IH Tractors on Montana Farm

[TN Hillbilly 424]

Merry Christmas, y'all!  

Sorry for the belated greeting, just been spending time off with family and trying to lay off the TV, internet, etc.  Hope everybody had a good Christmas.

We had 4-5 inches of snow on Christmas Eve, for the rare (at least for TN) white Christmas.  Here's me and the kids having a little fun on Christmas day.

Gary, this is an IH tractor on a Tennessee farm!

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

5 hours ago, TN Hillbilly said:

Merry Christmas, y'all!  

Sorry for the belated greeting, just been spending time off with family and trying to lay off the TV, internet, etc.  Hope everybody had a good Christmas.

We had 4-5 inches of snow on Christmas Eve, for the rare (at least for TN) white Christmas.  Here's me and the kids having a little fun on Christmas day.

Gary, this is an IH tractor on a Tennessee farm!

TN Hillbilly, That looks super great! While we've had a couple deep snowstorms here in Helena in October. But we got short changed for a White Christmas this year. This was our snow in Helena, Montana on Christmas Day! But I've had about 74 white Christmas days, so It is worth sending our snow to Tennessee. Farmalls look good in snow! Thanks for posting. Gary?

 

 

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

Some more photos I've set aside for this nonsense page I love posting on!  Here is an early tower cooled IHC tractor. Is it a Type A, Roger? It's pulling an early wooden threshing machine.

This one is an early 45 IHC Mogul tractor.

A later Mogul tractor threshing.

I absconded this photo of Wendell Kelch's restored 30-60 IHC Mogul tractor

 

There appears to be a 10-20 IHC Titan and two IHC 8-16 tractors in this photo. It must be some McCormick-Deering Dealership's demonstration.

I think this is a McCormick-Deering 15-30 pulling this Northwest Thresher Company cross compound steam engine to scrap in Andover, South Dakota. Kevin Anderson should have been there! ? But if they want one, Kory Anderson could build one (if he wanted to). I don't believe any of this type of Northwest cross compound engine survived the scrappers? Let's just say, in this condition, it'd bring a big bunch of money at auction.

A McCormick Deering tractor with a grader attachment is plowing snow in some town.

This is purported to be John F. Kennedy giving a speech to a small crowd, standing on A(nson's) TD-14 International. It's sporting an IH Bucyrus-Erie hydraulic dozer. The identifier, according to the poster was the back brace JFK wore. 

Here are a bunch of well dressed gentlemen at the plowing demonstration of an Eagle tractor. 

Here is a Case three wheel 10-20 tractor being demonstrated in France. I don't know for sure, but I'd bet that is a Case Sattley self-lift plow?

Here is a dealership with a lineup of Wallis Cub Junior tractors. The JI Case Plow Company built the Wallis. They were later bought by Massey-Harris, I believe? (I hope I have this straight or Tubacase47 will call and straighten me out.)

Here's one I never heard of. This Fordson tractor is sporting a Butler Brothers Hay Sweep, likely in England.

Here is some McCormick equipment for you corn growers.

A shovel nose IHC truck is pulling a "horse pulled" steam pumper fire engine.

This is a 6 hp Mogul side shaft Hit & Miss engine.

And to give John Deere some equal time here, this is a John Deere "hit & miss" (all of these two flywheel engines seemed to have grown the term "Hit & Miss" in the collector period) This one is equipped to go on snow, however!

Someone on Facebook thought these two IH tractors were trying to make little ones (Farmall Cubs?).

This Case IH tractor was thirsty and needing a bath.

This is the Tyler farm's Christmas card taken near Eddies Corner this  year. CaseIH Combines.

And from Christmas, someone posted this photo from a 1959 Sears Christmas Catalog. I had a farm set, but it didn't have near the stuff this one has!  Gary?

PS: I worry myself sick that I'm going to post something that I had in my last post!

