Farming with innovation.....

lol that was before radio control

That was "wired control"!

Daron

That was "wired control"!

Daron

Phill, that's an excellent find and a great article. Using reins to control the old Cats was common in the old days.
It was not uncommon to find early tractors with reins to try and assist old horse men to make the transition to them new-fangled tractor things!

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/153686405

I can recall the Shire Council foreman at Kulin, telling me stories of how he drove the "Roads Board" (as they were was known, before Shire Councils) Cat Twenty Two, pulling a towed grader, using reins.

He said you had to be on the ball. He'd crank the Twenty Two up, put her in gear, engage the clutch and jump off, and wait for the grader to travel past him.
Then he'd climb on the grader and pull on the throttle and steer the tractor, at the same time as setting the grader controls! He must have been busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger in a strong wind!

Reg told me the interesting part happened when he hit a stump buried in the road, and the grader would suddenly propel itself sideways! This generally resulted in him being thrown off the grader!
So then he had to run and catch up with the whole rig before it got completely away from him! I hate to think what OH&S would say about this style of operation today!

If you search through the Western Mail newspaper on Trove, you'll actually find several farmers writing in and explaining with diagrams, how they set up their "remote controls"!

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/38561195

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/37950158

Cheers, Ron.

Thanks Ron,

I would never of thought that it was so common. These days the OHS people would have fits if they saw this being done by an employee. Though, funny thing is, you can do it with your "own" equipment on your own farm. If you get hurt, then that's your problem. But if someone else does, then a broom handle and barbed wire (no lube) are only the start of the trouble you'd be in. 😊

That's something I like about some of the old equipment. The innovation shown to modify it, in the pursuit of making it more usable in the mind of the user. Somethings resulted in great ideas (concrete trucks for example), but others resulted in stagnation or a real step backwards...

I thought the grader story was great. Lets face it. How do you operate 2 different pieces of machinery at the same time? It's probably the reason that graders as we know them, now, were developed. 😊

I came across that article quite by accident, while looking for an hour meter for my RD4. When I realised what the site was, I was quite amazed. I will look other stuff up on there also.

Did you get my email the other week?


Cheers,

Phill.

G'day Phill - Yes, I got your email O.K.. I'll probably try to drop in sometime, it looks like I need to go to Northam a few times in the next couple of months.

Cheers, Ron.

Im pretty sure when you go to start off with a reined tractor wheeled or tracked if its wheel pull the rain back for the clutch then engage gear hop on your header let the clutch out and away you go if it was tracked pull both reins back for the steering clutches then go and disengage main clutch put it in gear then re engage clutch then hop on your header and release both steering clutches
hope that all makes sense have never heard of anyone jumping on board as it passes

Paul