Straight pipe or muffler

Lowbuck1010 · Mar 6, 2021

Over the winter Ive watched a good many videos and seen quite a number of tractors that have had their mufflers replaced with straight pipes. I know Im not rolling in cash and I suppose there may be some financial benefit to this, but wouldnt the noise create a huge problem or distraction? Even on my small tractors running without a muffler for short periods of time was annoying. Is there any benefit to running with no muffler outside of economics?
Thanks
Todd

markct · Mar 6, 2021

Usually it's the same reason as pickup
trucks with straight pipes, they think
it's cool, I did too as a teenager,
eventually you realize no one with
much sense thinks it's as cool as you
do. Mufflers aren't that expensive,
and I seen plenty of guys remove
perfectly good mufflers to install
straight pipes that cost even more.
Rarely is it much power boost it just
sounds like it, mostly just boosts
their ego.

TimWafer · Mar 6, 2021

Not if you factor in the cost of hearing aids!
I just did the reverse and put a muffler on the 706 I recently bought that had a straight pipe. My hearing is bad already but I just couldn't stand that straight pipe.

Mike(NEOhio) · Mar 6, 2021

I like 'em quieter. A lot like the chrome straight pipes but I never cared for the resonance, especially the two-cylinders.

dairyman · Mar 6, 2021

Kind of a wash anymore, a lot of the replacement mufflers
dont have baffles in them so theyre not much better than
straight pipes. On my Allis 7040 I cut the muffler open and
welded in a baffle that helped with the noise.

560Dennis · Mar 6, 2021

Save your hearing , quiet is golden , long hours in the tractor seat , you forever will be glad you did.

SVcummins · Mar 6, 2021

They sound good when she starts packing the front
tires but youll still hear it when you go to bed at
night . I modified a weight rack from a 4850 and put
on my 4020 and with a full stack of weights it still
would pack the tires and wow did it sound good for a
year or two .

bc · Mar 6, 2021

Maybe they are pulling tractors. I'd like to find a quieter muffler for my ford 1500 2 cyl diesel with 1 1/2" pipes. Now if they made some glass packs then it might sound better. Used to pour gasoline in glass packs to burn them out and get a deeper sound.

rusty6 · Mar 6, 2021

I think its an age thing. As you get older and a little more sense you realize you will damage your hearing running long hours with a straight piped tractor. Its no fun being old and deaf. The only thing I'll run a straight pipe on is my 52 Mercury flathead. And its not at all loud even without a muffler. I just like the sound.

steve_in_mo · Mar 6, 2021

As most of us older guys who actually ran tractors back in the day might say "Huh?"
You can lose a good portion of your hearing that way.

J.Wondergem · Mar 6, 2021

What did you say? I couldn't hear you.

Ultradog MN · Mar 6, 2021

The 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch
Spinoza once wrote:

"A man's intelligence is inversely
proportional to his tolerance to noise."

I say put a muffler on it and leave the
straight pipes for the idiots.

Russ from MN · Mar 6, 2021

Put a muffler on it, save your hearing! We are too soon old and too late smart! Besides, if an engine is designed to run with a muffler it
won't run properly with a straight pipe

Bruce from Can. · Mar 6, 2021

Even with good mufflers , after thousands of hours
riding on open tractors, with my head turned looking
over my right shoulder. My left ear has 50%
hearing. I didnt start wearing ear plugs till about 20
years ago, and that was already 20 years too late.
Keep a muffler on your tractor and wear some
hearing protection. My advice. My opinion is nobody
else wants to hear your noise from a unmuffled
tractor either.

Loosehandle · Mar 6, 2021

Either way I use hearing protection
especially with a 2 cyl JD in the field
.

Absent Minded Farmer · Mar 6, 2021

Glad to see someone shares my philosophy, from three centuries before I had the same thought. I'll have to add Spinoza to my list of philosophers to read & read up on.

Mike

DR. EVIL · Mar 6, 2021

I run my FARMALL Super H maybe half dozen times a winter pushing a little snow running around 1000-1200
RPM. I have a stainless steel straight pipe on it, the cheap P.O.S. Stanley muffler Dad had on it was
too tall to get in/out of my shop. I still have the Stanley muffler, 2 of them actually, if I do ever
need to run the SH or M wide open for extended periods, but I'd probably get a stainless Bermuda KEN OEM
replica muffler. I hate the Stanley's!
I also hate 2 cylinder Deere's, and 2 cylinder Deere diesels I REALLY HATE! Why on earth would anyone
want to make a loud obnoxious sounding tractor even noiseier. And I spent enough time one spring on an R
diesel to have earned my hatred. Put a steel 5 gallon bucket over your head and have somebody beat you
senseless with a baseball bat. THAT'S what a 2 cyl Deere sounds like to me. ANY tolerance to them
totally disappeared the day my neighbor I worked for put me on a #60 pulling a 6-30 rotary hoe hoeing
beans, 80 acres of beans, all danged day! He had THREE 4020's and a 4320 and he couldn't get me one of
them?
STILL possible to make horsepower with a less obnoxiouus sounding exhaust than a straight pipe.
Thing that probably did my hearing the most harm is the DETROIT DIESEL powered semi-trucks I drove. I'd
take a Cummins over a Detroit every time.