 

 

 

 

[twostepn2001 1,405]

Guess you could call this a "early cab-over engine" truck. Plate on the side of the frame says it's a Universal...??  lnfo on the pic said it was taken in 1915 at the Texaco refinery in Beaumont, Texas.

[MT Matt 318]

Gary, the JD snowmobile reminded me of a snowmobile that my Dad restored and sits in the Toy House. I believe it is a Tee-Nee brand and is powered by a Wisconsin motor. I’ll get a couple pics of it tomorrow. 

It was time to work on a little IH red equipment here. I pushed the Super A into the shop now that it’s too cold to work on much outside.  I bought her last summer for $125 but this doesn’t compare to your free Farmall A!

The clutch was stuck and it leaked water out of the bell housing when I poured water into the radiator. So I needed to split the tractor to see what was wrong. 

I quickly found both problems. 

The frost plug was popped out, easy fix and I found a new one in a can of frost plugs Dad had on the bench. 

The second problem was a mouse nest!! I must have dug out most of a five gallon bucket from the bell housing and torque tube. I don’t know where they found acorns in Montana but the tube was stuffed with them. ?

I’m sure you know this as the Professor Emeritus but I’ve determined mouse pee is about as corrosive as battery acid!  The clutch, pressure plate and flywheel was trashed along with the throwout bearing, fork and bearing carrier sleeve.  After some cussing, hammering, grinding, broken bolts and penetrating oil, all of the rusted parts were removed and replaced. I was lucky to have just parted out a Super C that was flattened by a building. All of the parts were the same so that job is done with the engine mated back to the rear section again. 

On to the next problem. I removed the valve cover just to give the valves a look over before trying to go further. Good thing!

I don’t think the push rod on the right is supposed to look like this. So off came the head.

A stuck valve was the culprit. The head looked pretty rough and I have another head so not much of a problem. Just a little time. It was good to have a peek under the head, a little crusty on the pistons but the cylinders look great with no wear ridge at the top.  A little cleanup and it can go back together.

Thats as far as I got the last couple days. Hopefully I don’t find any more gremlins and in a few days this IH tractor on a Montana farm will be back to earning her keep!

[Delta Dirt 1,824]

?----that was a real stroke of luck with the freeze plug.  We don't have that kind of luck down here in Mississippi.?

I really like the way that your parts department works.  (just reach behind you and get it out of the stash)

******

Question relating to freeze plugs

Freeze plugs seem so inconsequential------ but drape a huge saftey net over an engine.

Made me wonder how long engines were manufactured before the freeze plug was introduced??

Anybody ever seen an early engine without freeze plugs?

Did the early steam engines have freeze plugs.

Just wundering again.

DD

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

3 hours ago, Delta Dirt said:

?----that was a real stroke of luck with the freeze plug.  We don't have that kind of luck down here in Mississippi.?

I really like the way that your parts department works.  (just reach behind you and get it out of the stash)

******

Question relating to freeze plugs

Freeze plugs seem so inconsequential------ but drape a huge saftey net over an engine.

Made me wonder how long engines were manufactured before the freeze plug was introduced??

Anybody ever seen an early engine without freeze plugs?

Did the early steam engines have freeze plugs.

Just wundering again.

DD

 

 

 

 

 

Anson, Model T Fords have freeze plugs. I'm not sure about others. I don't think of some of the old hit & miss engines that used to be under windmills, on pumps in pastures around Montana, had them? They don't have them as far as I remember, but they were easy to drain and didn't require much water to cool while running. Steam engines may have a little water in the cylinder, but the external combustion engines didn't have a cooling jacket like like the internal combustion engines do, if they're not air cooled. And I don't know about this car? It may have freeze plugs?

 

Take Betty White's advice tonight.

And for the year 2020, I still have vision enough of it to leave 2020 behind and wear my trifocals.

Happy New Year to all of you Red Power people!  Gary?

