IH B with cotton picker

IBleedIHRed · Oct 25, 2012

Harold H or some of you other cotton picker specialist.

I was told by a friend of mine he saw a IH Model B with a low-drum cotton picker mounted on it, the owner said there were 50-60 made.

I have never heard of this, Super C was the smallest tractor I have seen used.

gene bender · Oct 25, 2012

I have heard that they did make some but never seen one. Would be great to see one.

nosih · Oct 25, 2012

if I remember correctly, there is one at the Mississippi Agriculture & forestry Museum in Jackson, Ms.

LMack · Oct 25, 2012

Looks like it was not a picker with the overhead basket like we know but a "Cotton Harvester" as shown in the link below. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society the B was used to mount "cotton harvesters"
Cotton Harvester on Farmall B

LMack · Oct 25, 2012

I kept looking at the Wisconsin site and lo and behold . . . a Farmall B with a cotton picker.
B With a Mounted Cotton Picker

Jim Becker · Oct 25, 2012

I think if you keep poking around on the WHS site you can find a few other B cotton picker pictures. I think the first one cited in this thread is probably a spindle type picker, but hard to be sure. The framework at the back is probably for a basket that wasn't installed when it was photographed. Clearly there were several different pickers mounted on Bs. But 50 or 60 seems like too many. I'd welcome any hard evidence of now many there could have been. IH spent so long developing the pickers that there were many variations mounted on quite a variety of tractor models.

Hugh McKinney · Oct 26, 2012

I didn't realize that the low-drum type drove in the regular "forward" direction when working. As you know, the more common type, the high-drum, went backwards, with gears mounted to the axle housings that caused the wheels to turn backwards and also making it sit over a foot higher. Pretty tricky driving one on the roads between fields, must avoid any gear higher than 3rd!

Jim Becker · Oct 26, 2012

Experimental machines were built in many configurations. Quite a few ran the tractors in the "forward" direction. The production machines, high or low drum, ran the tractor backwards. Production strippers "harvesters" were built both ways.

rustcollector · Oct 26, 2012

There were 2 "B" tractor mounted pickers made in 1943 and another 11 in 1944. They were identified as the "B 10 L" picker. The picker was a 10 spindle high machine with two drums mounted inline in one row unit on the right side of the tractor. The tractor moved forward when in picking mode. The basket mounted over the left back wheel and dumped to the left with some form of hydraulics if I am not mistaken? Of the 13 machines, one is in back at the Ag and Forestry Museum in Jackson, MS and one in private hands in the Holcomb,MS area. They are very unique machines. Stats come from WHS Archives, engineering reports and production records. I don't think these are available without going through the research department there.

IBleedIHRed · Oct 26, 2012

Thanks for all the input, found the pictures at the WHS.

The most common low-drum picker was mounted on a Farmall H or SH, some SC were tried and worked in West Texas on flat ground, did not work well climbing the hills of Mississippi.

High-drum was needed in the Delta, taller plant height, skip-row pattern.

IBleedIHRed · Oct 26, 2012

Thanks for all the input, found the pictures at the WHS.

The most common low-drum picker was mounted on a Farmall H or SH, some SC were tried and worked in West Texas on flat ground, did not work well climbing the hills of Mississippi.

High-drum was needed in the Delta, taller plant height, skip-row pattern.

rustcollector · Oct 27, 2012

Sorry, but the low drum was mounted on the M slightly more than on the H according to the production logs from the Memphis plant (WHS stats).

IBleedIHRed · Oct 27, 2012

No doubt Captain Obvious. The IH M and SM was the tractor of choice for cotton pickers whether it was low or high drum.

I have a lot of seat time in a cotton picker, from a IH 622 to a CIH Module Express CPX 625

IH B with cotton picker

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