I (nearly) rolled my tractor last Sunday...

[FGN59]

Instead of pampering my Pagoda, a reasonable grown-up activity that this forum encourages wholeheartedly, I was gathering wood on my land last Sunday, using my old, dogged, reliable and pliable tractor to pull a cart loaded with recently-cut lengths of cherry wood (a local farmer tends to the trees, and we split the wood that results from his annual pruning with him). Cherry wood is extremely dense and hard, and brings light and warmth to our fireplace in winter (after about 3 years of drying).

The tractor is a 1955 diesel-powered Massey Ferguson, built by Hotchkiss in England with a Standard engine, which runs beautifully, almost as if it were new. No smoke, no leaks, strong oil pressure, no play in anything. It drinks like a camel, about 1L (roughly 1 quart) per hour of diesel fuel. I bought it 12 years ago, at the same time we moved to Provence, and he’s become a trusted partner which helps me maintain the property (I only do light stuff, cleaning and cutting, but on 30 acres, it still amounts to quite a bit). Praise the engineers and craftsmen who produced such wonderfully simple, rugged, efficient and durable machines!

To bring us a little bit closer to the principal object of this forum, its injection pump is very similar to the one on the Pagoda (bar the WRD and barometric compensator): a gear-driven, Lavalette-type, more or less immortal and supremely reliable mechanical wonder, with 4 cylinders and a camshaft like the engine itself.

A couple weeks ago, I performed maintenance on my old friend in anticipation of a new year of service: oil change (engine, gearbox and hydraulics, 6 gallons in all !), changing fuel and oil filters, cleaning the oil-bath air filter, flushing and cleaning the radiator, general lube tour, replacing rubber protectors on steering-arm joints, adjusting the tension of the belt which drives the fan, water pump and alternator.

The tractor sleeps in the same shed as the Pagoda. She gets all the fun, going out as soon as there is a ray of sunshine, visiting friends, going to bars and restaurants, and even traveling a little bit, while he gets to work even in fog and rain if need be. The lady is cleaned regularly with a soft cloth and gets polish once in a while, he only gets a rub of rough cloth to remove excess grease and dirt. She is pampered all the time, getting about 98% of the ‘hobby’ budget, while he has to make do with the strict minimum. But then he is a healthy and good-natured lad, and she a capricious and spoiled princess.

So, getting back to last Sunday afternoon, as we were about to stop and unload our first cartload of wood, he and I went just a little further than expected when I tried to brake, and fell into a small gully. We only stopped when he met a tree he couldn’t avoid (he took another small one out on the way, but this one was a bit stronger): it all happened in a matter of 3-4 seconds, and I must confess that I didn’t react as a character in a movie surely would have. I just stayed in the saddle, barely registering the scene as it unfolded, worrying mostly about the tractor, without doing anything else (the fall was about a yard and a half in height, down a 45° incline on even ground, so nothing that couldn’t be handled, even if it was a bit surprising, and I wasn't worried about my fate).

It turns out I overfilled the hydraulics, which caused the extra oil to seep into the rear wheels axle, and from there into the brake drums (this is a well known weakness of this model, later corrected).

So, I ended up taking care of my old friend, who looked a little bit like Wall-E when he gets himself in need of a makeover towards the end of the eponymous movie: one eye missing and a bit bashed in (though luckily very little, as the steel plates are pretty thick, which is good for him, and hard to shape, which is not so good for me). After disassembly of the front, some cutting and drilling of rusted bolts, a little bit of bashing and welding, and the necessary cleaning and degreasing of the brakes, we got back on the road today, and completed our wood gathering task. He’s still missing an eye, but it looks to me as if he’s grinning a bit more since I spent 2 days taking care of him, and only him.

Until next time...

[66andBlue]

Thank you François, you put a smile on my face! 

[Jordan]

Thank you François, you put a smile on my face! 

Yes, myself as well.  I had to also laugh in that you also have two different front tires.  My lowly John Deere 1630 also now has two different front tires (older picture below).  I do not look after mine as well as you do, only fluid changes.  It's a '72 and I've had it since '97 and the only problem I've had with it in 23 years is it needed a new starter and it developed a fuel leak last year at the injection pump.  Otherwise it has been a work horse for me in all that time, never asking for more than fluids.  They don't build them like that any more for sure.

