"CR" wrote:

Can't forget the orange crawlers

No CR we can't, or should I say, we shouldn't.

My HD11s sporting a 6V-71 Detroit (nicknamed THE POWERNOSHIFT by Casey)

I like your combine pictures

I got left in the dust here so I'm going back a few pages.After WW2 farmers were ready for some new iron.My grandpa traded a Case hillside for a JD36b.Being a larger machine they did a bit of custom cutting in an area that was 30 days or so ahead of the home country(west side of Paso Robles).The ranch they cut for had new wooden Harris they were hoping would leave the JD in the dust.Well this wood Harris was not the one to do it,the ranch manager came to the conclusion they had used green wood which warped as when the clutch was disengaged it stopped instantly.This machine did much damage to reputation of the wooden Harris which I under stand had been very good.So I don't when the last wooden harvester was built but this was definitely post WW2.
On track ware the abrasiveness of the soil I think is biggest factor.Many things come into play but if there isn't a sand component in your soil steel lives much longer.I put new Berco chain on my 9u in 1982 must be over 10000 hour and the bushing have not been turned and are still only close to needing it now.Never need to change disc blades because of ware,but way to much limestone rock if the blades don't break the spacers will or axles will bend,and heaven help your harvester header.The other fun thing digging the mud out of the disc as well,as cleaning track frames.
Ray

Yellow.........Orange......how about a Black one????



All tricked out & ready to rumble.

98j
Are you sure that they didn't use this Challenger and disk to put out the fire you were fighting on the last page?????????????????????? Why does it seem like Halloween to me (we seem to have all the right colors)

Good one. No, wasn't helping on a fire........this was a milestone Challenger,
number 5,000 or some such....sp. black paint & a tad more chrome items.......
from up in Central Washington.

We DID have a neighbor's CH 75 hit with Borate (sp?) while working on a fire
here a few years back. A really nice unit.....nice paint .......then SPLAT!

Ray54- I do agree with you on the soil part somewhat. Our soil only has a sand content of about 7%. Most good farmland soils in other areas are typically about 20% or more of sand I think. It is easy to see when a cat has been working in sand when looking at used cats, the owners will tell the amount of hours on parts of the UC and its amazing how worn they are, especially rollers.

Now for the subject of other colored crawlers. Although I have been and always will be a yellow crawler guy, I borrowed these pics of orange and red ones to post. All the following pics were taken by redpainter on several other forums. He and his brother farm on the southern end of the palouse near Genesee, ID. His pics were the ones of the 4 way leveling combines 98J posted awhile ago.

First off a series of their HD6 disking pea stubble to plant winter wheat

seeding winter wheat

after wrapping up seeding in Oct. time to pull out an old hitch of plows and turn under the wheat stubble

the following spring after seeding peas, rolling the ground to flatten it for easier harvest (in my area its critical to roll legumes to smash the smaller rocks into the ground)

spraying winter wheat

Okay so maybe you are an IH guy, heres a shot of repainters father in his 80s doing a little fall plowing with his old TD 14.

old girl in pretty good shape for sitting outside all winter

And for those like myself who prefer cats, heres some shots of redpainters neighbors D5s.

First one is pulling an 8 or 9 bottom wilrich plow I believe.

pulling calkins cultivator

and a later model D5 pulling a JD disk.

"Tad wrote:

No CR we can't, or should I say, we shouldn't.

My HD11s sporting a 6V-71 Detroit (nicknamed THE POWERNOSHIFT by Casey)

I like your combine pictures

Tad your starsky power no shift looks good with the new paint.

I'll have to liberate some more photos of harvesters that other relatives have and scan them. The neighbors Harris is the only one left in the area the others were burned during WWII for the scrap iron I have been told. In 1900 most of the ranches in the valley were 10,000 - 40,000 acre dryland Spanish land grant ranches that grew nothing but wheat.

North Idaho Farmer I am amazed with the size of plows you guys pull up hills.


As far as wear on tracks there is a huge difference in the wear caused by soil types. Peat only wears out the Pins and Bushings real slowly most people say in peat you will never wear out a set of tracks and blow sand is what we have found out to be the worst as it completely destroys a set of tracks in a year or two. We don't run the cat's that fast to minimize bushing wear, but ditch work wears out the outer set of bushings and the outer set of pins in a hurry.

Very nice NIF! Some more yellow iron for ya.



Seeding winter wheat ( Club to be specific) on the Keith Smith Ranch on Tygh
Ridge about 25 miles south of The Dalles.



Keith's classy D6B towing a squadron hitch of 3 JD 8200 double disk drills.





Cranking her around at the end of this pass...........



........and now headed back on the next one. Easy to see here why a well
sealed cab is pretty nice. Did my share of this kind of work without one.......
used to come in at the end of the day pretty dirty.



Head shot. Looks kinda dry on top for sure, but they were seeding into good
moisture.....had the bands off & some moderate spring tension on the openers.



Another turn. The air filter for the cab pressurizer is a modified truck air
filter can.



Finishing up in this field. Can't beat a crawler for seeding in these kind of
conditions........



This D6B was used primarily for fall seeding when it's fairly cool. So, it was
never equipped with refrigerated AC......they made do with a 'swamp cooler'
the tank for same clearly visible on the right side of the cab. In their prime
up here in the NW, there were fleets of D6B's like this one at work.

North Idaho Farmer
I see another hex cab, They must be popular in the PNW. I was running the 11 the other day and I was laying out in my head how the cab would sit if I was to build it, and I came to the simple conclusion the hex would not work for me for the simple reason, I am way over 6 feet, my feet have to go right where the angled doors would sit. I think that they built all these older tractors for smaller statured people, I was on a 3T 7 a while back, same thing. I ran this same 7 when I was kid, at that time it seemed as though one could run a Marathon around the deck, now my knees are in my chin, well it seems that way:). I have considered putting a Cat style steering console so I can cross my legs. I don't like the AC type levers, but that will have to wait till I add the power steering, so right now it is armstrong through the deck steering and feet to the side
I love the aerodynamic low drag top on the TD14 cab, those darn things need every little bit help they can find. A 14 was my first tractor when I was 16 years old and I was glad to see it go to scrap a few years ago. Tad