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dschaefer55

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I was born in 1955 on a grain & cattle farm in North Dakota. First tractor I ran in the early 1960's was a IHC Farmall A. As I got older I ran a IHC WD9, seems like this was just before 4 wheel tractors came off production lines. Back then I read Farm magazines like Successful Farmer, Farm Journal, Dakota Farmer and others. I remember stories & pictures about farmers hooking two, 2 wheel drive tractors together, a home made 4 wheel drive tractor. Taking front end off one tractor and mounting it on the back off a second tractor. Some how running the controls ( throttle, shifting and steering) from front tractor back to the rear tractor. Anyone see this or do this? Was I dreaming or did this really happen? What year did factory made 4 wheel drive tractors come out? I was reminded of this when I looked at Yesterdays Tractors vintage ads and saw the 1970 White Moline A4T 1600. Thanks for the memories!!
 
Neighbor 2 mile down the road had a FARMALL 450 & a M that he had hooked together, pulled 5-16" plows with it.
 
Lots of them were done that way even adding another motor on the frame hooked to the pto of mother tractor for more power. Read one story about a one cycl hooked on a John Deeres flywheel by a belt for more power said they didn't realize how much it helped till the aux engine quit one day.
 
About 1959 had IH md & 400 hooked to a 12 ft. Graham chisel plow. I don't remember how many tines!
Led
 
We saw three 830 John Deere 2 cylinders hooked together. The driver was on the middle tractor. Middle tractor had a cab on it that looked like from a 4440 or something similar. When the operator started the tractors he did it from the center tractor and put all three in gear at the same time. Then put all 3 in forward motion at the same time. These three tractors looked like they were factory made. A classy set up. Saw this at Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN. Heard some folks talking, said the rig was developed by a farmer from North Dakota, if my memory is right.

It was very impressive.
 
Local blacksmith shop in Bisbee, ND set up a couple of 'em back when I was a kid.

The one I remember was two Cases, 930's, IIRC.

I have (somewhere in my late Uncle's stuff) some 8mm footage of it. The nephew of the owner would like to see it, it is on my list of things to do to find those home movies.

They were set up like the Masseys in the video linked below.
double Massey
 
My metallurgy prof had a picture of himself next to a triple Steiger back in the 70s. He did quite a bit of consulting work with Steiger. Never saw the tractor myself, though.
 
There's an old boy that brings a big tandem Massy to the local threshing show for 10 or 15 years. It isn't very pretty, lots of layers of chipped paint, don't look like it would be much fun to drive. He's got the history of it on a sign along side of it, think he got it in Kansas or Nebraska.
 
I wrote a few free-lance stories for the Dakota Farmer back in the 60's. For one of the stories on 4WD tractors, I went to the farm where Steiger's were building tractors in their old dairy barn. I wrote just a brief story about Steiger to include with a spread of 4WD tractors available in the marketplace in the mid-60's. As I recall, the 1200 Case 4WD was new about then.
 
I saw the triple Steiger at Farm Fest 76 in Lake Crystal Minnesota. Visited with the rep for a while. Asked him if we would be able to see it in operation. He said "no didn't want to chance having it break down in front of the big crowd" Was a very impressive for a factory prototype.

Gene
 
Roadless county and Muir hill were probably some of the first 4wd tractors although not USA made
a217854.jpg
 
Ag teacher took our FFA group to visit Morton Salt Farms (1957) to see their large tractors plowing the Illinois River bottoms at Havanna. They farmed 18,000 acres. They were using 2 IH Super Ms in tandem to pull 8 bottom plows. Had 2 following each other. That 18,000 acres and 2000 head of cattle are now several feet under water. State bought, it shutoff the pumps, removed river dikes. Now a recreation and wildlife habitat.
 
One guy had a 3020 john deere and a case hooked together he had the 3020 up front and reached around and hit the case shifter on the end said it worked good but couldn't get the wife to drive it so he bought a bigger tractor.
 
There were lots of tandem tractors back in the 1950's-60's......The top picture is a pair of tandem MM's that I watched sell at Hays,Kansas last April.....
2s6lr0h.jpg

2nir8me.jpg

rk57ys.jpg

2rxfxpt.jpg

2vxlzxv.jpg

fnu15g.jpg

2j5xkww.jpg
 
Two of same tractors hooked together is what I remember! The video of the twin Massey's in tractor pull is great, I had forgotten the description "Tandem tractors". The silent film of the tandem Ford tractors from Iowa State University, 1959 is amazing!! I wish film was a "talkie". The steering of the two fords was very interesting. Looks like more than just using brakes for turning. I was also thinking of Steiger tractors were the first four wheel drive I remember seeing. I have a neighbor that still uses a later model Steiger. Lots of Canadian made Versatile 4 wheel drive sold around ND in early 4 wheel drive times. Used to have tractors pulls annually at ND State Fair in Minot, ND where I live. The people jumping on weight sled transitioned to a weight transfer sled ( no passengers needed). Oh those were the days. please keep the memoires coming! What fun!
 
