RD6, one of my favorite tractors

yes gwh, your smile and that heavy duty stack support make it a classic photo.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

Hi George

Thought you'd be exhibiting one of those spit and polish tractors. That big smile makes up for it though. You've got a nice plot of land there to use it 4 sure. 😊

G'day George,

looks good, hope I can get a photo of me on the RD4 soon.😄

KOO, yes, that stack support is remarkable, isn't it? My cousin who took the photo took it as such an angle that a crane in the background was giving support to the stack!

Al, the photo was taken at Jim Zimmerman's in Iowa.

Macca, I like RD4s too, so get that photo posted!

GWH

Will you have that one at the stock show? Be fun to come over, but too much going on here...beware the Stock Show storm, every time I've been there it snowed about 2 feet...😉

Bruce, it has been nothing more than an Ag Cat all its life. But I could see pulling a grader behind it. I once tried to buy a No. 66 pull grader at an auction back in New York, but I went up to $4,000 and quit while I was ahead. It came down to me and a fellow with money to burn, and I figured I'd better let him have it. The No. 66 would have looked good behind my Best Sixty, that I sold back to Tom Madden (from whence it came to me). But I now have a fully-restored (and re-painted at vast expense) Cat Sixty diesel-conversion, and it would be nice to have a No. 66 pull grader for it. Oh well, .....

Ron, unfortunately, the RD6 is not in Colorado, and so I wont' have it at the Stock Show. Hope we don't get any more snow.

GWH

Back when I was about 10 years old (early 50's), my Dad bought a RD-6 from the state highway department. It never had a winch or CCU on it so I guess it was used strictly for pulling graders or other things. It had excellent tracks (like new) and street pads bolted to the shoes. It ran great but the pony motor wouldn't start and Daddy didn't know anything working on CAT pony motors. We always pulled it off with a Farmall M to start it. I swear it would start it seemed if you could just shake it good.

The first thing Daddy did with it was hook it to a dozer disc and put me on it to plow new ground. We owned a couple of new TD-14 International dozers at the time and I had been pulling the plow with them. The TD-14's turned around 1650 RPM's and the RD-6 turned about half that many. Daddy's last words to me before turning me loose on the RD-6 were, "Don't choke it down or I'll whip your butt."

Well I'd go a little piece and clutch the old RD-6, go a little piece and clutch it again. The thing would just start pulling good and I'd clutch it. Being use to the higher RPM's of the TD-14's, it sounded like it was fix'n to quit to me and I certainly didn't want Daddy on my case....LOL...... But he got on my case anyway for clutching it so much.

So there I was in a danged if you do and danged if you don't situiation. Being the hard headed young'n that I was, I decided, "Well, I'll just choke it down, take my whipping and go to the house." There was one spot in the new ground where the disc would really take to the ground and be hard to pull so I decided that I'd at least make it look good when I choked it down. All the way around the field I didn't clutch it no matter what it sounded like. I waited until I got to that soft spot and pulled that old tractor down until it hit the last lick and clutched it, made it look good. Well, dang, the thing went thump........thump....thump..thump and caught right back up. I went around several more times and everytime I'd get to the soft spot I'd pull it down until it quit, clutch it and it'd catch right back up. Daddy even came out and complimented me on my driving. Dang if I didn't spend a lot of hot days driving that RD-6 after that....LOL I even developed a soft spot for the thump..thump..thump sound of that old 3 cylinder engine.

Old 3T Lover - nice story! Any photos to go with it?