Plain Old Tractors Except For

On the way to another place ran across these. I should have taken more time. I like the colors and attempted to capture certain aspects of these magnificent machines some of which I was actively involved with operating and working on them. Did I mention I'm a Deere guy?  Have a couple newer Deere's at work and sometimes just not that impressed. New or old manufacturers have got this down.

Never around crawlers that much but the one above sure is pretty.

This a Model 40 I believe one that was not common where I was living.

There's some thing about the green and Oliver has some impressive iron as well. Their in-line OHV six cylinder is one of the smoothest idling motors I've ever been around.

Then there's the red. The ones I worked on. I think this was an H that was in great shape. I did not see this run. Take a look at that bad boy in the back. He's coming up. Remember how you can click on the picture to make them bigger twice.

There are many things that are unique about each manufacturer's tractors. Here for instance the gear shift lever and the way it operated. If I remember right when you put it in reverse you had to be careful or you could get it in the --well you know where. The throttle at the top and the way it clicked.The operating panel that's not seen well here with an ammeter,light switch and on off switch. Down at the bottom middle is the choke and there's another some place you pulled that engaged the starter. And then there's the unique sounds from these machines each has.

This is a Massey Harris and they are around for sure and are very good tractors.

This is from a John Deere A with the choke at the left and if you had electric start you used your left foot for that. If you didn't you hand started it with the fly wheel having to do a couple of operations one of which was opening pet cocks to each of the two cylinders to relieve some of the compression of the huge pistons.

This is the tractor on the trailer from the picture above. I think it was a 730 as in the video below. No matter what this thing is huge and was maybe one of the biggest of the day late 50's.

The round thing houses the clutch pack which is operated with a long lever on the right side. In the front of the cylinder that rotates when the motor is running is a brake pad that stops the rotation when the clutch is disengaged so changing gears can be made easier. Most all tractor's had foot operated clutches and Deere changed that with a "New Generation" in '62.

 What you see here is a "pony motor" that is used in this case to start these things. This was unique in that this motor was a OHV V4. You can see two of the spark plugs on the right bank of the motor. It got the job done but is not what you may think it to be. These motors did not run very well and came apart plus were very expensive to repair. Some cried themselves to sleep when they saw the repair bill. These motors ran on gas.

This is what came after the H's and the M's from Farmall. Pretty interesting control panel and the gauge on the right is the only original. First tachometer that also included ground speed which is important to know at times. But more important are the three levers on the right. Hydraulic controls at your fingertips. This made life much easier.

Something else that was just huge in the industry was Farmall's "Torque Amplifier". No one else had anything close to this. Say you were plowing and there was an area that the soil was very tough to plow. If you needed to change gears you had to stop. With this pull back on the lever and reduce your gear ratio by 22% or something like that-get through the tough spot - release the lever and you're back to plowing without missing a beat. Pretty cool for its day.

This video below shows a man starting up one of these monster diesels using a pony motor. The whole thing is good and is six minutes long. He finally climbs into the seat about four minutes or so if you want to scroll over to that.



I mentioned above about hand starting these motors. If you've never seen this take 40 seconds and watch this. This tractor I believe was Deere's biggest of that time period. The smaller tractors that hand cranked of course turned over easier. As battery's and electric components became better that era came to an end. My guess in the very early 60's. This is a gas motor as well. These D Models were never made into diesels. The clicking noise you here is the magneto-the device that makes the spark.