D6 2H odd drawbar arrangement?

Hi, Wimmera Farmer.
Standard????????????? From the look of it, methinks somebody 'fractured' the original and decided that it was not going to happen again if he - or she - could prevent it.

Just my 0.02.

Deas has come up with the answer that I think is correct.In the days my father pulled a John Deere 36B sidehill harvester 2 months a year with a RD6 he had some problems and had to replace the rear cast support of the drawbar. By the time I can remember all the front wheels the pull type combines came from the factor with had been removed for us on sidehills,which did put a load of several tons on the tractor drawbar.Being your down under and not havin sidehill farming that I'm aware of ,I don't imagine the damage was done by a combine.But we humans always seem to find ways to stress things beyond what engineers though we would.

It definitely looks like they took the time to do a good job on those brackets though, it's a very clean looking finished product compared to a lot of the modifications that can be seen on old machines. It wouldn't bother me one bit to leave that one exactly how it is, it's an interesting piece. Thanks for sharing the pic.

Maybe I am mistaken, but has that drawbar been modified to move it further backwards ?

It's not uncommon to find extended drawbars on crawlers here. The extension enables tighter turns in headlands and reduces the chances of hitting the drawbar of the implement with the tracks.

Will have to have a closer look and get a better photo.

That tractor had a winch on it when it was new!

The drawbar extension brackets are castings, so I'm surmising they must be Cat. Yet, despite 4 different drawbar types being shown in the D6 2H catalog, this style is not shown.
I would agree with Andrew, the drawbar indicates there was a CCU or winch fitted at one time.

However, there were no Cat CCU's produced until 1939, when the short-lived early-style Cat CCU's appeared.
LeTourneau CCU's (PCU's) ruled until Cat produced their own new CCU design right after the end of WW2.

I've looked through all my LeTourneau catalogues and parts books, and any LeTourneau drawbar extensions offered as part of the PCU package were fabricated and welded in typical LeTourneau style, not cast.

I can only surmise the drawbar might have been a Hyster winch drawbar extension. However, I don't recall seeing any using this style, in the smallish amount of Hyster information I have.
Maybe someone has extensive early Hyster catalogues and brochures that show this drawbar as part of a Hyster winch package.

All the post-WW2 Hyster winch brochures I have, show either an integral drawbar in the winch housing or a simple extension built from bar components mounted under the winch.
I also looked through all my Carco winch brochures and these all show an integral drawbar cast into the winch main casting. Carco's were more likely to be fitted to A-C tractors, but some were fitted to Cats.

I can't find my manual just now, but from memory it looks like part of the Hyster RD6 towing winch.