Rural Skeletons of Trucks/Tractors

I’m getting $320 per ton.
95% unfortunately goes to China.
The guy I deal with and haul my steel to explained to me that before the Olympics the price of steel always climbs as the demand for materials to build the Olympic stadium and housing increases.

I hauled just over 16k lbs of scrap in last year.

Nick
 
I got this 1948 (I think) D8 series 2U in the early 80's. Did lots of work with it.
Last fall I figured it might be time to sell it. The powertrain was decent. The undercarriage was bad.
I phoned local scrap place for a quote.
Selling it to china just wasn't sitting well with me.
I sold it to a guy who has the Caterpillar virus, similar to but different than mopar disease.
I was relieved to see the mighty D8 go to a loving home. I took $1000 less than scrap price.

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Does anyone remember "Oscar's Dreamland" in Billings Montana? I hope I got the name and place right. I visited in '93. Oscar Cooke was, at that time, in his 90's and has since passed on. He had many antique tractors in his collection. The lot has been auctioned off, but anyone who saw it was surely impressed. I hope many of those beautiful machines have been preserved. Anyone know? Any pics?
Lindsay
 
The guy I deal with and haul my steel to explained to me that before the Olympics the price of steel always climbs as the demand for materials to build the Olympic stadium and housing increases.

I hauled just over 16k lbs of scrap in last year.

Nick

That’s interesting and makes sense.
 
I got this 1948 (I think) D8 series 2U in the early 80's. Did lots of work with it.
Last fall I figured it might be time to sell it. The powertrain was decent. The undercarriage was bad.
I phoned local scrap place for a quote.
Selling it to china just wasn't sitting well with me.
I sold it to a guy who has the Caterpillar virus, similar to but different than mopar disease.
I was relieved to see the mighty D8 go to a loving home. I took $1000 less than scrap price.

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The D8 looks like a Beast! That’s a great story and the sacrifice you made, to let it live on, is admirable. My hat’s off to you!
 
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Funny in a naive way, I didn’t even notice the T and diamond in front of the chrome grill. So now I had to research the company. Wow, a Chicago based company and over 100 year old. Here are some military uses in the next post.
 
I'm glad you let her live on. :thumbsup: Got any more pics?
It was a easy decision.
Here is the gasoline starting engine. Or the pup.
To the front there is a shaft that goes up thru the hood. A small crank handle goes on the shaft. This little engine is a wolf in pups clothing.
It's fairly high compression and has no muffler. The exhaust pipe runs thru the diesel engine intake manifold to warm the air for starting in frigid temps. Also the gas engine is water cooled and connected to diesel engine water jacket. With thin oil the gas engine will start in any temp.
In all the time I owned the beast I only spent money on it once, other than oil filters and oil and grease.
I had the starting motor's magneto tuned up.
I understand that this exact machine, or hundreds of them I guess, built the Alaska highway in a hurry. Something about russia possibly invading. There is supposed to be lots of these cats left up there scattered along the highway.

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I like those old gas starting engines. We Had a WD9 (McCormick?) that was a diesel with spark plugs. You would start it on gas and then once it was warmed up you would pull a lever which shut the gas and spark of and start feeding it diesel. We used that tractor with a front end loader. We hung a lot of hogs and steer off that whenever we butchered. Also had a backhoe attachment that ran off the rear PTO that we would borrow from the neighbor from time to time. Also had the wide side PTO pully that we would hook up to an old hammer mill to grind feed for the hogs.
I will have to look through some of mom’s old photo albums to see if there are an pictures. We used it up at least until 1980.
 
3 model D John deere 's
Left one is aprox 1928 maybe 29 serial number shows the year but it's been a while since I had this info in my brain. . 2 forward speeds. They called them 15-27. 15 horse on the drawbar and 27 hp on the belt pulley.
Middle one is 1931, for some reason this sticks in my brain, 3 forward gears and pto. Steel wheels.
Right is 1934 ish. 3 speed pto.
This one was converted to rubber tires. The spokes were cut and rims welded onto the spokes.
These 3 are favorites. Part of my dads collection. They are all in operating condition.
2 cylinder gas engine right around 500 cubic inches. Low rpm and the original torque monsters. Actually I guess the steam engine was the original torque monster

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Photo of my latest "Project"??

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Its an "Oliver 70 Row Crop". I believe its about a '46 or '47 model, haven't verified yet.

I just got possession of it a couple weeks ago, so haven't started work on it yet. It was originally purchased new by my Great-Grandfather and used for many years on his farm before my Father bought it from him and then used it on his own farm. This tractor was one that I operated on Dad's farm for many years when I was in my 'teens.

I guess that might explain my insane desire (more like an Obsession than desire) to try to save this tractor. A desire is something you "want to do", an Obsession is something you "have to do". It has SO much family history tied to it. Its my heritage I guess.

Here's a photo when it was still in use on Great-Grandpa's farm.

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Thanks for posting! Do you have any more pictures of this truck? Is this stuff for sale? I'd sure like to own it.View attachment 506225

I made a mistake as the town of Corning is in Arkansas and not Missouri.


These vehicles are seen on the main road,Rt 67 I believe, that goes through the town of Corning Missouri. I would think a phone call to the local police department or city hall would be a starting point on who owns this property and vehicles. Good luck.

Hopefully this clears things up on the location of Corning.
Thanks everyone for adding all the colorful stories.
 
with the Covid screwing up life I found myself with a lot of time, and I sort of started a bit of an addiction...I fell in love with these little Ford Tractors...one turned into 5..

I bought a 42 2N that's actually a Wartime "Warhorse" model with a Sherman combo Auxiliary trans.
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Then I bought a '44 2N for parts for the '42, and it turned out it wasn't far off from being a runner....which I eventually put a Midwest products Davis Skyline Loader on.
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Then I bought my first 8N an early '48, but it unfortunately was beyond rescue.
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Then I bought '51 8N that came from the original owners estate.
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And finally I bought another early '48 8N from a farm auction.
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There's just something so rewarding to reviving the machinery that put food on the tables of hundreds of thousands in their lifetime.

Nick
 
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