[AT] towing tractors with a pickup

Sat Mar 30 10:51:19 PDT 2019

We had a Anthony (Illinois) made steel bed wagon on a frame that was made on a truck type chassis with 4 single split rim 20” wheels with a regular wagon tongue. It had dual hydraulic cylinders and a pump that was driven by the PTO.  The bed of the steel wagon held 300 bushels of shelled corn and of course wood side height extensions were made to hold more.  I don’t know remember what the tare weight was on the wagon by itself but lets say 2,000 lbs. 300 bushel of corn at 60 lbs per bushel is 18.000 lbs. So to be conservative this loaded wagon weighed 20,000 lbs.  We pulled this loaded wagon many miles on country gravel roads with 4 and 5,000 lb tractors and one ton pickups without a mishap. But let me tell you, even as a fearless teenager, it was more than an interesting ride especially going down hills. Now NW Iowa has gently rolling hills but when you have 20,000 lbs pushing you from behind it is more than a little interesting.  I have no idea why my father trusted me to get this wagon from the field to the home farm, empty it and back out into the field safely but he did (necessity I guess). I don’t recall having any kind of close call but I do recall being terrified of the damn thing going down hills. I would shift down using compression braking and the differential brakes (had to be careful to just touch them… not too hard)  would be really hot by the time I got to the bottom of the hill.  Now these gravel roads were just wide enough for two cars to meet without an inch to spare. And every gravel road up and down the hills ( yes I said up) had only two wheel tracks. I guess an indication of how little traffic there was.  Now the roads were really hard and well packed in the center of the road but as you moved from the center toward the ditch, the road was not nearly as well packed if it was a little wet got soft enough that a heavy truck or wagon such as this would leave noticeable tracks. Obviously we pulled down the middle of the road up and down hills and unfortunately if you met another vehicle one would try to come to a stop or at least really slow down as we pulled over toward the edge of the roads. Things got a little unpredictable out there. Never dumped a load but even now 60 years later I shudder about how dangerous this was.  I only dumped one loaded wagon into a ditch during all my load hauling teenage years. I was pulling a flared wagon behind a letter series JD Tractor on a country gravel road so it probably weighed loaded  not much more than the tractor.   But there were tornado funnels in the sky and let me tell you to this day Tornado’s scare the living H*** out of me.  The funnels were fairly high but at any time they can drop down to ground level and create havoc.  We were well trained on what to do if they dropped down.  But I’m going down the road and trying to keep  an eye on the funnels at the same time. Well one of those funnels started acting up and I was paying too much attention to it.  I got off to the soft edge of the road and in the process of pulling back the wagon tipped over and dumped the whole load in the ditch.  My reward was having to load the wagon back up by hand. Needless to say my father was not a happy camper because of what I had done even though I got an empty wagon back to him in the field quicker than usual.  The tongue had this funny twist in it for some reason. 

Dean VP

Apache junction, AZ

From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of Grant Brians
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2019 5:37 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AT] towing tractors with a pickup

Frank, I really like that dolly for tricycle tractors! It looks like one of those round tuit projects for me that we will keep just driving slowly or use the tilt trailer. I moved our Allis Chalmers HD-5 bulldozer last year the two miles back and forth between ranches towing the 26' deck trailer with one of our JD6430's. That works well too.... Now it is time to got to farmers market, the vehicles are loaded and I am the last to leave.

              Grant Brians - Hollister,California farmer 

On 3/29/2019 6:57 AM, Indiana Robinson wrote:

(Steve W. said)

"I used to stay on the tractor to steer as the tricycle front didn't track 
very well."

The tow bars I made for the M series Farmalls  attached to the accessory front hitch plate. Since the M series front pedestal all pivots from the front bolster shaft that gives the tow bar complete control over the steering.

For a tractor with the shaft turning inside of the front pedestal with the bearing at the bottom of the pedestal I would feel more comfortable using a cart tow dolly than trying too tow from the mud scraper mounts.

I found a picture of a tractor tow dolly... The plate on the front hitch frame is the loading ramp. The ones I recall just had a short ramp welded on the back that cleared the ground about 4". I recall seeing one that had spring suspension.

One of these will handle about any tricycle tractor.

On Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 7:33 AM Stephen Offiler <soffiler at gmail.com <mailto:soffiler at gmail.com> > wrote:

Seems like the final chapter of that little episode might have been the pickup truck getting rear-ended by the duals! 

SO

On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 8:15 PM Greg Hass <ghass at m3isp.com <mailto:ghass at m3isp.com> > wrote:

Ten or so years ago a guy a few miles away was going down a blacktop 
road in road gear. He had a set of snap on duals ( the kind where the 
outer set clamps onto the inner rim and not to the axle ). As he was 
traveling, the inner wheel worked loose from the axle and came off the 
tractor. Because the wheels were fastened together, they did not tip 
over but continued down the road. Just at that time a pick-up was 
passing the tractor. The duals were still turning and the lugs of the 
tires caught the pick-up bumper and raised it in the air. The speed of 
the pick-up and the turning duals caused the truck to go up over the 
duals about ten feet in the air and about 60 feet ahead of the tires 
landing on its wheels. The news report said no one was injured but I 
would guess the pick-up driver needed new underwear.
      Greg Hass
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Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com <mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com> 

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