MHarryE
Elite Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2009
- Messages
- 2,967
- Location
- Northeastern Minnesota
- Tractor
- Kubota M7-171, M5-111, SVL75-2, RTV900XT & GR2120; CaseIH 1680 combine
Older gasoline engine tractors were notorious for setting fires, especially if the muffler was removed (it served as a spark arrestor). We had an Allis-Chalmers B that set multiple wagons filled with hay bales afire before we learned our lesson that it's place was on a hay rake, half throttle where it didn't spit out flaming carbon. Dad reluctantly re-installed a muffler on our Farmall H following a couple fires - it was our most common hay hauler in the late 50's early 60's. None of these had horizontal exhausts but the fact is that gasoline engines (and I'm talking of 30's, 40's, & 50's) were notorious fire starters. Diesels run a cooler exhaust because of improved efficiency - more heat is converted to work on a diesel, thus lower exhaust temperature and reduced tendency to start fires. We started our shift to diesels on our farm in 1956 and away went the burning hay wagons. We never had a gas engine tractor with a horizontal exhaust but I assume the same hot spark issue under high power load would exist.