Idle ramblings

Bob Bancroft · Jan 26, 2021

SV's new elevated tank got me to thinking. I recall a derelict wooden structure way out back next to the "tool shed". From what I gathered it supported a fuel tank. I know there would have been gas there. I don't know about kerosene. From what little I gleaned, I believe there was some kerosene burned, and maybe they were happy to be rid of it! As I understand it, the first tractor was a Waterloo Boy. The next one would have been a JD D. Both would have been before electricity, which was never run way out to the tool shed anyhow. The D was introduced the year my father was born, so it may have pre-dated him as well.

As far back as I can recall, gas was in an underground tank next to the garage[within sight of the house]with an electric pump. Which I find interesting, as nothing held much more than 15 gallons, until the JD 2510 came along in 1966.[I hand crank fuel into anything holding 35 gallons or less] Diesel power didn't come to the farm until about 1970.

There were no propane powered tractors anywhere around here. I assume fuel preferences were a regional thing, based on price/availability and climate.

Bruce from Can. · Jan 26, 2021

Propane was rare here too. I do remember being at a farm auction, and the old fella had kept everything under cover for about 20 years after he quit farming, and finally had to sell and move off the farm due to age. He had bought most everything new, and had a big MM propane tractor and a bulk supply bottle to fill from. I don’t know how far he would have had to travel to buy a MM around 1960, but he was known as an eccentric. I figured it went into someone’s collection.

Texasmark1 · Jan 26, 2021

Geez, I need to get in on this "Idle Ramblings" thing....seems that's all I do lately. Had an acquaintance that farmed around Abilene, Tx. years ago. He was a Red guy and told me that one day the Red dealer came up to him and sold him on the idea that Propane tractors were the thing of the future...so he bought up a bunch of them......time passes and one day the Red dealer comes up to him and tells him that Propane sucks, you need to reconfigure with the latest fad....Diesel. So he trashes his Propane and goes with Diesel.

Just one man's story....part of my "idle ramblings".

centash · Jan 26, 2021

There a big propane MM in Brindleys yard here.....

Ben

rusty6 · Jan 26, 2021

(quoted from post at 02:31:05 01/26/21)
[I hand crank fuel into anything holding 35 gallons or less] Diesel power didn't come to the farm until about 1970.

There were no propane powered tractors anywhere around here. I assume fuel preferences were a regional thing, based on price/availability and climate.

I can probably count on one hand the number of propane powered trucks and tractors I've seen here in all the years farming. The few I knew seemed ok and known to last pretty much forever burning such clean fuel as propane.
I've hand pumped all my diesel fuel since about 1980. From the 1000 gallon skid tank into the tractors, combine, swather, slip tank on the pickup. Its good exercise and hasn't failed me yet.

NY 986 · Jan 26, 2021

The 4010 which is here today was the first diesel on this farm in 1963. I guess that Grandpa thought about a diesel tractor during the mid to late 1950's then never bought one. Pretty interesting that your ancestors had a Waterloo Boy and a model D. My grandfather always bought to the large side in terms of tractors. He bought an Oliver 80 during the depths of the Depression then a Farmall M before WWII. Mostly Farmall H's and JD B's sold around here then. 9N Fords never caught on around here. The Ford dealer tried pushing one to grandpa but grandpa was not crazy about sitting low to the ground especially for cultivating. It also boiled down that it never had the PTO power of a Farmall M.

ADB-Ia · Jan 26, 2021

Made me think of our fuel storage when I was a kid. A wooden stand with a tin roof holding two rectangular rubber tanks(kind of like tire rubber as I recall). They were airplane fuel tanks salvaged from WW II planes. I think they probably held around 200 to 300 gallons each??? One was for gas and one for diesel. 55 gallon drums of oil were on stands below them laying down with spigots to dispense oil into the quart jar with a funnel lid that we used to put oil in the tractors. In the 1960s we upgraded to 300 gallon steel tanks on stands. At that time we had a Oliver 1950 with fender fuel tanks. It held 112 gallons of fuel in the 3 tanks. It took about an hour to fill from the gravity flow tanks. My brother one time propped the nozzle open and went to do something else while he waited. Emptied the 300 gallon barrel before he remembered. Probably would be HazMat day if we did that now. (Some of my idle ramblings.)

Bob Bancroft · Jan 26, 2021

From what I can gather, when my grandfather was running the farm, it was very successful. He always had the latest. And local family was a JD dealer. The story goes that my grandfather and the dealer each drove a new JD D home from the depot in Syracuse. One for my family, and one for sale. They probably took the train up. I don't know if they stayed over, or what. No matter how they did it, it had to have been a very long day!

bc · Jan 26, 2021

Back after the 1973 gas crisis and rationing, there were a ton of people buy the propane conversion kits for their pickups, etc.

Goose · Jan 26, 2021

Yep.

And in the 1980's I converted a lot of them back to gasoline.

NY 986 · Jan 26, 2021

Interesting. Was your family's dealership near a rail line? I get that if you did not have a factory order scheduled then everything JD came out of the warehouse at Syracuse. Then the dealer was responsible for getting from Syracuse back to the dealership. The three closest dealers that I mentioned in the dealership thread in the JD discussion recently were all located on a rail right of way. The one over in Hall, NY has had the rail bed pulled up for over two decades now. Yeah, I can not imagine riding a D from basically North Syracuse to southern Cayuga County. Did you ever do any business with the dealer down in Dryden?

Bob Bancroft · Jan 26, 2021

Dryden is far enough away that was never considered. Interesting- the related dealer, Carlyle Bradley, was right on the east shore of Cayuga Lake, south of Aurora. There was a station in Aurora, just to his north, and one at Willets, just to his south. The RR ran right along the shore, so went through his property! I don't know if that was ever a factor?

37 chief · Jan 26, 2021

Dad had an underground gas tank, with a hand crank. When us kids started driving he would hide the hand crank. Stan

730virgil · Jan 27, 2021

there was a guy near Shannon Il that had M M 4 wheel drive with a 800 cubic inch that burned Lp gas he always had lots of people look a it

Idle ramblings

Bob Bancroft

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Bruce from Can.

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Texasmark1

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centash

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rusty6

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NY 986

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ADB-Ia

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Bob Bancroft

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bc

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Goose

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NY 986

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Bob Bancroft

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37 chief

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730virgil

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