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Dad had a Huber H-K he bought to go along with a Huber threshing machine he planned to restore. Another member of our antique tractor club talked him into selling the H-K to him, and the threshing machine is still sitting in the barn, waiting for a wrench to touch it (coming up on 20 years of dust collected on it). The gentleman who bought the old beast is a Huber fan, and takes it to a few shows in our area. He even pulls it at our show and at an amateur, 'grass-roots' pull. The tractors (I've seen three different models in action) seem pretty clumsy and despite their apparent weight, don't seem to put their power to the ground. However, just belt one up to a threshing machine and stand back. The tractors seem very well suited to be threshing rigs. I can easily imagine a Huber tractor and threshing machine making the rounds, going from farm to farm. I believe they also set them up to pull their road graders. They also had a steam traction engine. There used to be one around the TVPPA steam show held in Dover, OH. If you're familar with traction engines, you'd remember the Huber once you saw it. In the typical design, traction engines have a long boiler, with a fire box at the rear and a smoke box and stack at the front. On the Huber, the boiler is a much larger diameter than a typical engine, and about 2/3 as long. Also, the smoke stack is at the rear of the boiler, above the fire box. The reason for the odd shape was a two-way flow design in the boiler. The smoke actually passes through the boiler, then is redirected back through another set of tubes to the stack in the rear. It's actually an ingenious design. First, by passing through twice more of the heat is drawn from the exhaust before it leaves the boiler, making it more efficient. Second, the engine is much shorter than conventional boiler designs, making it a lot more maneuverable. Definitely an interesting machine. Found a photo of a button online that pictures the Huber traction engine - button picture. There is a Huber museum in Marion, OH. I don't know their phone number, e-mail, etc... but I'm sure they'd be able to tell you just about anything you'd want to know about the Huber Manufacturing Co.'s history.
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