In Italy

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BearCreek Majors
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In Italy

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Sounds like I'm going to be somewhere around Venice Italy the last few weeks of september, anyone have any suggestions of sites to see for gearheads?

Pat

oehrick
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Re: In Italy

Post by oehrick »

Plenty of culture & history in Venice Pat, I'm told the Leonardo Da Vinci museum is good, (if a bit youth oriented) and probably the most 'gear' oriented. There are plenty of statues and bells in bronze if foundrywork appeals but you need to go West to Modena, Turin, Milan etc which has been / is the industrial belt with historic auto stuff, if autos float your boat, as for agricultural hopefull someone on the 'mainland' can advise

Is this a honeydew trip ??
Best regards
Rick - Bogside on Bure


1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

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Re: In Italy

Post by BearCreek Majors »

No honeydew trip, my employer purchased a rollform machine from a company in Mirano Venezia, I'll be there training for a few weeks.
Thanks for the info, I'll probably try to go west to see what we can find.

Pat

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Re: In Italy

Post by oehrick »

Having done a few machinery installations in Italy over the years, always found the common ground of engineering overcame most language difficulties (as long as you've done your homework to learn some of the lingo and take a dictionary etc for the rest) and that if you have a particular interest the locals try and find something in that line to entertain of weekends are free.

What line are you in ? mine was food machinery, sawing & forming frozen & slicing tempered meat / fish.

Only other helpful thing which comes to mind Pat is Peroni = Schlitz - HTH
Best regards
Rick - Bogside on Bure


1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

BearCreek Majors
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Re: In Italy

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Again, thanks Rick!
I was in the dairy/cheese industry for probably a good twenty years, mostly in the tech and engineering side of it. everything from the raw milk intake through the processing and on to the packaging (note the 3" stainless steel sanitary tubing on the row crop). the company I work for now makes warehouse racking and the mill from Italy is a multistage rolling/forming mill. think of how seamless gutters are made, and then multiply the complexity and cost by about 1000%.

Processing frozen meat.... I still shutter remembering working in the coolers at a meat processing plant when I was just out of high school, I do not envy you.

Pat

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Re: In Italy

Post by oehrick »

Just happened to run across this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl-ugp46kD8 which appears may be in Italy, there are a couple of Majors, one with some interesting fold out strakes by the look of it, appears there is an active preservation movement somewhere Pat, although not obvious quite where......
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1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

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Re: In Italy

Post by ford5000y »

Just be on the lookout for tractor shows 'round the countryside just like the one in the video Rick showed you. Italians seem to love to put ploughing demonstrations at old tractor shows. If you found one and you're lucky, you might end up seeing old tractors like those on the video. A chance to see single-cylinder Landini hot bulb tractors ploughing deep until their exhaust pipes starts spitting flames would be quite a treat. Also the Orsi hot bulb tractors might show up if you're lucky(they've got straight exhausts, so the sound is even better) And I seem to notice by those Youtube videos that on those tractor shows there would be Fiats and, some Fordsons (only that some of them may have those orange gril... oh i took the subject up again !!). I remember seeing on Youtube an Italian vintage tractor Ploughing competition which was won by a Fordson F! :mrgreen:

Brian
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Re: In Italy

Post by Brian »

Quite a range of tractors there but I do wish they would not set up to follow each other round. I like to see a good finish to the work and you have each tractor and plough ploughing a different depths leaving a rutted top. Ploughed like that myself at one plough day, followed a big New Holland with five furrows, ploughing about 10 inches with Dotty ploughing at 6 inches. Looked a mess. :cry:

Those are certainly different ploughs to what we would use here, different design and ploughing at a fair depth too, not a lot of moisture down there either. Most of the tractors could do with a bit more front weight. Think matey with the "walk behind" Landini was pushing his luck as well as wearing out wheel bearings and tyres. :scratchhead:

One of the Supers looks to be a possible ASP as it has a Power Major lift, a 55 hp badge (New Performance) and orange bonnet badges.

Great find Rick. :clap:
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Re: In Italy

Post by oehrick »

Know what you mean about the look Brian, mind you all of those tractors were shifting some soil - I wondered if it might be volcanic and a bit lighter than what we are used to ! I have to say that while an odd look at tractor pulling can be enjoyable (especially some of the failures) I'd sooner see collar work like this

Didn't Wheelie Landini have a touring show where he jumped a single cylinder tractor over a row of buses ? :clap:

There appeared to be several more videos of similar nature posted and the Phil Collins method of ploughing (follow me follow you - sorry :wink: ) common to all those I had a look at.

