Towing dead tractor

[Jim.ME]

That useless loader attachment didn't have cylinders with safety valves, if a hose were to burst, the whole mess of it would come crashing down.

I won't say all, because there is likely at least one exception out there, but most loaders do not have safety holding valves in the cylinders to prevent dropping if a hose fails. Holding valves require pressure to release and allow retracting the cylinders. The float position in a loader valve would not work with safety holding valves in/on the cylinders.

 

[scootergmc]

I've never seen an 8N with working brakes.

As long as the towing tractor has brakes, I don't see a problem with the plan. The dry weight of an 8N is 2400lbs or so. You'll have well less than that on the 600's 3pt hitch especially if you remove the front wheels and weights. Probably under 1000lbs.

The 650 has a rear lift capacity of 1250lbs (all based on info from tractordata).

Worst case if you feel yourself getting in trouble, the 8N's front end will make a great boat anchor. Just lower the 3pt.

The only problem with the original plan is a lot of unnecessary effort if there's decent pickup truck and another human with arms (and legs) who can help.

 

[scootergmc]

Just one steep hill, up the whole side of Midpines mountain.

Something folk here call a mountain, I would call it a hill.

Are you up Carstens near the reservoir? I can't remember if that's paved or not?

 

[1948CaseVAI]

One for, one against. Not a safety issue since I have plenty of room to play with and slow speeds. I’ll give it a try.

NO - you have two against! Read the second sugestion again as it does not advocate locking the steering wheel.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Your talking about a bunt pole for the moving things with in thrashing machine years and some after.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I'd hang that mower on the back of the 8N and then the front would be almost even with the rear so no front weight needed. IT might just drag some if the 3pt sags off though. Hang a barrel full of water on the front of the 600 to hold it down if needed. As for the yard I would just probably us a chain going slow on level ground would not be a problem. I used to even drag start tractors alone. Get the first hooked to the dead one start it moving out in a field then jump off run back to the dead and away we went. Start it put in neutral run up and stop the pulling one. To old and slow for that now days.

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I'd hang that mower on the back of the 8N and then the front would be almost even with the rear so no front weight needed. IT might just drag some if the 3pt sags off though. Hang a barrel full of water on the front of the 600 to hold it down if needed. As for the yard I would just probably us a chain going slow on level ground would not be a problem. I used to even drag start tractors alone. Get the first hooked to the dead one start it moving out in a field then jump off run back to the dead and away we went. Start it put in neutral run up and stop the pulling one. To old and slow for that now days.

Talking about a lot of unnecessary work...

How does he lift the mower with the DEAD 8N? How does he hang a barrel of water on the front of the 600? Not to mention all of that adds a significant amount of weight that the 600 has to pull up the road, and removes a significant amount of weight from the rear wheels of the 600 that it needs for traction.

Honestly I think Plan A is the way to go. I don't even like the chain behind a pickup idea. Been there, done that with an IH 240 Utility. My Dad's 3/4 ton 4x4 scratched and spun up modest hills pulling it on a chain. Yes, the truck was in 4x4, and the tractor was in neutral. Not to mention the downhill was a bit scary because the right brake broke.

 

[YosmiteSam]

Sounds like you've got good brakes at least. The driver's depth perception may be questionable, but the tractor's brakes work...

Seriously, you don't even want to brush up against a tree on the outside of the wheel. First off it's not good for the tree, and second off you stand a better than average chance of wiping out the valve stem on the tire, leaving you with a flat. But, if the tree is ending up on the INSIDE of the wheel, you weren't brushing up against it on the OUTSIDE... Just stay away from the trees, and if it's too tight to get through where you need to go on a regular basis, do some trail building. Get rid of the trees you have to rub up against to get through.

"Safety valve?" What's that? Remember, it's 1954.

As far as towing your tractor, see my response above. Take it slow and use common sense. Your "panic move" should be lowering the 3pt to put the wheel-less front end of the 8N on the ground, turning it into a boat anchor.