I almost forgot to post an IH Tractor on a Montana Farm. Happy New Year from Tony, the Farmall A, and the business end of Kaiser Jäger! (My red coloring is gone)

 

[12_Guy 1,059]

I've always heard that the "freeze" plugs were not there for freeze protection but rather to allow for the removal of the sand after casting the part. I'm sure that a good amount of them were pushed out by hard water but that was probably not the designer's intention. 

[12_Guy 1,059]

Double post. Not sure how I accomplished that feat. 

[iowaboy1965 2,748]

41 minutes ago, 12_Guy said:

I've always heard that the "freeze" plugs were not there for freeze protection but rather to allow for the removal of the sand after casting the part. I'm sure that a good amount of them were pushed out by hard water but that was probably not the designer's intention. 

Had heard this same thing in highschool shop class. In fact teacher was quite adamant that they had nothing to do with protection and everything to do with the casting process. He had worked in a foundry at one time. 

[Roger Byrne 331]

Both of the posts above (12_Guy & Iowaboy1965) have it right.  Those holes where the "frost plugs" are, is part of the casting process and were used to support the sand cores when the metal is pored and later to remove the sand core after the castings have cooled.   Any time there is a blind opening in a casting, there needs to be a core and that core needs to have outside support in the mold.  Where that support goes through the casting, it later needs to be plugged either by a screwed in plug or a pressed in one like a "frost plug".    Of course those "frost plugs" have saved many a engine block from "hard water" for those of us that don't live down by Anson, but that is not the purpose they were designed for.   Below is a video that shows how elaborate that the casting cores are for an engine.   In many cases they are much more involved than the main mold itself.

 

[Delta Dirt 1,824]

The reasoning relating the frost plugs to the casting process makes sense.

It's a damm shame that when a man dies------he carries all of his knowledge with him.  We are fortunate to have a wealth of knowledge stored in the minds of our old codger friends here.

 

Happy New Year everybody!!!!!   Its time to put 2020 in the history books.

Gary's picture of the old battered rooster truly depicts how most people feel-----for one reason or another.?

 

 

DD

[iowaboy1965 2,748]

Happy New Years  Anson, and everyone else too! Let us hope this year goes better than last!

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

I'm learning a lot on here today from the professors on Frost Plugs. Big things are not manufactured in Montana. I've only been through one manufacturing plant in my life. In 1958, I went through the John Deere (I know... It's against my constitution.) to watch them building two cylinder diesel tractors in Waterloo, Iowa. I watched them pouring molten cast iron. But it's not that I understood what was going on, totally. So today I learn that sand cores need cleaned out through what becomes a place for a frost plug. Thank you 12_Guy, Iowaboy1965 and Professor Byrne. 

Now I understand why the hit & miss engines didn't have frost plugs. They had other openings to retrieve the sand, with the removable heads. I know Fairbanks-Morse and Witte (Maybe others?) built a "headless" engine and I don't understand how they did that, because I've never had access to one. Now I sort of understand, everything went in from the rear and on the side.

I have personally experienced expelled frost plugs on the farm about three different times. It did keep the blocks from cracking. So they do serve a double purpose up "nawth" as Anson would say. 

I did have a visitor at Silver Creek today. Tubacase47 stopped in for a few minutes. While he was there, I took a picture of the frost plug on the 1926 Model T engine block. It is framed in the center between the exhaust and intake manifolds.

I had to snap a photo of Tom with my phone so he could prove that he was here today!  

Well, Thanks Guys! and Happy New Year again! Gary?

 

[Fred B 374]

Gary, Ran across a photo these two steam tractors working in my Nueces County, near Bishop, Texas.  They appear to be deep plowing new ground for cultivation.  I noticed they are one of your brands.  Much of this land was cleared (grubbed) of mesquite and other smaller brush by Mexican nationals.  They would mark off the land with sticks to form a square acre and many times the Mexican families would camp in tents on the acre they are clearing.   I have heard at that time they may have made $.70/day which wasn't much but it was more than they could make in their homeland.  

Bishop is located about 25 miles southwest of me.  

Happy New Year to all!  