I think the chances of you finding something tractorish when you go over are looking pretty good Pat and ford5000y's suggestion is sound - perhaps a search for place names near where you are staying and tractor on either youtube or google ahead of time might give you some clues :D
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1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

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Re: In Italy

Post by ford5000y »

I remembered seeing another video on Youtube showing another ploughing demo with those Landinis. one of them encountered a heavy patch of soil and the front end lifted off the ground for about a meter or so. Then the operator had to press the clutch to prevent the engine from stalling. the front end slammed back to the ground, but the operator just waited for the engine to catch up revs and then continued ploughing. And judging from subsequent videos in which I have seen the same tractor ploughing just as hard, I don't think there are any ill effects thereafter to the axle, bearings, or to the axle pins.

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Re: In Italy

Post by ford5000y »

Rick,

I don't think the wheelie Landini have a touring show from what I have watched so far, but I do believe originally only one of them used to do that, a man who ploughs using a Landini l55(the most powerful model). he would plough very deep(about 60 cms!) them adjust the top link so that when he lifts the plough, the plough remains anchored on the ground as the tractor moves and it was the front wheel which would lift up instead. But now it seems that there were lots of them doing the same technique. I remember saving a picture on our desktop (sadly it is deleted now) of the aforementioned man pulling a wheelie with his aforementioned l55 and there's another man in the background of the picture ddoing the same thing in his l45. If Britain has the "Dancing Does", then Italy has got the "Old Landinis pulling wheelies" troupe, with at least 4 tractors with drivers able to do the job!

Just type in Youtube "aratura d'epoca" which I believe is vintage ploughing in Italian by the fact that it is always on the title of the videos with such content, then it would show you some more videos. Some of them though were taken at night, so while it may be pleasant to see them ploughing at night just like what they possibly did in the old days during the ploughing season, it may not be so pleasant to those viewers with poor eyesight, with only the tractors illumined by the headlamps of the tractors plowing behind them visible in the dark, along with flashes from cameras of the spectators on the field and the occasional spit of flame from the single cylinders.
Last edited by ford5000y on Tue Sep 13, 2016 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

oehrick
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Re: In Italy

Post by oehrick »

I was joking about the Wheelie Landinis (like Evel Kneivel :D ) but it certainly seems it is a common demonstration trick to lift the front ends - it would be frowned on in the UK's insurance companies induced 'risk culture'

I have seen this done by accident with a steam traction engine, (the front wheel pivot is not always anchored and the driver had to hold the front of the boiler lifted on the steam regulator while the front wheels & axle were manouvered back into position as good an example of precision control as I have ever seen !
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1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

Brian
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Re: In Italy

Post by Brian »

Front wheels off the ground was the way to plough with the Field Marshal, and Ransomes Solotrac plough. :mrgreen: I have ploughed many acres with that setup at about 18 inches deep for sugar beet back in the day. Ploughed amongst the bombs on North Pickenham Air base back then. The land was very sandy and prone to having "sand gaults" a Norfolk word for where the water has washed the land away under the surface. Thumping along on the old tractor, left arm draped over the back of the seat, watching theplough when a hole appeared in the bottom of the furrow, did not see it as I was looking backwards, did not feel it as the front wheels were off the groud as usual. Quite a surprise when I found myself sitting on nothing as the back of the tractor dropped about a foot.

Another time, this time ploughing with a Cockshutt two furrow on a wet day, got to the end of a run, reached back to pull the trip rope and the plough lifting wheel skidded, not lifting the plough out of the ground. Leaning back cursing and pulling on the rope, did not notice the front end going over the bank into the neighbors field until I hit the clutch and it came down again. Could not reverse as the plough was still in the ground, could not go forward as the flywheel was rubbing on the bank. Quite a struggle to get out of that one. :cry: :cry:
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Re: In Italy

Post by ford5000y »

I have just seen this video on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaNRn8KwYqs

I shows, two Orsi Argo hot bulb tractors first up (they were 55 horsepower tractors, modified to have a 3 point hitch) followed by 2 Landini L55 with the optional 6? speed gearbox, hence their extra lenght compared to other Landini hot bulbs of the same vintage. I posted the link because the (VE) at the end of the title of the video meant that the location is in the Veneto region of Italy, the same region where Venice is. So plenty of chance for you to see some tractors! :mrgreen:

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