A Crawler for an Orchard????

[Anonymous-0]

From time to time I will see a crawler for sale that
says it was an orchard tractor. I don't understand the use of a crawler in an orchard unless thats all you had to begin with. Maybe someone else knows.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I believe that would be a narrow crawler. I think Deutz Fahr group still makes such crawlers for use in orchards today.

 

[Patsdeere]

I do know that they disperse the weight of the equipment much better than wheel tractors do and so you get less compaction of the dirt around the roots of trees. I would guess that it isn't the only reason so hopefully somebody else knows more. Another possibility could be that an orchard is probably wetter than an average field and wheel tractors don't do so well in mud, but that is just a guess.

 

[big fred]

The Lindeman crawlers were very low profile, combine that with the low compaction and it makes an excellent orchard tractor.

 

[old]

Well if you think about it you will see why they where used a lot that way. Say the track is 4 foot long and 12 inches wide, and the machine is around 6000lbs. Thats 8 foot of surface area on the ground so it doesn't pack the ground down much if any. Where as a tire only puts say 4 foot of surface on the ground if not a lot more. Plus the way they drive they can turn fast and easy around tress etc. Also many of them sit or did sit very low so again that was a plus to keep from hurting trees
Hobby farm

 

[Walt Davies]

My Neighbor had a Cat D-2 that he used to disc the weeds under in his orchard my Grandfather borrowed it every summer to do his orchard and 5 acre hay field.
That was my first tractor run well I pulled the levers to turn it while grampa did all the rest I must have been around 8 or 9 at the time.

I have since seen other farmers in California that use the D-2 for this.
Walt

 

[Anonymous-0]

Here in Oregon in Hood River Valley, which produces lots of pears and apples, crawlers are commonly used in orchards that have steep hillsides. They pull the spray tanks that have pto driven sprayers for the trees.

 

[37 chief]

I can make very tight turns with my AC Model M crawler when discing around trees. I can come within a few inches because I know where the disc will be in relation with my tractor every time. With rubber tires there is a lot of slipping. The crawler's may be a little shorter also. Stan

 

[4 bottom]

Many Hours on a D2 spraying orchards in northern NJ. Thet were low and you needed all the weight you could find to hold back a water filled sprayer. Just dont get it sideways on a hill with a full sprayer. ED

 

[Mike (WA)]

At least in eastern Washington and Oregon, most orchards are on hillsides, because they are very sensitive to frost during blossoming, and there has to be "air drainage". Cold air tends to move down the slope, and accumulate on the valley floor- blossoms would freeze every year if the trees were on the valley floor. Orchards are on the side hills, with space below for cold air to move, often with the help of large propellors that push it along. Of course, crawlers are much better on the slopes than wheel tractors.

 

[Rick Kr]

New Holland still makes a couple different orchard crawlers. Saw one a year or two ago, looks neat, probably don't have the pocket book for one anyway. But looking is free.

The small crawler in the link almost resembles the one in the northern tool catalog.

Rick
NH crawlers

 

[Crem]

I worked in an apple orchard back in the sixties and we had an oliver crawler with a rear sickle mower on it. It worked very well to mow around the apple trees. You could mow almost right up to the tree, then pull on the right lever and the sickle bar would pull away from the tree. as soon as you cleared the tree, a pull on the left lever would put you right back in line again. It worked great and was fun to run until you ran a track off of one side. Then the boss would give you hell as it was a job to get it back on again.