I got something affordable via auction yesterday!
Years ago I purchased at auction a pull type “Goble” disc ridger. It was a single rope tripped model that worked well, but I always wished for a tandem.
Lo and behold, a neighboring farmer was having his retirement sale and there was a complete rear section in the sale.
As old fashioned as these pull ridgers were, they paired perfectly behind no other than orchard style D4s here.
I picked it up and rid myself of the well worn square head bolts that kept the clevis’s intact; a few adjustments and I am ready to play farmer again.
Big question of the day:
Is there a proper color for a “Goble” implement?
Red was the norm for many discs, but the majority of items I have come across were RUST colored.
I have seen ridgers rust colored, white, red and yellow in this area. What’s the correct color?
If I come across another, I might make a “triple” to pull with my D6 8U.
Check breakers are a must as well. JM

There was a time in the Valley… post war until about the late 80’s - 90’s it seemed every good sized operation whether it was a large family operation or one of the numerous custom operations would pick a color and paint every piece of equipment, truck and semi trailer that color or color scheme.

I suggest you pick a color and paint everything that shade and no matter what you will be correct.


Back to the original question… I don’t have an idea on the Gobel.

We primarily had Oxnard (AC) Orange and some killefer (John Deere) green and a few Towners that were all repainted Cat yellow for some reason. That being said I do have a Red Dyer (IH-Stockton) sitting out back and have a Red Strathmore over at my parents place yet.

Some old pictures from CA library system 

Global items were painted Massey red in the later years. Nice find Gee !

Massey-Ferguson ended up purchasing Goble Mfg., so the red would make sense. Honestly, had they used any primer and decent paint, maybe none of them would look weathered as the lead section! Some of us wonder if scrimping on the extras helped sales, or it was to add profit to the bottom line. (A good example/laugh was about BeGe hydraulic units; NO LOCK WASHERS and paper thin gaskets!).
CR, see? I still have your ex Murray scraper here. Coin toss on repainting it, and if so, back to original orange color or give it an upgrade to the later yellow? It is a very easy to fill scraper, perhaps due to the angle of the cutting edges. Neat old photos, a 4 blade ridger here would throw one heck of a ridge. People used to laugh at our worn out Shaw-Line or Allis Chalmers 3 point ridger, which was set up to go behind our M-F 2135; It did not make a huge ridge compared to everyone's Goble, Towner or John Deere, but as dumb (and cheap), we were, we did not have to shovel as much, because it was a smaller ridge...
There is an old school Killefer tool carrier with JD-Killefer 4 blade nearby, which has been made "available" to me. No hydraulics to lift, just tug on the rope. I will try to get it one day.
Just as an added bonus, I will try to set up a "full unit" to show folks what was the ultimate set up 70 years ago.
Thanks for "lurking". JM

I do not feel comfortable using the image so post this link.
Calisphere.org has some fantastic old photos, always fun to search through the decades.

This is a "checker" - Note the Two Sixty's --- I was told many years ago there were some "checkers" used here in the rice fields that would "stick" 3 Sixty's pulling them.
They would always use a moldboard plow to start the process, maybe two passes each direction with the plows. Most were 4 or 5 bottom 14" plows for the rice, Thirty pulled 3-14's
Enjoy

calisphere.org/item/2a49f23933b905392ce28912f9333ee9/

I am showing my age. I recall as a young man, many would use 3 D7 17A paired up. My favorite job working in the rice fields was to use an offset ridger pulled with a JD 8640 to either make new ones or dress old ridges, getting rid of weeds and animal burrows etc.
Nowadays, folks use a large Towner or Sweco behind a front wheel assisted tractor with cab and such. JM

You find all of the neat toys JM. You could have a show at your place with big and little Cats everywhere.

people get so worked up about colours when in reality most companies had a wadevawasinthetin policy.

why were grey fergies grey cuase harry got left over war surplus grey paint cheap. for the same reason many machines after ww2 were painted machinery grey becuase they had produced so much paint for the war effort it was being sold off cheap.

Juiceman I saw the post about the paint and went to where we moved our paint and unfortunately it was disposed of. That scraper sure got a sandblast to the paint on one side sitting on that canal bank for so long that it could use a refresh. That scraper would amaze you in the right conditions and load up fast, in dry powdery silt it was another story.


Your ridger sounds like ours, three blade Towner with the goofy Towner A fame pulled by first a TO 35 then a MF 135 in the orchard and a small row crop tractor when we used it to put up alfalfa borders. With alfalfa borders we put them in at 26’ where you picked up the scraper, 52 feet in the islands. We would then fill in the dead furrow and level the center of the check with a Cat D6 or D5 and a pull terracer with an attachment they called the “Grader Board” that was about 20’ long.

They found in the orchards that furrows worked better than flooding with ridges, although towards the end before the transition to drip and or micros they were planting the trees up on top of the ridges and flooding the centers with a sod culture growing in the centers. That being said many if not most of the non investor planted orchards have the trees up on ridges for drainage for years like this one or last winter.