[Benz Dr.]

I've had some very close calls working around farm machinery. I had my steel toe ripped off of my work boot when I got caught in an unloading auger on my combine. I was OK but limped for several months after that.

One day I was driving home in our 2-155 White. It's a fairly large tractor with plenty of HP to spare. I was pulling a 5 furrow plow behind the tractor at road speed which would of been close to 20 MPH. That may not sound very fast but on a large piece of equipment it's moving right along. I think maybe the AC had stopped working and it was very hot and stuffy inside the cab. Well, as has happened before and after this event, I fell asleep behind the wheel!
I woke up heading straight for the bottom of large ditch but somehow managed to drive back up on to the road. The plow, which was raised for road transport, became buried into the ditch bank which slowed me down a lot and probably kept me from flipping over. I swore I'd never fall asleep behind the wheel again after that.  I did........

So, now I refuse to drive if I'm at all tired. After I dumped my wife's ML 430 into another ditch, upside down and backwards, I had a serious look at things.  Funny thing is, I haven't had so much as a parking ticket in 33 years. 

All farm equipment is dangerous. It's the routine stuff that can really hurt you.  Glad you're OK. 

[FGN59]

Alfred: glad you liked the story, looking forward to more interplay 🙂

Jordan: in the beginning, having zero experience with tractors, I thought the different front tires were for a purpose, like one for straight driving and the other for better grip when turning (!!!); until I realized one doesn’t turn always in the same direction, like always clockwise or always counterclockwise (not joking, it took me like 4 or 5 years to work out that the front tires are the result of some previous owner’s sense of economy, just changing the one tire that’s worn out for whatever the dealer has in stock at the time); now I cherish that crooked look!😘

Dan: my expertise, if I have any, is in general management and financial controlling; although I’ve been around the block a few times and taken part in some bold and sometimes wild adventures in my profession (yes, it can happen if you choose to!), I am also a reasonably careful guy, never imagining that cleverness can replace hard earned experience and expertise; knowing this, while my primary purpose was to get yet another ’fine old thing’, I purposefully chose to acquire a small, not too powerful machine, with which I do some very mundane things, that you could do with a lawn mower or a wheelbarrow (although it would take 10x more time and 30x more effort); what is both comforting and depressing is that no matter how careful you are, and how much you try to visualize and intellectualize things ahead of time, nothing replaces hard-earned experience! The fact of the matter too is that farm machinery is immensely powerful, heavy, strong and therefore dangerous. My adorable 1955 MF TEF20 is just a plaything, yet even when it is running at idle, nothing will stop it from going, going, going... Lucky you for surviving those incidents without harm, lucky me for falling into a shallow gully at a right angle on even ground. Let’s keep in mind that we were indeed lucky, and that luck is sometimes serendipity, sometimes just pure dumb luck, of which supply is uncertain and uneven...

Let me also take this opportunity to thank you for one of your (many) posts , in which you explained that the nozzle part of the cold start valve on Pagoda engines can be taken out. This allowed me to clean the nozzles (several cycles in an ultrasound machine, alternating with a Benzen burner), and to fix the cold start problem on my car! On the tractor, I use Holts Easy Start (good old fashioned ether, highly flammable in all earthly circumstances). 😉

[Benz Dr.]

It gets cold here in the winter and easily below freezing even by early November. My combine doesn't have a block heater so I also use either to start it. Using just the right amount is the trick. If you have a low battery don't even try. The one thing you don't want to do is to stop cranking just as the either begins to fire. You can do some serious damage that way just like you can if you use too much either. It's kind of a seat of the pants sort of thing getting that just right.

Hans at H&R told me about that trick with the cold start valve. He was always willing to share his knowledge and I guess he knew that it was impossible for him to be able to work on everyone's  problems in person when a few pointers over the phone could easily get you going.   

[johnk]

at first glance I though your tractor was a Ford 9n until I looked closer at the grill and front axle. Either way looks like you live in a beautiful area.

[Peter van Es]

Hey, that's fun. We have an old tractor too (this picture shows Karin at the wheel with a friend). A Deutz D3005 circa 1967. Air-cooled two-cylinder 1700 CC diesel engine. We use it for the horsepaddock and on our bit of land. For a dutch citizen to own a tractor is pretty rare given how densely populated our country is. And we live only 20 kms from the centre of Amsterdam!