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

13 hours ago, Fred B said:

Gary, Ran across a photo these two steam tractors working in my Nueces County, near Bishop, Texas.  They appear to be deep plowing new ground for cultivation.  I noticed they are one of your brands.  Much of this land was cleared (grubbed) of mesquite and other smaller brush by Mexican nationals.  They would mark off the land with sticks to form a square acre and many times the Mexican families would camp in tents on the acre they are clearing.   I have heard at that time they may have made $.70/day which wasn't much but it was more than they could make in their homeland.  

Bishop is located about 25 miles southwest of me.  

Happy New Year to all!  

Fred

 

 

 

 

 

Fred B, That is very thoughtful of you to post that photo of the 40-140 hp Reeves oil burners near Bishop, Texas. I never knew the history of them when they were in the Iron Men Album decades and decades ago. I scanned this picture from that magazine in later years. They were using three of them!

This photo turned up on ebay within the last couple years. I let a doctor friend of mine know and he bought it then sent me this scan. It looked like quite an operation they had going there! I wonder if they were burning Texas crude oil? They were the only photo I've ever seen of three of these engines.

I've posted this photo before, of Grandpa Yaeger's friend, Frank Strouf and his two 40 hp Reeves engines he owned in central Montana. The one stuck is a 40-140 and the one backed up to it is an earlier 40-120. There were 50 or 51 of these engines built. I've located history on 16 of them that came to Montana. Gary? Happy New Year!

[Sledgehammer 8,686]

Since it’s a new year and I dont have to work tonight I was doing some things upstairs and came across some old pictures I had gathered up when my Mother’s parents passed away.  My Grandpa was the main reason I fell in love with hunting and fishing. He was a sportsman his entire life along with being a farmer.  He lived in central Illinois and took a trip to the Hayward WI area every year at least once to fish starting in the 30’s. He has been gone for several years but I thought you guys might get a kick out of the vintage pics. I think the Case DC was his first new tractor. I actually have the antlers from that buck which was the largest deer he ever killed.  

[Fred B 374]

Gary, I enjoyed seeing your photos of the big Reeves at Driscoll.  I found this article of F. Z. Bishop where he brought 20 steam plows to break the land he bought from the Driscoll Ranch.  He may mean five tractors with 4 plows each or 20 tractors, can't really say.  I also like the photo of the steamers, apparently smoking for the camera?  And the cook/bunk cars?  These maybe were custom plowing companies.    I'm thinking there may have been as many as nine big Reeves with four bottoms each.  The two I show have very small back wheels and the three you show have large spoke back wheels on the plows.  The guy on #3 already knocked his canopy off.  ?

In about that 1910 time period, the counties of Nueces, San Patricio adjoining to the north, and Kleberg (King Ranch) adjoining to the south, put thousands of acres to the plow in cultivation.  Here is more information if interested:

https://www.bishoptx.com/history/  

Looks like those big steamers didn't have a lot of flotation.  

 

 

 

 

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

47 minutes ago, Fred B said:

Gary, I enjoyed seeing your photos of the big Reeves at Driscoll.  I found this article of F. Z. Bishop where he brought 20 steam plows to break the land he bought from the Driscoll Ranch.  He may mean five tractors with 4 plows each or 20 tractors, can't really say.  I also like the photo of the steamers, apparently smoking for the camera?  And the cook/bunk cars?  These maybe were custom plowing companies.  I cannot make out the message at the bottom of your photo.  I'm thinking there may have been as many as five big Reeves with four bottoms each.  The two I show have very small back wheels and the three you show have large spoke back wheels on the plows.  The guy on #3 already knocked his canopy off.  ?

In about that 1910 time period, the counties of Nueces, San Patricio adjoining to the north, and Kleberg (King Ranch) adjoining to the south, put thousands of acres to the plow in cultivation.  Here is more information if interested:

https://www.bishoptx.com/history/  

Looks like those big steamers didn't have a lot of flotation.  