DeltaSteve · Mar 6, 2021

A straight pipe sounds cool at a show,or a tractor pull. But if you're acctually useing or farming with it. Add the muffler.Why destroy your hearing by saveing a few bucks on a muffler.

Steve@Advance · Mar 6, 2021

"A man's intelligence is inversely
proportional to his tolerance to noise."

That's why concerts, barrooms, and some choose to surround themselves with outrageously loud music.

Get the background loud enough, it blocks the brain from hearing the voices of guilt!

Still, hard to resist the opportunity to hear (and feel) a big military radial engine come to life, a real steam engine whistle, a well tuned street rod...

8NHENRY · Mar 6, 2021

Loved the sound of straight pipes. I would put them on everything from the push mower to our 2-105. Probably a good reason why my ears constantly have a ringing in them.

the tractor vet · Mar 6, 2021

Hate straight pipes , don't care if it is a tractor , truck or Crotch rocket . Do you make more power NOPE , We did a test one day with the dyno same tractor with out a muffler and with a muffler and yep they were Stanly mufflers . My S/MTA with out warmed up maxed out with out at 58and a half with muffler maxed out at 59say.9 . NOW if you playen the game of lets go fast and are running tuned headers over stock exhaust yes you will see a power gain . My buddy 's kid wanted to put a straight pipe on the 1066 we put one on it and sent him out to plow Did not take long that he wanted the muffler back on . When i was a pup my first car had Hollywoods mufflers on a 56 Ford rag top with a 292 T bird special and on a quiet night you could hear that car making the turn coming around Pointvieu and i was NOT hogging on it . I lived in a town with a MUFFLER ORDNANCE and the night turn cop for what ever reason Hated me with a passion . It was a running battle to try and make it to the house and in the drive shut the lights and engine off and lay across the seat before he got there . I made it a pratice i never came home the same way twice . Now the Cheif lived up the street from me and the other cop lived down the street from me and neither one had and issue with my car just old harry Gee . When i found the 61 and got done with the build on that one it was four times faster and 100% quieter . It is far better to be seen then HEARD .

Lyndon - AB · Mar 6, 2021

I know of a couple of circumstances where a straight pipe was put in place of a broken-off muffler simply to get back to work right away. Most times though, its just showboating. A few of my occasional-use tractors around here have straight pipes because I like to hear them bark, but I also wear hearing protection when running them too. For anything that I run often, muffler stays on, not only to keep the noise down, but to maintain full power. Yes, despite what some people think, most stock engines are designed to run with a certain amount of exhaust backpressure. I'm not an engineer, don't ask me to explain it. I will say that it was very noticeable when I switched from straight pipe to muffler on my Oliver 990 with 3-71 Detroit. With straight pipe, it would pull down just a little, then completely fall off. With muffler, it will actually pull down on the revs and keep chugging through, and will only fall off after losing maybe a third of its revs. Pullers running stock Detroits are only shooting themselves in the foot by running a straight pipe.

jimtrs · Mar 6, 2021

(quoted from post at 13:05:44 03/06/21)...most stock engines are designed to run with a certain amount of exhaust backpressure. I'm not an engineer, don't ask me to explain it. I will say that it was very noticeable when I switched from straight pipe to muffler......

For those interested https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scavenging_(engine)
(can't seem to embed the link, must have something to do with the underscore or parentheses)

Loss of some hearing is one thing, 24/7 screaming tinnitus is another. Sucks.

Johnnypopper · Mar 6, 2021

Its definitely a muffler for me. I cannot afford to loose any more of my hearing ability. Once your hearing ability is gone, it never comes back, even if you stay away from loud noise from that point on. I also use ear muff type hearing protection which doubles as ear muffs to keep your ears warm in the winter.

730virgil · Mar 6, 2021

muffler nothing sounds better than a smooth running Ollie 6 cylinder with a good muffler.
How ever I still like my John Deere 2 cylinders with a good muffler

buickanddeere · Mar 6, 2021

I know of a place to stick those straight pipes .
Tractor operators and bystanders are already exposed to ear damaging levels of sound , why make it worse ?
A loud pipe also covers other sounds which could be warning of a problem .
A straight pipe may sound alright in a pulling tractor for a brief sprint . I run the large oval silencer muffler . It confuses the crowd when a tractor goes down the track and they cant hear it .

jacksun65 · Mar 6, 2021

I remember running my uncles super H with a strait pipe, hated it. One day driving a load of silage back to the farm I saw a glass pack laying on the side of the road. I
picked it up and when I got back to the farm put it on. It even had the clamp on it LOL. It was so quiet you could hear yourself think. I even put one on my 831 Case.

Geo-TH,In · Mar 6, 2021

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of seat time on a JD D with a straight
pipe.
At the end of the day the sky was moving in and out with exhaust pulses.
Muffler gets my vote.
george.

Shetland Sheepdog · Mar 6, 2021

Farm I worked on had an M&W turbo installed on a Ford 4600 SU.
The turbo came with a straight pipe, and after a day of bush hogging I bought a turbo muffler for it! In retrospect, a good set of hearing protection would prolly have been cheaper!

Rich'sToys · Mar 6, 2021

Like many others, I thought straight pipes or loud mufflers were cool when I was a teenager. But now I definitely believe in mufflers!

Straight pipe or muffler

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