Life goes on - Summer 2019

I thought about doing that but the sickle bar can do the negative bank angle, it also can be used vertically along the edges, and I need something to just knock down a few acres to keep brush from growing in and it is a lot faster then doing it by hand if you don’t count the time it takes to replace the teeth. :slight_smile: I just need to find a good inexpensive one.

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I like the old IH Cubs for that nice and low to the ground so they are easy to get on and off. Plus with the wide frontend they are stable even on a hill.

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Those are awesome. I used to use one for the county doing roadsides, when the tractor with the brushhog broke down. But they are a bit more then I want to deal with and pay.

I think I just want a 3pt one to fit on the lawn tractor. Mounting it will suck but I think it will be a lot easier to manuever then the trailer type in all the curves and tight spaces.

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True but those old Cubs would be ideal for a charcoal gasifer too… ofcourse on the side of the hill might not be the best application for a gasifer. :cold_sweat:

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Nope. We aren’t in a position to do that completely, muchless in a cost effective manner. There are too many corner cases, the best we can do at this point is to knock out the low hanging fruit and improve technology to try and make the problem more manageable. It was never a short-term instant fix, because if there was one, it would have been done decades ago. We have to work through the process and that takes time, and that is the best we can do.

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With the HP derating from chargas, I would only be looking at like 5hp which is a pretty narrow window even for the small sickle bar.

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Ahhh; There is HP and there is HP. I would like to hear from one of the people that have converted a tractor to a woodgas/chargas. Or Mr. Wayne I think converted a crawler from like a 40 HP tractor engine to a Buick V8, like 150 HP. Was that 4 times more powerful? ( sorry Mr. W if I don’t have the story correct – fill us in) TomC

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These are like 10-12HP on gas to begin with. They are 1L engines at a lower compression and lower rpm like 1200. Ironically, because I just looked it up to see. GM’s 1L I-3 L5Q engines power curve at 1000rpm looks only to be like 20HP. ( it maxes at 75hp at 6500rpm.)

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I am not sure you are right there. They are low hp for sure but they had a small inline 4 cylinder motor basically a smaller version if the motor that is in the C and H. I think they make insane torque.

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Ha ha, Steve, your wife and Dana have said the same thing, when we go kayaking and ours a Sea Eagle inflatable one. No problem Baling it out just up right it and it self bales. Actually it is pretty hard to tip over,
Bob

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Yes Mr.Tom .

I once had an old TD-14 International dozer . It was rated 42 HP and red lined at 1000 RPM . Very weak and slow. I replaced the old diesel motor with a buick 350 , 4 barrel carb and power glide trans. Hooked the power glide trans into the dozer trans .

With the 4 cyl diesel it would not spin the tracks in the lowest gear . Now with the V-8 it would spin the tracks in every gear.

I used it for about 25 years and still running good when I sold it .:grinning:

PS The diesel was a strange little motor , it had spark plugs and a small gasoline tank . Started on gasoline until it warmed up and then switched on the compression and the diesel fuel .

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Wayne the start on gas diesels where common pre WWII. Maybe even some after the war. But it is very common in the old farm tractors. Typically you also had to close up the radiator to force the motor temperature high enough to lower the viscosity of the diesel fuel. I think back them they didn’t have the technology to build high compression valves and heads so it was a way to burn the cheaper diesel fuel. I have seen a few old Farmall M Tractors at shows with that setup. Fascinating when you realize that the farmer had to be half time mechanic just to keep the thing running on the correct fuel.

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The spark plugs eliminated the need for a pony motor to help get it started… But can you imagine ANYONE sticking spark plugs in a perfectly good diesel nowadays? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Only if you are converting to wood. :grin::grin:

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I was told the HP of a farm tractor was measured off the power take off. In college we got a V6. On the dynamometer, we plotted the torque and calculated HP. The values were way below the advertised. Next we turned the ignition off on the V6 and with a second dyno using a flat head Chrysler, plotted the torque and HP to rotate the V6.We called the second plot " internal friction ". We added the two runs and the total was close to the advertised HP.
That International diesel was a MD. Would gag you with smoke when you switched from gas to diesel, even though it was parked in a barn.
The shutters on the radiator were on the H that started on kerosene ( stove oil ? ) and then switched to gasoline. TomC

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Thanks for the information on the shutters. I love the old tractors but when you go to a show you see so much it is easy to get things confused.
You are correct that tractor HP is at the PTO and the Drawbar. The classic tests where done by the university of Nebraska. Manufacturers would take their equipment there to get it tested so farmers could know for sure how the difference tractors compared. We owned a mix of tractors here my grandfather would buy whatever was the best deal at the time he needed something new. But with all the different equipment the two which stayed around was his Farmall H and the Allis Chalmers D17. Grampa loved how the H would turn short and get around anything. But when it comes to baling hay it is really hard to beat that old D17 with the high low clutch. The two speeds you get with that just fits these fields perfectly.
Someday I will rebuild the H and drive it again but it will get the wide frontend I don’t like those narrow front ends expecally knowing how many times that tractor has flipped over here on the farm.

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I have one of those to do as well. Once I get the time.:grinning::grinning: Mine I think only needs, carburetor cleaned, radiator replaced and a coil replaced.

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Mine needs a complete motor over haul and to have the transmission disassembled to fix the belly pump plus the rear axle seals replaced. It has been restored once before back in the 70s and was used into the ground a second time. I seriously want to make it into an electric tractor because I have nothing left to loose. Oh a interesting fact if you can’t start it without pulling it but it fires right over as soon as it is pulled rebuild the magneto. They have a separate start coil. I never knew that was why we had to pull mine until I looked into rebuilding it a few years ago but got distracted with other projects. They are great old tractors.

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I have one more story regarding human stupidity and wastefullnes.

For the last week driving to work l am hearing an add on the radio. The item of advertisment is Eco-bio-renewable-blabla… coconut shell briquets for fireplaces and stoves. Their motto: “we dont cut trees; we just harvest the fruit”.
I realise not many of you guys know where Slovenia is but l can tell you its FAR AWAY from any coconut palm. And even less know 64% of Slovenia is forest land. I probably dont need to present the “obvious benefits” of harvesting, mlling, briquetting and shipping the briquettes bout to the opposite side of the globe. Ofcorse, its a "green fuel!

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Kristijan, That was always my point on German chocolate cake,coconut not in Germany :roll_eyes::palm_tree:

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