Steering is pretty "indirect" with this tractor. Especially when dragging a parmiter chain harrow in the sand, turning the front wheels has hardly any effect on the direction taken. You need to use the split rear-wheel brake to get the thing to turn at all. It's very hard to avoid obstacles...

[Benz Dr.]

Peter,
you could try putting some weights on your front cross bar to give your wheels a little more bite. Neat old tractor BTW. Ultimate old tractor in Europe is an old Porsche.

I have a 1937 Silver King. About 20 HP and will go close to 30 MPH which is crazy fast for something with hand brakes on each wheel! We also have a John Deere AR probably built in the mid 40's. Both are fairly rare tractors. My best piece is a 1890 Ohio baler. Hand tied wire bales run with steam engine when it was new. May be one of the last working examples anywhere.

[johnk]

My family is in the farm
Equipment business and I never heard of an “Ohio” baler, however I haven’t been directly involved since college.  Am I correct in assuming it was made here in Ohio?

[johnk]

Dan

I would love to see some pictures of your Ohio baler if you have any regardless of it was made here or not.

John

[Mike Hughes]

Ultimate old tractor in Europe is an old Porsche.

… or Lamborghini.  ;^)

[Mike Hughes]

My best piece is a 1890 Ohio baler. Hand tied wire bales run with steam engine when it was new. May be one of the last working examples anywhere.

Is it something like this?

fhttps://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ohio+baler&&view=detail&mid=4B093CA242652DDD2BF24B093CA242652DDD2BF2&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dohio%2Bbaler%26%26FORM%3DVDVVXX

[Benz Dr.]

The baler was made in Bellview Ohio in the last 1890's so it's a real antique. Each bale is separated by wood boards with slots that you push the wires through to be hand tied on the opposite side of the baler.

Interesting story about this machine:
About 50 years ago we were running it at a local steam show when a major part broke and the whole machine nearly self destructed. We were able to fix everything including hand poured babbitt bearings but a large gear about three feet in diameter had split right in two and all efforts failed to repair it. The machine sat for a couple of years until we happened to make a trip to Ohio for a wedding.
On the way home we stopped by the factory and someone working there said that they still had the part number in their inventory but  there were no records of sales for over 50 years so he didn't know where the part was or if they still had it. He offered to show us through an old warehouse so we followed him into a place that looked like no one had been inside for years. My father and the company guy were looking around on shelves and I noticed something laying on the floor. Their was a heavy coating of dirt all over it but we could see that it was a big gear. We had the part number and we had found the only new gear still available.
We returned a few weeks later to pick up the gear and we were able to put the old machine back into service. Sometimes you just need to be lucky.

[johnk]

So it’s like the old steam powered thrashing machines except they fed the straw or hay in with a pitch fork and it produced a bale? My cousin was a big steam engine fan with several
In his collection. If you were at a steam show I’m Ohio you probably met him.

[MikeSimon]

… or Lamborghini.  ;^)

There was one on BaT just now.

And if you talk REAL old tractors in Germany, you are not talking Porsche but Lanz and Allgaier!!

[66andBlue]

In 1937 Porsche received an order to produce a "Volkstraktor" for small farm operations. Several prototypes with an air-cooled 2-cylinder engine were built but because of WWII serial production was not started. Further development of this tractor was taken up together with the "Allgeier Werke" in a new company: Porsche-Diesel Motorenbau. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche-Diesel_Motorenbau
This company produced several 1-, 2-, 3- and 4-cylinder models with 12- 50 PS horse-power.

A much shorter English version showing only one model (218) is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porsche-Diesel_218

[Benz Dr.]

So it’s like the old steam powered thrashing machines except they fed the straw or hay in with a pitch fork and it produced a bale? My cousin was a big steam engine fan with several
In his collection. If you were at a steam show I’m Ohio you probably met him.

It has a plunger that moves back and forth and a beak that pushes the hay or straw into a hand fed chamber. When the bale reaches the correct length, someone will yell " BOARD " and the guy feeding the baler will stop to let the throat of the baler clear. He will have a board ( which is more of a heavy spacer ) ready in a small shoot that he drops down into the chamber and then a bracket on the beak will push the board down into place. You can imagine how dangerous this machine is if you get your timing wrong.

