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john d: Oh the perrils of those underneath exhaust systems. M-F dealer talked my dad into trying a 135 out on demo. This was a gas model, and dad decided to give it a good test on NH S-69 baler with thrower and wagon. We had a field of hay, 6 to 8 windrows had been rained on and center of field was mowed after the rain, thus was ready for baling first. Those rained on windrows were all flufed up fot drying, and dad had to straddle the last one baling the new mowed hay. Being used to the old Farmall 300 with 13.6x38 tires dad never had to concern himself much about hay piling up under tractor let alone going on fire. My brother and I were on way to field with another tractor and wagon and could see what dad hadn't noticed, hay piling up under the M-F, then we saw smoke and finally it came free. The baler missed it and wagon went over the smoking hay. When it came out from under wagon it burst into flames. Dad still never noticed, too wraped up in this new tractor and his baling. When he turned at end of field he quite quickly saw my brother trying to beat out the fire with tree limbs we were able to break off a nearby tree. Dad joined us and by the time we got the fire out close to a 1/4 acre of hay was burned. I think the M-F dealers face was almost as red as the fire, when he came for his tractor. Dad always enjoyed giving folks a hard time as it allpied to any shortcomings. Of course the underneath exhaust system was the problem, but dad never let the M-F dealer know or accept that. He said if the damn tractor wasn't so low to the ground, hay wouldn't have piled up in the first place. He quickly pointed out it had never happened in 10 years using Farmall 300 or 560.
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