Curious How They Use to do This?

[gwstang]

I have noticed on the old tractors (Maybe 1920-1940) that many of the , for example JD/Farmall or such, did not have the 3 point hitch or hydraulics. How did they transport the "implement" such as a plow or disc or anything? Some of the implements did not have wheels on them and no hydraulics meant no lifting. Did they park the implement on the edges of their fields and then just drag them around to where they needed them? Seems that would plow where you didn't want it to plow or plant or such when moving to the next field? Just curious and have wondered about this for a long time. I am talking of the one's that only had a drawbar. Thanks.

 

[KennyG]

A lot of different answers here. In the 50's we had tractors with hydraulic and tractors without. Many of our implements were from the 20's and 30's. Plows had wheels and trip mechanisms to lift the shears. Discs just rolled on hard surfaces. To move them over the road you needed a trailer. Same with harrows. You dismantled them and piled them on a trailer. Pre-hydraulic tractors like the International F series had a mechanical lift so they could use a mounted cultivator and some other implements.

 

[MossRoad]

That's what the FEL is for! Oh, wait.... :laughing:

 

[gwstang]

OK, that makes sense. I was wondering about how they did cross the roads because it seems farmers had fields on both sides of the old county roads and such and the implements would tear up the road. Of course many were just dirt roads long ago. Thanks. :thumbsup:

 

[gwstang]

That's what the FEL is for! Oh, wait.... :laughing:

That would just be toooooo easy. I don't know how many had FEL's way back in the 20's and such. :confused2:

 

[TerryR]

In the late 1950's and 1960's we moved them from field to field with an implement carrier, like this one from a 1963 patent application:


You pulled the carrier into the field over the implement with a pickup, lifted the implement with the chains, then drove off to the next field

Terry

 

[gwstang]

Thanks, that makes sense with that mover.

 

[bcp]

Never saw one like that. In the SW, they were mostly this design.



Side view. Three winches on top, usually made from a differential, and crank and chain at operator level.

Every rural intersection had a pile of tires for cats and discs to cross the road. Shoulders were all wide enough for equipment to use and stay off pavement.

Bruce

PS found a photo.

 

[MHarryE]

Implements we used behind our M and H had mechanical lift. Plow, for example, had a rotating axle with a cam mechanism. Pull the trip rope and the plow would drop. The cam arrangement would make a half turn and disengage, the plow would drop by the axle pivoting forward. Pull the trip lever again and the cam would engage and 1/2 wheel rotation would lift the plow. I have one of our old steel wheel plows on display in my antique machinery row on my driveway but the ones I used were on rubber tires. The steel wheel plow came from when my dad had a Farmall F-20 on steel.

Same principle for cultivators. They also had a cam arrangement that lifted the cultivator with one wheel rotation. One of these is in a fence row - I need to move it to my collection.

Disc was another matter. Would you believe that a lot of moving to nearby fields was done by shifting the gangs to zero angle and pulling gown the gravel road? For longer distances we had 4 loading planks and a hay wagon. Pull the disc onto the wagon using a chain.

Our H had a hydraulic pump gorgeous use with the loader. One of our Ms eventually got a hydraulic pump when we got our first hay conditioner. It was a combination suit - towed sickle bar mower with a trailing mower conditioner. Hydraulics were needed to lift the sickle bar.

We got our first wheeled disc in 1956 when we got a Case 400 Super Diesel. 56 whopping PTO horsepower, power steering, live PTO. It wax the cat's meow. We got a 3 point cultivator got it - Case Eagle Claw hitch, forerunner of many of today's quick hitch.

 

[Bird]

Our 1940 John Deere L, also known as a garden tractor, just used a single bottom plow that was raised and lowered with a manual lever on the driver's right side. And we had an old horse drawn disc with part of the tongue cut off that was towed behind the tractor. Of course it still had the seat that was used when it was pulled by horses and Dad got Mother to ride on that seat one day for a little extra weight, but after she did a back flip off that thing when he went over a terrace, she refused to get back on. So he wired some cinder blocks on it for weight.