. Tornado's literally scared me so
much I would have bowel movements at inopportune times. I had seen what
damage they can do.  More than one time I crawled into road culverts for
cover. 

I don't know if your Horn wagon was made by the same company as our Horn
Loader we had on our tricycle tractors.  The horn loader we had, had two
huge vertical cylinders attached to the frame of the tractor right behind of
the front wheels. The steel braided cable was run over pulley's on top of
the hydraulic cylinders to raise the loader. That stinking loader was built
so stout it would pop front tires on the tractor and could lift a house.
Clumsy as all get out to mount and was so bad we finally dedicated a tractor
to it. Power Steering??  You got to be kidding. Armstrong Power Steering. 

But before I go over the deep end with recollections of the past I really
admire your attempt to capture the history for the later generations. Where
I live in the suburbs of Seattle a little bit out in the country, there
isn't really anyone out here who gives a damn. Our local club was going to
sponsor some FFA students to help them restore antique tractors for the
National FFA competition.  Found out the new $27 Million High School
recently built doesn't even have a shop. SUM TING WONG here. We put on an
Antique show every year and the young people who visit the show are more
interested in smart phones than learning a little about the history of
farming. All but 4 of the Dairies have been run out of the County due to
excessive EPA rules, etc.  So I have become quite discourage about offering
a little history to be appreciated.  The other change that I have noticed
about the younger crowd is that a few of them have attached themselves to
Antique tractors but mostly related to competitive pulling which I detest
with a passion.  The other thing that really gets under my skin is they will
buy a tractor and then not buy the appropriate manuals to support their
purchase. So they completely depend on those that are willing to supply them
with a free lunch.  The Leech syndrome. And get irritated when some say "Buy
a Manual".   I guess I am now fully qualified as a Grumpy Old Man. 

Dean VP
Snohomish, WA 98290

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Indiana Robinson
Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 7:28 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] HayWagon build up.

This thread got me thinking... I have a light wagon gear my father made out
of Model A Ford axles, radius rods torque-tube etc. shortly after WW-II.
More modern (for the time) farm equipment was hard to come by here in the
corn belt right after the war. Retooling for peace time production went
slower than the switch to war production had gone. Lots and lots of the old
stuff, mostly horse drawn had gone to scrap during the war. Those factors
along with lingering war shortages and a half zillion veterans coming back
home and wanting to start up farming or to build up the family farm
operation to support their new families all meant that good used stuff
usually sold pretty high dollar if it was good. It did ease in a few
years... I've talked here before about my father needing a second tractor
and not being able to find anything good that he could afford. He bought two
McCormick 10-20's and made one on rubber out of them. He also built a fair
amount of other stuff. He and a neighbor had built an elevator out of scrap
which they shared. He later bought an elevator "kit" of sorts from Sears
that included the upper part and a hopper along with the chain and flights.
He built a frame for it using largely Ford Model T parts including several
frame rails and a front axle. He fabricated a wide winch to raise and lower
it from bits and pieces and a worm gear drive with a crank off of
"something". He fabricated a lift up drag chain dump to carry ear corn or
small grain from the wagon to the main elevator. It ran with a  small B&S
engine but in its later years he had wired the place and it ran from a
largish electric motor about 1 HP. The drive was to a large pulley from a
combine and to a jack-shaft made from a piece of line-shaft and bearings
from an old piece of shoe repair machinery that he had saved from the
depression days of the 1930's. It had a lever on it saved from "something"
that steered the axle so you could line the upper end up with the hole as
you backed up to set up at the crib.
Kind of surprisingly as I think back in those days most of our close
neighbors were still pulling the wagon up by the crib and shoveling over the
side of the wagon into the upper part of the crib, sometimes a bit over
their head. Our closest neighbor didn't get his first tractor until 1946.
Lots of changes happened during those war and post war years.
My father-in-law was working on a 640 acre farm in Fayette County IN and in
the very early 1950's they were still farming it with a barn full of draft
horses.
My father had made that wagon gear in the later 1940's that I mentioned,
actually he made two but later sold one as we got some other stuff. The beds
on those wagons were all metal flare wagon beds. One had the name "Horn"
painted on it and the other said "David Bradley" but they both looked alike.
He kept the David Bradley one because it had a false endgate in it he had
designed and built. It was operated by a wide small diameter winch across
the back with a long handle attached to a ratchet gear from an old manure
spreader apron feeder chain.
I kept the whole thing for some time but it eventually just started
disappearing into rust.I do still have that one wagon gear. I was planning
on a special purpose use for it but I have several other wagon gears I can
use for that. I think maybe next summer I'll go over that Model A gear
(minor repairs, paint and a half decent set of tires) and buy or build a
flare bed for it and use it for show. People need to know how needs were
often met with self reliance in those times... With proper signage it should
be able to tell a good historic story.

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On Wed, Nov 1, 2017 at 7:47 PM, John Hall <jtchall at nc.rr.com> wrote:

> Grant, if you have never seen those, then you may well be surprised to 
> see hay wagons with tandem rear axles and even tandem front axles. 
> I've been around lots of wagons, but only in the last few years did I 
> ever see a tandem rear axle setup and it was on Craigslist. Just this 
> summer I saw an ad for a new wagon with tandem front and rear (I 
> assume it is a 5th wheel style). You would be hard pressed to use 
> anything that big here as our fields are so "twisty" you would have a 
> hard time keeping the load on. I have to be careful as it is if I fill 
> a wagon full (125
> bales) so I can get to the shed without losing some as the 2 ways to 
> the shed are both downhill and a pretty serious twist.
>
> John Hall
>
>
> On 11/1/2017 11:00 AM, Grant Brians wrote:
> > That looks like a nice solid trailer. Here in California I have 
> > never seen a John Deere or Oliver or IH Hay Wagon. Lots of shopmade 
> > and trucks were and are used, though.
> >              Grant Brians  - Hollister,California farmer
> >
> > On 10/30/2017 5:39 PM, John Hall wrote:
> >> Deere wagon, mid to late 70's model.
> >>
> >> John Hall
> >>
> >>
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--
-- 

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