[AT] HayWagon build up.

Thu Nov 2 16:42:45 PDT 2017

Dean:

Most have spent so much money on those smartphones and have such a 
college tuition loan or payment that they have no money for anything 
important.

I fully believe that downfall of our society will be the removal of shop 
classes from our high schools, and the lack of Driver education in the 
high school.   I have never seen the numbers of young people who cannot 
drive safely, or have no clue when anything malfunctions either in the 
car or around home.  Girls cannot cook , boys can't drive a nail or use 
a screwdriver...

Cecil

On 11/2/2017 3:07 AM, Dean VP wrote:
> 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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