Your replies certainly do provide me with good, and needed information for this task. Knowing the dry weight is useful, now I know that the 600's three point will lift the front end of the 8N for sure. Do you happen to know what the wet weight of an 8N is, both the towing tractor and the towed tractor have their rear tires filled with salt water.

Your suggestion to lower the three point and use the 8N like a boat anchor was excellent and I hadn't thought of that. That resolves my biggest worry that I might stall out on the steep grade and not be able to hold two tractors against the grade with the brakes while I restart the engine. So I will not only take of the tires I will pull the extender arms and wheel hubs from the front axle beam, that way there won't be wheels there even of the small diameter hubs kind of wheel. That way if I set it down it will be down and not roll backwards.

I know about the 8N brake issue, and know that at some point Ford changed the 8N's wheel seals, which largely solved the brake issue. So someday if you happen to get on a later 8N you might actually get to see and 8N with working breaks.

The 600 has breaks which have been getting quite a workout and with each use they only get better because they are polishing the drums up nicely. They don't grab now at all.

About that tree. I did miss the bottom of the tree with my rear tire, it was a 20 inch oak tree and it leaned a bit, that's why it brushed up against the tire higher up. I was navigating by what I saw on the ground, not what it would be higher up off of the ground. The way they tree got inside of the tire was the tractor spun around the tree, and it walked or twisted itself inside after the tractor had spun about 180 degrees around the tree.


Learning curve stuff, very surprising, it wasn't what I expected to happen at all.

I still need to mow more with the bushhog, but I'm waiting for a new water pump our host has shipped to me. Might get it today but I'm not going to take the bushhog out again until I've got the 8N's front wheel weights moved to the 600's front end.

 

[YosmiteSam]

I'd hang that mower on the back of the 8N and then the front would be almost even with the rear so no front weight needed. IT might just drag some if the 3pt sags off though. Hang a barrel full of water on the front of the 600 to hold it down if needed. As for the yard I would just probably us a chain going slow on level ground would not be a problem. I used to even drag start tractors alone. Get the first hooked to the dead one start it moving out in a field then jump off run back to the dead and away we went. Start it put in neutral run up and stop the pulling one. To old and slow for that now days.

Both you and me are too old for that nowadays.

When I was a kid I would pick up rocks by myself. I would take the M with the rock wagon out, get it lined up to the rows I wanted to cover and get the tractor moving very slow. Then jump off. Once in while I would run up and turn the wheel a bit to keep it inline with the row as it crossed the field, and the rest of the time I would pick up rocks and toss them into the waggon.

Most of my tractor hours were on JD 4010's and 4020's, but we did have an old M for utility work.

That was in southwest Colorado. But when I grew up I went to college, then the Air Force, then the merchant marine after their was a large reduction of force after Nam was over. Then I worked in a Physics lab at another University, then became a tool maker, a millwright, then a steamfitter. I went 40 years without being on a tractor.

 

[YosmiteSam]

Not sure about this plan, maybe someone else can weigh in. Sounds like you are going up steep hills with a lot of weight on your 3 pt hitch. Tractors are known to flip backwards very easily but maybe whatever you’ve rigged up back there will act as a “wheelie bar.” Maybe not. You did mention weights. Will they be enough?

My other name is CAN DO, I'll make them work. I have several large log chains, I can wrap them around the front axle, that will add about 200 more pounds to the 200 pounds of wheel weights I'm going to add.

I think we got it worked out @BarnyardEngineering Engineering made a great suggestion, to consider lowering the lift and use the front end of the 8N as an emergency break if things start to get away from me.

 

[YosmiteSam]

I won't say all, because there is likely at least one exception out there, but most loaders do not have safety holding valves in the cylinders to prevent dropping if a hose fails. Holding valves require pressure to release and allow retracting the cylinders. The float position in a loader valve would not work with safety holding valves in/on the cylinders.

In my view if a loader doesn't have those safety valve It does not work. I will not work it. I don't need a loader anyway, with the rocks we have here one wouldn't ever be able to get the bucket to load. We have so many rocks, and so little soil that in 25 years I have yet to be able to get a shovel to go more than a couple inches in the ground before it hits a rock.

