[AT] towing tractors with a pickup

[James Peck]

Back around the winter of early 64 (I think) I was part of a group staying at a camp for the weekend. This is back when the ground would be snow covered for several months each winter. The camp was near the bottom of a long dirt road hill covered with packed snow. We had all brought sleds, even the girls, and were sledding on this hill and others. 

Some locals had a big sit erect steerable wooden sled. They were pulling the sled (I never saw this part) with a big yellow wide front Minneapolis Moline. They were apparently dropping the tow rope and then the tractor would run ahead of the sled down the hill. If you were belly slamming down that hill and heard the tractor it was time to get off to the side. You wanted to stay clear of the big sled as well which was only seconds behind. The tractor was used to tow the sled back up.

Minneapolis Moline and bigger tractors were uncommon in the area. It was the only one of that model I had ever seen. 

It might have been this one. Production years are right.

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/9/7/976-minneapolis-moline-g705-photos.html

I always wondered about that tractor being faster than the sled. This link does show at 27.5 mph top speed for the G705.

Back in the early nineties I was working on a project to get some hydraulic presses for SRIM (Structural Reaction Injection Molding) equipment into a GM plant in Matamoros. The equipment was intended to mold Corvette bumpers. I got into a discussion with a man who had once worked in the engineering department of Minneapolis Moline. This discussion had to do with the quantity and size of the bolts holding up the upper platen.                           

[Cecil Bearden] You could align it all day long, but with those balloon tires on the rear and Oklahoma's rough roads, it was a prescription for disaster. The tow bar was very heavy and hooked in the holes in the adjustable axle.  Tractors are unstable at more than 20 mph.  I had a Moline G1000 that would run 30 mph, but when it got to bouncing you could not hold it in the road..  The short wheelbase combined with the big tires are just not something you tow at high speeds.