 

 

 

 

Fred, the camera angle may not show it correctly, but the rear drive wheels on a 40 hp Reeves were Seven feet tall. The driver wheel was 28" wide and the extension rims below were also 28" giving them a 56" footprint.

The remaining operable 40-140 hp Reeves at Osage, Iowa has 14" width extension rims. They won't have the floatation the one above has. There is also a 1912 IHC AutoWagon "watermelon hauler" posing beside the Reeves.

This photo gives a little better view of the 42" width driver with the single extension. The front wheels on these are 20" width.

This is a video of me plowing with it at Osage in 2007. Gary?

 

[Fred B 374]

Gary I must have not been clear on the wheel size, I was thinking of the back wheels on the plows they were  pulling. the point I was trying to make is that there are several rigs, they're  not all the same rigs.  I was trying to figure out how many rigs there were, noting the plow wheels were different. The two I show have very small wheels under the back of their plows, the ones you show have large round spoked wheels on the back of their plows , actually between the two of us, it looks like there are 9 

different rigs. maybe F Z Bishop did bring in 20 rigs? that would be a site to see.  I think most of the oil in this area came in the late 1920's could be brought oil in from other areas of the state.   on flotation, I was thinking those steamers were probably best on harder ground.  I can see now the photo comment says    Plow camp Bishop Texas 

  

[Delta Dirt 1,824]

 

Professor----its a new year.  We need to make it our new years resolution to screw Roger out of this watermelon hauling AutoWagon------some kind of way.

What with you pretty well having Mike's shop overfilled-------probably be best that I keep it down here at my place.

****

I did note that you somewhat mis-adddessed Roger as "Professor".  You are the Professor and ol' Roger is the "University".  What he don't know-------he ain't gonna tell us.

But with your great mind and my "on again---off again wundering";  surely we can con Roger out of the little AutoWagon.  ???

 

I believe Roger's AutoWagon appeals to me more than any piece of antique tractor/trucks that I have seen.?

I had saved that picture once before------might not find it, so I saved it again.

 

DD

 

[Roger Byrne 331]

Gary, the photos above seem to show the flywheels on those Texas 40-140 Reeves nested deeper into the cab than the one at Osage.  Is that possible, did they build two different flywheel/cab versions?

Now when it comes to the Autowagon, you guys can do all the planning and conniving you want to see if you can hoodwink me out of that highwheeler.   I'm sure it will be tough to go up against a couple of conmen like you two . . . but I feel up to the challenge.    Like I've told many guys that have asked me to part with it . . . I just tell them that they will have to talk to my widow.   

 

[Sledgehammer 8,686]

45 minutes ago, Roger Byrne said:

Gary, the photos above seem to show the flywheesl on those Texas 40-140 Reeves nested deeper into the cab than the one at Osage.  Is that possible, did they build two different flywheel/cab versions?

Now when it comes to the Autowagon, you guys can do all the planning and conniving you want to see if you can hoodwink me out of that highwheeler.   I'm sure it will be a tough to go up against a couple of conmen like you two . . . but I feel up to the challenge.    Like I've told many guys that have asked me to part with it . . . I just tell them that they will have to talk to my widow.   

 

 

The old “I’ll let you know if you offer too much” ?

[U-C 4,223]

 

something cool I found on youtube

 

 

 

 

[Old Binder Guy 1,681]

4 hours ago, Roger Byrne said:

Gary, the photos above seem to show the flywheels on those Texas 40-140 Reeves nested deeper into the cab than the one at Osage.  Is that possible, did they build two different flywheel/cab versions?

Now when it comes to the Autowagon, you guys can do all the planning and conniving you want to see if you can hoodwink me out of that highwheeler.   I'm sure it will be tough to go up against a couple of conmen like you two . . . but I feel up to the challenge.    Like I've told many guys that have asked me to part with it . . . I just tell them that they will have to talk to my widow.   

 

Roger, I do have your widow's phone number!! ?????