Another interesting story is when back in the 60's, Ontario decided to change their beer bottles to the short stubby ones we still have. There were thousands of beer bottles that were recycled at a nearby glass factory and my father was hired to bale up all of the empty cardboard boxes. They used this old straw press for a couple of weeks until they decided it was too much work and then they used a regular pull type you'd see today.
All of the boxes had to be completely emptied of any glass or metal so every one of them had to be inspected before they could go into the baler. Well, some of the boxes often contained half empty or even full bottles of beer. My father told us that half  of his crew was loaded by the end of the day and that hangovers were his biggest problem.

This was the last time the old press was ever used to make money.   

 

[johnk]

Like the story Dan. Talk about dangerous at the time. It was a big deal when the old steel wheel Ford Ferguson's came out. I believe I remember reading England asking Henry Ford to build a factory in England to relieve the shortage of horses from the war, or something like that. The steel spikes gave them almost 100% traction but made them extremely dangerous for if the driver hit a hard spot with the implement the tractors would flip over backwards if the driver didn’t stop in time.

I believe it wasn’t long afterwards that Ferguson invented the three point hitch with draft control that ford and Ferguson split up with Ford making away with the three point technology. I believe that is why the FHN59’s tractor above looks so much like a Ford 8 or 9N.

[Benz Dr.]

Tractors have a very interesting history. Odd thing is, most people living on farms bought a car ( often a model T ) long before they bought a tractor.  Rubber tires are far more efficient and roll much more easily than steel wheels.

[FGN59]

Peter: to improve steering in the sand (by the way, Dan/Benz Dr I believe gave you good advice with the weights in the front), you could also try my setup, with two different front tires, one for straight driving, the other for steering grip! 😁😄😉

Johnk: yes, we live in a pretty area in Provence; last week Mother Nature deposited a thin veil of snow, so here below is a different take on things

[Bonnyboy]

I have always loved tractors and remember going to visit my Grandpa and driving his 9N tractor around the farm when I was like 8 and then that and different tractors every summer until my Grandpa passed when I was 13.  I had a freedom that I had never experienced before and for me spending time with my Grandpa helping to pull things and move things and dig things was pure bliss. 

We lived in the middle of town but that didn't stop my dad from getting a small Skid Steer loader when I was 13.  I loaded things, dug things,  pulled things and lifted things (even used it to lift my MGB so I could weld underneath it) as often as I could.   

When my Dad was in his mid 60's he acquired a couple ford 9Ns and got them working and would play with them but he never told me where they were stored afraid his wife would find out and complain.   It kept him happy and was our little secret.  2 months before he passed away he bought a brand new Mahindra 20hp tractor to play with.   He still lived in the middle of town so I don't know what he was planning but he just had to have a tractor.   My step mom sold the Mahindra but never found the 9Ns. 

There is probably still a friend of his out there somewhere who has a farm with his vintage tractors.  They are probably hidden by 10 yrs of blackberries by now out on some "back 40" up near Alaska, close to a creek with fish in them, as I remember him saying that fishing was much better when he got to use his 9N to get there.....

[wjsvb ✝︎]

I, too, have fond memories of tractors on the farm and elsewhere: Uncle Henry's and my dad's place in Martel NE, late 40's, a John Deere acquired in 1941 to partially replace a draft pair finally turned out to pasture in 1948, later added a Farmall Cub; my Uncle Bob's in Herman NE, late 40's to early 60's, a string of 9N/8N's and a Ferguson.  Later, on my 1-1/4 acre "spread" in suburban Villanova PA, a converted Model A tractor and a 9N to manage the South 40, so to speak.  Finally, part owner of an auto wrecking yard in PA where we used skid-steer Bobcats to good effect.

[Bobmog]

Here is my early 70s vintage farm tractor.

[johnk]

Here is my early 70s vintage farm tractor.

I like that picture. JA17 has two Unimogs. I worked at my dads farm equipment business all through school and remember hearing in the early 70's that Mercedes was going to start selling a truck in the US that also served as a farm tractor. we were a bit worried what that would due to the business here but luckily it never really took off.