# What The \*&#% Is That? Post Your Mystery Equipment Here!
**URL:** http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125
**Category:** Off Topic
**Created:** [May 14, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125 "2014-05-14T20:31:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BrianHWA](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/BrianHWA)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/1 "2014-05-14T20:31:50Z")
I keep seeing pieces of heavy equipment, either at the scrap yard or on the road/fields, and have no idea what it is or what it is used for. I figured since many of you have backgrounds in farming, logging, building, etc. that you might be able to help ID some of this stuff and tell me what it’s used for. The curiosity is killing me!
The latest, which I didn’t have time to take a picture of: mounted to the back of a road-maintenence tractor (usually used for mowing ditches etc). It was attached to what I believe is a “3-point”. It was basically a long tube, maybe 10-12 feet long, 1 foot diameter. It looked like it had several strips of a canvas-esque material almost like a LONG, skinny flap-wheel. That’s about all I caught of it as it drove by.
Thoughts/ideas?
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### Author:  [@Wayne](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Wayne)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2014, 11:33am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/2 "2014-05-15T11:33:44Z")
Hey Brian,
It may be some type of flail mower .
[https://www.google.com/search?q=flail+mower&rlz=1CASMAE\_enUS547US547&es\_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=7aN0U4PmFdGNqAbnwYCIAw&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1517&bih=703&dpr=0.9](https://www.google.com/search?q=flail+mower&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS547US547&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=7aN0U4PmFdGNqAbnwYCIAw&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1517&bih=703&dpr=0.9)
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### Author:  [@Imackie](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Imackie)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/3 "2014-05-16T15:15:34Z")
Im glad you started this topic. During my travels from southern wv to northern pa I came across some state equipment being hauled down the road and was curious what it was for.
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### Author:  [@BrianHWA](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/BrianHWA)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/4 "2014-05-16T16:12:08Z")
Wayne: All of those flail mowers are mounted to the tractor “in the middle of the roller”, but what I saw, was mounted to the end of the roller. One thing I did and thought it woud be a good demonstration is to take a roll of paper towels and hold it by sticking a finger into the cardboard roll in the center. ::EDIT Picture attached:: This is how it was mounted. It was also mostly smooth, with exception of the long cloth-looking “flaps”, all the way around.
Ian: My girlfriend says she’s seen similar tanks where a Natural Gas pipeline gets divided into the more local “city gas” lines. I guess that would be the NG version of a electrical power sub-station. She did say the “central goard part was a little differenty shaped”. I was thinking that they looked like some of the “Liquid Oxygen” tanks found on our local Naval Air Station. We always crack up because those tanks are call the “LOx Farm”, but “Lox” is also a brined salmon (fish) food product [Lox - Wikipedia](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lox) so we joke that they are farming salmon using tax-payer money. 😛
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### Author:  [@gtkayaker](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/gtkayaker)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2014, 4:33pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/5 "2014-05-16T16:33:02Z")
sounds like a tractor mounted brush to clean behind ditch cleaning or logging
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### Author:  [@bboes](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/bboes)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/6 "2014-05-16T20:27:47Z")
Ian,
It looks to me like a volumetric meter prover the state would use to verify accuracy of gas pumps, etc.
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### Author:  [@MarvinW](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/MarvinW)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/7 "2014-05-18T23:31:35Z")
[http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=offset+flail+mower&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=offset+flail+mower&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=offset+flail+mower&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=offset+flail+mower&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=)
Flail mowers come offset too.
[http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=disk+mower&FORM=HDRSC2](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=disk+mower&FORM=HDRSC2)
Might have been a disk mower.
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### Author:  [@BrianHWA](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/BrianHWA)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2014, 1:58am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/8 "2014-05-19T01:58:00Z")
I should clarify that by “Mounted at the end” I mean that the mounting bracket was inline with the cylinder and PTO, where as those “offset” and “disc” mowers are mounted at 90ish degrees to the PTO.
Picture of sketch attached. Pardon the bad drawing/scribbles. I have a hand writing/drawing disability and dyslexia. That is about as good as it gets and took me over an hour. 😛
PS, the sketch is in “road diving mode” which is like how I saw it.
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### Author:  [@don\_mannes](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/don_mannes)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2014, 2:11am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/9 "2014-05-19T02:11:02Z")
Brian, do you have farming operations near there with liquid manure pits? I have seen augers in a cylinder that pump liquid manure with an attachment similar to your drawing.
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### Author:  [@BrianHWA](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/BrianHWA)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2014, 2:15am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/10 "2014-05-19T02:15:07Z")
There is a chain of beef farms that might have those…
I did forget to mention that this was a “City Of Oak Harbor” maintenance tractor… they probably pump farm poop ponds. 😛
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### Author:  [@Handy\_Andy](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Handy_Andy)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/11 "2021-09-27T21:10:15Z")
Ok, fellows, its mystery tool time!
Can anybody guess what this tool is used for?
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### Author:  [@JO\_Olsson](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/JO_Olsson)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 9:54pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/12 "2021-09-27T21:54:54Z")
First guess. Chain tightener?
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### Author:  [@Handy\_Andy](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Handy_Andy)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/13 "2021-09-27T23:09:05Z")
Hmmm, interesting guess!
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### Author:  [@Handy\_Andy](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Handy_Andy)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/14 "2021-09-29T18:48:53Z")
Time to reveal the mystery tool.
Here is a mockup of how it is used.
So when setting roof trusses, it is often nessesary to pull the truss straight. This tool pinches onto the purlin and levers the truss one way or the other.
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/15 "2021-09-29T19:50:47Z")
I knew, but didn’t want to spoil it 😁 just learned about them a few years ago when I was cleaning a place out and found one and guy I was working with told me. Even when I was framing we just man handled trusses all the time
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### Author:  [@Handy\_Andy](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Handy_Andy)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/16 "2021-09-29T22:17:42Z")
Interesting! I designed and built it myself. Thought it was original. I guess its not the first or last thing that was developed by two or more people independantly.
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2021, 12:06am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/17 "2021-09-30T00:06:51Z")
The one I found was VERY old and not exactly the same but very close and IV never seen another one like it but the framers I worked with had a special bent bar for moving and squaring long walls that looked similar to yours but had part of a marlin spike looking think that you would hammer into the floor for an anchor and would loop over the bottom sillplate and pull it back and forth to true the wall up. Worked pretty good but they only used it on walls that were 40’+ and not sheeted when they were stood so the sill plate was exposed
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2021, 12:20am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/18 "2021-09-30T00:20:10Z")
How about this
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### Author:  [@Wayne](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Wayne)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2021, 12:31am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/19 "2021-09-30T00:31:03Z")
I have one of those.
Pulls staples out of fence post 😄
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### Author:  [@Norman89](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Norman89)
#### Post date: [September 30, 2021, 12:49am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/what-the-is-that-post-your-mystery-equipment-here/1125/20 "2021-09-30T00:49:53Z")
And pinches the crap out of your fingers 😂 same building I was cleaning out I found one of these as the first one I’d ever seen thought it was pretty nifty but you got to watch your fingers, cause some serious blisters
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