IH Pick-up on a Montana Farm
You guys were talking about exhaust fires in the stubble field, which brought back memories of my IH caused fire.
We sprayed crops and stubble (chem.-fallow) with a 1965 IH ¾ Ton 4 X 4 with a 500 gallon, 60 foot boom, pick-up mounted sprayer. It was quite a load for the old girl. It had a 304 V8, 4-speed. This pick-up was “rode hard and put away wet” before we ever got it on our eastern Montana farm. It belonged to my wife’s grandfather and was used on a cattle ranch in western Montana. It had a very heavy, home-built livestock rack built permanent to the pick-up. The rack extended over the cab to haul horses. The rack was very well built and weighed nearly as much as the old pick-up. This probably saved it a few times when the road went one way and the IH pick-up went another way. The pick-up ended up on its side more than once. When we got it on the farm near Geraldine, it only had about 60,000 miles on it. It was mechanically in good condition, the body however not so much. The driver’s side door would barely close and latch enough to use it. We thought it would make a short term sprayer pick-up; however we sprayed with that thing for at least 15 years and it held up good.
One spring the fields had a lot of wet spots. One day I started to spin; I laid into the gas, thinking it would bite and pull through. Wrong! It sunk to the frame and the hot exhaust was sitting on the tall stubble—instant fire! Like many farmers we had a fire fighting hose on board and with a quick turn of a valve I put the fire out with Round-up spray—very expensive in those days. I saved it anyway with no damage to anything.
