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Mike: Most likely your grampa bought the rain cap around 1960. They were around for big exhaust systems before that, I'm talking 3" and up. First rain cap I ever saw on a farm tractor was around 1960. The first new tractor I ever bought that had one was the 560 diesel in 63. The problem with rain caps on those old gassers, gas exhaust is much hotter and burns them up within a year. Also because of the lower air flow the gassers beat the crap out of the pivot. They were much more successful on diesels, however by the turn of the century they have all but disappeared from tractors. Problem with them, they don't stay closed in high winds and rain. I've seen the wind actually holding the rain cap open and the position of the cap deflecting more water down the pipe than if it was left uncovered. A tractor out in the open with nothing over the exhaust pipe, as long as the exhaust is tight will get very little water down the pipe. The wind current over the pipe, allows it to take in exactly the rainfall by 2" diameter on your H. Just about the same as a rain gauge. Tractors parked around trees or buildings creating wind deflections can put a lot of water down the pipe. A loose pipe in the manifold on a Farmall can put huge amounts of water down the pipe, it runs along the hood, then follows the pipe. For these reasons, I stick with the soup can. If one forgets it one or two nights, wont hurt a thing not even in a 4" rain fall. Without the rain cap, one can find a soup can that is a snug fit and that my friend is water tight and will not blow open. I remember once leaving my 300 and 560 on a flood plain. From history we knew this area would max out at 20" of water over the field, thus we didn't get too concerned about tractors other than the exhausts were not covered. It was 4 days before we could get to them without messing up an alfalfa stand. 9" of rain fell in the first 24 hours and another 3" over the 3 days. When I fired up the tractors, they blew a bit of black soot, not a hint of them not wanting to crank because of water in cylinders. WHY? They were on open field (no deflections) and the exhaust systems were tight.
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