4WD or 2WD?

Egon · Oct 19, 2003

50 years ago a two bottom plough was still a small tractor. There were many around that were considerably larger.

Egon

5030 · Oct 19, 2003

Dick:

I was reading this thread (it's long and longer) and I came across your post about growing up in Southern Ohio and the mud (should I say dirt) roads.

Where we live it's on a dirt road. we are about 1.5 miles from the pavement and in the spring, the road during the thaw becomes "bottomless". It got so bad a few years ago that the school bus driver had to drive in the field, it was better than the road.

It snows here and when it does, we get a load, the county never plows the road until about 3 days after the storm. I always keep a snowmobile gassed up in the garage to stave off "cabin fever". We have had 12 foot drifts here. I have seen the county subcontract articulated FEL's because the plow trucks can't cut the mustard.

I wouldn't trade it though. Country living is certainly better than the city or a subdivision. Builds character.

pruntyc · Oct 19, 2003

I know you can get the snows up there. I was living in the Detroit area, Trenton, and they don't generally get what I call real big snows, but one winter there we got a 13 inch one. I drove over into Detroit and got my check from where I worked, then had trouble finding a place to cash it as a lot of the places was closed because of the snow. People were getting out and leaveing their cars, but I never did figure out why, but it seemed that most of them, would get through the drift and then get out and leave it. Where it was a lot easier by the time they were on the other side of it. Never can understand why some people do what they do.

pruntyc · Oct 19, 2003

Egon, if you read what I wrote, I said it was smaller than the other ones he had. But that he didn't have any real big ones at least by todays standard. Don't know what the point is, I had only said I drove one all day long. Don't know what the size matters anyway. If it was pulling a 2 bottom or a 3 what makes the difference, you are on it and its the same amount of work for you, as for the other guy no matter what the size is. I have no idea what size was made at that time. I know they were a lot smaller than they are now. I didn't ever hear of anyone talking about the size of the tractors back then. If you were working for someone, and he told you to drive the Farm-all, or the Massey, those are the two I drove most, you just did it. He didn't say that one has so much horse power, so you use it.

pruntyc · Oct 19, 2003

Say 5030, you got me to thinking, about the old dirt (mud) roads. I lived up a what we called a run, I guess most would call it a holler. But anyway I lived 2 1/2 miles up it and a girl that went to the same school lived 1 1/2 miles up it. Well, they had a car come up and get us, instead of a school bus. A few years later, they started sending the school bus up. Any way the old fellow that carried us up it had I think around a 35 Chevy and it probably had about 16 inch tires. My step-dad had a 1917 Dodge he drove a lot. It had either 33X4 or 34X41/2, either one would work and he put on what ever they had. But one time the mud was real bad, and the School car, was dragging the bottom of the car and couldn't go very fast, and there came my step-dad and passed us, I think he even went into the ditch to do it, but those tall tires would keep it up where it didn't drag, so he didn't have any problem. That was the first car I ever drove. Wish I had it today. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Egon · Oct 19, 2003

5030;

We used to get snowed in regular in winter. Drifts even with the top of the telephone poles. No skidoos then so we relied on 4 foot horse and sleigh power. Ours was one of the roads the county didn't plow. No articulated tractors then. Had to use cats on the main road. Got to walk for a mile to get to the school bus route.

Egon

pruntyc · Oct 19, 2003

I know about walking to get to a school route. I had to walk 1/4 mile up a steep hill, in the winter to catch a bus for a couple of years, after they quit running the school bus up our road, for I was the only one on it then. After a while, when I started to high school, I had to walk 2 1/2 miles to catch the bus. Them were the good old days???????????????? We never had snows like you get, but 10 12 inches with drifts were enough, up over that hill.

rdam · Oct 19, 2003

"I had to walk 5 miles to school, uphill, in both directions!"

"When I graduated, I went to work in the mines, for my first job, I was a shovel"

Unknown Comedian

MossRoad · Oct 19, 2003

<font color="blue"> I drove them for weeks on end without power steering. Not all that hard, we are just spoiled in this country anymore, everything has to be real easy. </font>

As I was out in my yard this afternoon, your quote came back to me again and again. You see, I was using my leaf blower. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif I was remembering how much I hated raking leaves as a kid. I mean, we had 65 oaks on a 1 acre lot and we had the leaves, man! We'd rake from sun up to sun down and our arms would hurt so bad. If you tried to bring a glass of water up to your mouth, your bicep would lock up and the glass would tip the water out on your chest. I also remember shoveling the 300 foot driveway each time it snowed. And it snowed a lot back then. It was nothing to get a foot of snow every week for two or three months. And the piles were so high! You had to throw the snow over the tops of those piles. Man that was hard work. And we had a fireplace, too. I had to split wood for hours some days. I'd get blisters on my blisters swinging that sledge hammer. And we had a 5 foot long two-man saw that I used by myself to cut it. And we had a reel mower that we had to push around all those trees every week. One acre with a push mower every week will give you a strong arms and legs, boy! And then I learned to drive. All our cars had manual trannies. Three on the tree, four on the floor and five overdrive. In the winter, is was so cold in our unheated Volkswagon bus that your clutch leg would start shaking at stop lights. It hurt to keep the clutch in. Etc., etc., etc,... But, I always appreciated the things we had, because my mom let me know how tough it was during the depression. I could see how she appreciated the important things in life like water, food and shelter. My mom was a practical person. She wouldn't spend money needlessly. But I've got to tell you, as life went on, she found an appreciation for the things that made her life easier. She got electricity. She got refridgeration. And she got indoor plumbing. She bought electric fans to cool the house. She used anti-biotics. She got a telephone. She got natural gas appliances, including an oven, stove and furnace. It went on and on. Around 1981 she got a color TV. When I got married and moved out in 1985, she made my dad get a lawn tractor, since I was no longer there to do the work for them. And they got a snowblower. And they got a chain saw to take care of the wood and got the house air conditioned for the summers. They got a leaf blower. She got a car with an automatic transmission. Her next car had power steering. Dad retired his brace and bit and bought a nice Milwaulkee unit. The last vehicle they had was a four wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser with a 7' Meyers snowplow. Spoiled? No. Fortunate to be able to work hard your whole life and afford some things that make your life easier? Yes! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

So, as the owner of a tractor with a brush hog, scraper blade, dirt scoop and boom pole, are you spoiled like me and most of the other TBN readers? You bet you are! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif hee, hee. Just teasing.

I appreciate all of the things that I have that make my life easier. None of them are a necessity, but they sure are nice to use. They allow me to get my chores done faster so that I can spend more time with my wife and kids. For instance, raking our yard today would have taken all afternoon. Instead, I used a leaf blower and got it done in 45 minutes. I then took the family to a football game, watched my 10 year old do cheerleading, took the family to a state park, spent time teaching my children photography, took a walk in the woods, ate dinner at the in-laws and generally had a great day doing important stuff, rather than raking leaves. Who's spoiled? Me! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif