Tricycles?

[CliffordK]

Are there any benefits of tricycles?

I remember an uncle used to use one to dig sugar beets, but I don't remember why.

I don't think I've ever driven one, but I'm reading about them being much less stable on hillsides, and using a front end loader.

So, are there any true benefits of tricycles? Why were so many built 60+ years ago?

Many of the steam tractor had 4 wheels.
Model T conversions, and early tractors from the teens and twenties had 4 wheels.

So, why did the tricycles appear?

 

[super55]

Tricycle tractors were generally your row crop tractors and were very good at that task hands down. They are more unstable and I'm not sure but safety requirements might have caused them to be phased out over the years. Cultivating used to be much more prominent in farming practices years ago and keeping a set of tires in the middle row is a lot easier. Turning radius is much shorter. You can really whip those things around.

As to why they disappeared? I can only guess but probably larger implements requiring larger tractors to pull them started causing stability issues.

 

[bcp]

A tricycle tractor with individual wheel brakes was a zero-turn tractor. You could finish one row and turn 180 degrees for the next one, using only a tractor length of turning space at the end of the field.

Now they make attachments to turn the tractor into a tricycle at the row's end.

Bruce

 

[CliffordK]

Now, that is an interesting device.

One can crank the wheels pretty tight on most tractors, but having 4x4 driven front wheels also helps a lot in tight turns. forcing the tractor to turn rather than sliding forward.

Most of the new tractors are 4x4 or 8x8. Could one make a narrow wheelbase 4x4, or perhaps 3x3?

I would think the stability would increase significantly with a wider tractor, but I have no doubt that OSHA would disapprove of any new tricycles.

 

[MHarryE]

Refer to thread about person killed in parade accident. Not saying a wide front would have saved him but the narrow fronts are tippy. Yes, a wide front pivots on the front axle but there are stops that limit the pivot. Back in the old days we had many narrow front tractor tip over accidents in our area. Most just payed over on their side because the loader frame was high and almost worked as a ROPS so it was get another tractor, pull it upright, and go on worker. My next door neighbor, however, was not so lucky. He ended up pinned underneath and wasn't discovered until his wife came home an hour later. Survived, but a paraplegic. When I bought this place from my dad he threw in the H he had kept but it was only bad memories for me so I gave it away. Now I wish I had it for my rusty iron display at the end of my driveway, to go along with my 1928 Case CC, also a narrow front.

 

[CalG]

Wide stance front ends do have stops at around 10 degrees of tilt, But getting to that ten degrees can be a wild ride. Until the stops are hit, stability between trikes and "conventional" four wheel tractors is EXACTLY THE SAME. (actually, the edge goes to the trike!)

Flat land does well with narrow front ends.

 

[bcp]

I have about 15 years of driving JD and Farmall tricycle tractors on very flat, flood irrigated land. Never a hint of instability with one.

I never saw a loader on one until I moved to hilly country!

 

[Ed of all trades]

Never had a tractor really start to roll over until I was bush hogging with my uncles IH 706 tricycle, was not that steep just a little quick dip and one rear tire was over 2 ft off the ground. I turned into it and it set down but no more tricycles for me.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Wide stance front ends do have stops at around 10 degrees of tilt, But getting to that ten degrees can be a wild ride. Until the stops are hit, stability between trikes and "conventional" four wheel tractors is EXACTLY THE SAME. (actually, the edge goes to the trike!)
Flat land does well with narrow front ends.

This is wrong. On the trike the pivot is on the ground, thus giving more lateral displacement per unit of pivot. The edge is slightly in favor of the 4 wheeler.
larry

 

[SPYDERLK]

Never had a tractor really start to roll over until I was bush hogging with my uncles IH 706 tricycle, was not that steep just a little quick dip and one rear tire was over 2 ft off the ground. I turned into it and it set down but no more tricycles for me.

Loaded tires? Set wide?
Tricycles generally sit higher and are quite effective at powering a bushog to cut fairly large trees moving forward.
larry

 

[npalen]

The walking beam effect of a wide front also smooths out the tractor front. Deere, however, did come out with a patented design call the Roll-o-matic which allowed the two wheels on a narrow front end to oscillate thus smoothing the ride somewhat.

 

[SPYDERLK]

My 2010 has that.

 

[DKCDKC]

I grew up with tricycle John Deeres on our farm. We had some wide tractors as well, but the tricycles were used a lot on our hills and everywhere. They were easy to steer and turned on a dime. My CUT is less stable I think... And it has a wide front. But that could also be memory issues. I last drove a trike in the 1970s.

 

[CalG]

This is wrong. On the trike the pivot is on the ground, thus giving more lateral displacement per unit of pivot. The edge is slightly in favor of the 4 wheeler.
larry

Well, In consideration of details.
The pivot on a pivoting solid axle is a line at the center of the tractor (the pivot pin.) While the pivot location for a "typical " tricycle is the out edge of the tire. so some what "further out" than the centerline axle pivot.

That was my "first pass assessment" and basis for the comment of preference.

There are a lot of variables in the mix, even ground conditions.. mighht take a fine pointed pencil to figure the difference ;-)

But I will conceed, The pivot point of a tricycle gear is at the ground!

cheers

 

[JasG]

Well, In consideration of details.
The pivot on a pivoting solid axle is a line at the center of the tractor (the pivot pin.) While the pivot location for a "typical " tricycle is the out edge of the tire. so some what "further out" than the centerline axle pivot.

That was my "first pass assessment" and basis for the comment of preference.

There are a lot of variables in the mix, even ground conditions.. mighht take a fine pointed pencil to figure the difference ;-)

But I will conceed, The pivot point of a tricycle gear is at the ground!

cheers

Actually there are even some single front wheel tractors so the pivot would be centered.

I've spent a lot of time on both and IMO opinion it's not even close a wide front is more stable.

If you hit a woodchuck hole, dead furrow or similar object a wide is much more stable.

The only guys I knew that have died on a tractor were on narrow front end machines. Not to say people haven't died on wide front end, but the safety margin is much greater. No different than ATV's really.

A guy I went to school with, his dad a couple years after graduation was killed "pop" starting a narrow front end tractor that flipped.

 

[npalen]

Had not heard the term "pop starting" Can you elaborate on that?

 

[jagyzf]

Had not heard the term "pop starting" Can you elaborate on that?

Around here that is the term used to roll a engine driven object down in incline. This would be in a gear with the clutch pushed in and when enough speed was built up to "pop" the clutch out and let the wheels spin the engine. Similar to a tow start, but when you don't have a tow vehicle, but a hill.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Just got off the phone in a 3 way conference call. Me, my friend who's family runs 25,000 acres of wheat in eastern montana and a friend of their's who farms in Holland. Turns out that the soils in northern europe are difficult and quite wet and mushy, you need big tractors just to run a 5 bottom. This setup helps the tractor float, provides solid traction (4 wheel drive), does not create grooves like a US machine would, and is good for a tight turning radius (farm plots are quite small).

Learn something new every day.

 

[oldnslo]

Farmall & JD and others had fully mounted corn pickers that worked on the narrow fronts. These provided for opening fields without driving over any corn and also placed the weight on the tractor for pulling the wagons up hills. Down sides where engine fires from corn husks, leaves, etc. catching fire from the exhaust header. and front end was heavy so in soft fields you where stuck.

 

[Soundguy]

i'll take a narrow front for mowing ANY day of the week, vs wide front....