Working with the jumbo landplane

[flusher]

Very cool! I haven't seen one of those since the 70's, grading acreage outside the Ventura / Oxnard area near Pt. Mugu.

Landplanes like this one are used a lot in the Great Central Valley of CA to prepare fields for irrigated row crops and orchards. Have been for nearly 100 years. What we know today as the Caterpiller Corp was formed by the merger of two CA tractor companies, Holt Manufacturing (Stockton, CA) and Best Tractor (San Leandro, CA). Both Holt and Best specialized in track-layer type tractors to tow huge ag implements like this humongous landplane.

 

[bcp]

And before gas and diesel were steam track-layers. Here's a Holt steamer.

Bruce

View attachment 273074

 

[flusher]

And before gas and diesel were steam track-layers. Here's a Holt steamer.

Bruce

View attachment 273074

Yep, steam power initially then diesel.
BTW: you can see many of these early track layers at the Heidrick Ag History Museum in Woodland, CA. Excellent collection of old Cats also.

Heidrick Ag History Center | Heidrick Antique Tractor and Hays Antique Truck Collections

These old tractors are in working condition. Several years ago a bunch of these were shown operating at the Dan Best Ranch near Woodland. Hope the museum repeats this event in the near future.