The only one I ever saw here in person was two John Deere As hooked together. I don't even think I was in school yet. Dad stopped and we watched it work.

Of course then there was this one of a kind walking tractor.
a217866.jpg
 
Story here of a local guy that did that with a G. He had a neighbor over helping with a yard project. He sent his young boy out with it to do some field work. From the yard they could see the tractor was struggling. So both went out to investigate. His son never sped up the throttle on the helper engine, so it was adding nothing. Sped the helper engine up, and the G took off like a rocket. The neighbor was a believer in the add-on engine after that.
 
Here are 2 early ones. Never heard of Rome tractors other than this article, impressive 600 hp back in '73. I save unusual ones in my scrapbook when I find them.
a217878.jpg

a217879.jpg
 
I have a booklet that was put out by the Universty of Ill. in the early 1960 s that tells you how to build a Tandem Tractor outfit.
It has pictures of John Deeres, Cases s Olivers , Farmalls and others. A Deere dealer in central Ill. made some kits to hook 2 , two cyl. Deers together also. A interesting booklet that OSHA would go nuts with now.
At one time in the 60 s, The heart of Ill. fair at Peoria had tandem tractor pulling classes. It was fun to see what showed up and what pulled good and some that did not do good. clint
 
Wow, Gtractor fan, thank you for the pic of the M-M , Stutgart built tractor that you posted . My wife and I and our friend, Jerry Erickson , owned this tractor for several years . We sold it about 14 yrs ago. It was kept at Amana Ia. for a few yrs, so I do not know where this pic was taken. Help me out on this as they displayed it around that area several times. This was one of the first 5 or 6 tractors out of only 31 that were built at the M-M dealer in Stuttgart, Ark. clint
 
I don't know where the MM picture was taken. I found this picture in a book I got from the county library. VERY interesting that you once owned it!
 
Dad had 2 M's in tandem, pulled 5-16s in 3rd gear, had 2 12 ft discs on a squadron hitch, front tractor had M&W live hydralic pump. I never got to drive it in the field he was always said it was to easy to jacknife if the back tractor wasn't idled down enough, so most of my youth was spent on a 720 JD and a 4 bottom plow and one of the 12 ft dics or a 12 ft field cultivator.
 
thanks Kent@junction. That begs the question to all you tandem guys; how do you steer the two tractors? The turning brakes are the only way to turn that I can think of. The steering wheel on the back tractor is not used for anything? The silent film of the tandem Ford tractors from Iowa State University shows some kind of steering linkage from back to front tractor, must be hooked to the front tractors brakes?
 
Heres some rare WD-40 McCormicks hooked in tandem....They will be selling on a sale in Canada this summer..
k2e7nl.jpg
 
(quoted from post at 21:22:40 03/01/16) I was born in 1955 on a grain & cattle farm in North Dakota. First tractor I ran in the early 1960's was a IHC Farmall A. As I got older I ran a IHC WD9, seems like this was just before 4 wheel tractors came off production lines. Back then I read Farm magazines like Successful Farmer, Farm Journal, Dakota Farmer and others. I remember stories & pictures about farmers hooking two, 2 wheel drive tractors together, a home made 4 wheel drive tractor. Taking front end off one tractor and mounting it on the back off a second tractor. Some how running the controls ( throttle, shifting and steering) from front tractor back to the rear tractor. Anyone see this or do this? Was I dreaming or did this really happen? What year did factory made 4 wheel drive tractors come out? I was reminded of this when I looked at Yesterdays Tractors vintage ads and saw the 1970 White Moline A4T 1600. Thanks for the memories!!
Click to expand...


I don't know when factory made 4X4's started production but a quick search turns up a fella that made a 4x4 tractor sometime around 1912. Wasn't successful so I'm not counting that. Wagner sold production 4X4's starting in 1955, the year you and I were born. JD's first 4X4 was purchased from Wagner the I believe sometime around 65 JD bought Wagner. So factory made 4X4's were available at least as early as 55 and maybe even earlier.

Rick
 
Like the neighbor had the front wheels were kept on and steering rod was extended to steering wheel of rear tractor and steered normal ecept for length. A lot of the ones made by removing front axle I think you would find a hydroclic control hooked to steering wheel with 2 cylinders in the coupling between the tractors, would work like modern articulated 4 wheel drive tractors. John deere used that type of steering valve on combines back to 64 and that would have done the job so at time most of them were assembled the hydrolics were avaible for that. Earlier just kept front wheels on to steer.
 
Massey Harris made a true 4 wheel drive tractor from 1930 to 1936 called a GP.3000 of them were made,so there was a major tractor company making a true 4 WD back when.
 

Wrong John deeres first 4wd was the 8010 it had transmission problems they recalled most of them and remembered them 8020 the 8010 came out with the new generation tractors
Then there was the John Deere dain 3wd tractor made before John Deere bought the Waterloo boy company . The Wagner built tractors came out later
 
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