I have already decided to cut that monstrosity up for scrap. I don't even want to sell it whole because I wouldn't to be in any way connected to someone's death.

 

[YosmiteSam]

The only problem with the original plan is a lot of unnecessary effort if there's decent pickup truck and another human with arms (and legs) who can help.

My mother is 90, my wife is 68, there's a neighbor friend, but he's 70 and almost blind, so there are no humans around here to help me.

Besides my only pickup is a small 2 wheel drive Toyota. I don't want to break it and trying to tow a tractor up that steep a hill would break it. It's at least a mile of a 10% grade, steeper than you will ever see on a highway.

Around here we keep all of our natural flat spots safe in the gem museum in Mariposa. That way we can show our kids what a flat spot looks like.

I'm worried about the 600 being able to handle that hill with a tow attached, that 600 doesn't have a low range Sherman transmission, the standard low gear I do have is not that low.

 

[YosmiteSam]

Are you up Carstens near the reservoir? I can't remember if that's paved or not?

No Carstens road is on the other side of the gorge. My place is off a private road, which is off of Colorado road on the other side.

Check out a trail cam video one of my neighbors posted in Twitter, that trail cam is located about 2,000 feet to the west of me. There are some nice kitty cats in the video. The mother cat keeps her den on the south end of my place.

https://x.com/bethpratt/status/1819796276650852570

I call her Gweneviere. We see each other fairly often. She's going to be in a tractor tales story I'm going to write someday about my tractor experiences in the mountains which happened about 10 days ago on Allred road about 15 miles from my home.

 

[Non-farmer]

Check out a trail cam video one of my neighbors posted in Twitter, that trail cam is located about 2,000 feet to the west of me. There are some nice kitty cats in the video. The mother cat keeps her den on the south end of my place.

https://x.com/bethpratt/status/1819796276650852570

I call her Gweneviere. We see each other fairly often. She's going to be in a tractor tales story I'm going to write someday about my tractor experiences in the mountains which happened about 10 days ago on Allred road about 15 miles from my home.

I am jealous. They are such gorgeous animals.

PS: I bet they also do a great job of keeping the deadbeat varmint population down,

 

[Johnnypopper]

The steering wheel is NOT "locked" in this instance. It's held by a stretchy inner tube.

For the tractor to follow you and self-steer, the tow bar needs to be RIGIDLY attached to the front of the tractor. Then as long as the steering is somewhat aligned, it will follow you along like a dog on a leash.

There's some colloquial name for the push pole you built. They were commonly used years ago to push wagon loads of hay up into the barn to be unloaded. Regardless, as your pole can pivot at both ends it will not steer the tractor reliably.

Your talking about a bunt pole for the moving things with in thrashing machine years and some after.

A team of horses could not back a loaded wagon up the barn hill and into the barn, but they could push it up the barn hill with a bunting pole.

 

[YosmiteSam]

I am jealous. They are such gorgeous animals.

PS: I bet they also do a great job of keeping the deadbeat varmint population down,

Yes, and they like me because I mow away the varmint population's ground cover for them. At least I have them fooled into thinking I do it for them.

When I say "they" and "them" I mean all of the many interesting critters who've shared my homestead with me during my retirement. Since 2007.

Those lions, many bobcats, many coyotes, two families of ravens, and buzzards. Those are the smart interesting ones.


I have tractor news, good news, my water pump promptly arrived courtesy of our host. A fine job of getting it out of their door. The finish and attention to detail of the pump impressed me, it's good work. I painted it up nice.

Nice after I washed of the cosmoline kind of protectant it was coated with. It wasn't cosmoline, it was black, but it was gooey like cosmoline.

I'll put the pump on tomorrow after the paint is dry, and will then test the 600 up and down that hill without the bush hog to fine tune the carb.

It's also getting an electric fuel pump tomorrow. That's why I have to tune the carb again, for the sixth time tune that carb.