Major steering difference

essex pete · Post by **essex pete** » Fri May 21, 2010 10:26 pm

Hi guys you must have a look at this, pictures not brilliant.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/fordson-super-maj ... 2307503578

Post by **Brian** » Fri May 21, 2010 10:52 pm

Takes me back to the days when I designed a combine steering system using a tracker ball.

It worked but no-one had the courage to offer it as an option.

super6954 · Post by **super6954** » Fri May 21, 2010 10:56 pm

looks like an interesting tractor like the guy said i bet it does take some getting used to.
Before I left the u.k for Canada in 2000 one of my repair customers was talking about doing this on a massey digger that the danfoss unit had blown on. so not a new idea. i think his farm was sold before it happened though.

Tmac · Post by **Tmac** » Sat May 22, 2010 4:02 pm

.

Brian
You probably already know it is near impossible for man to let go of the steering wheel!

It is such a perfect invention. You know there were tillers in motor vehicles once too. Those never seem to be as addictive as the steering wheel! Right?? Tillers were even tried on tractors here in the USA, ala the Gibson garden tractors. Gibson even caved in and went to steering wheels. I think the quote of " from my cold dead steely hands will it be removed" fits well here!

I even once had a late 40s Austin Western 25 ton road roller with a hyd powered tiller. Gasoline powered with a giant Hercules inline flat head six, was the BIGGEST fuel hog I have ever seen!! Seemed to use 5 gallon just to start, it was like trying to start a train engine, with a 50 gallon tank to fill up to. I can tell you it was always running out of gas. ;(

.

RH · Post by RH » Sun May 23, 2010 2:13 pm

A neighbour here had the same set-up on a model D Case.
All you had to remember was to push the lever right to go left, and left to go right............easy enough eh?
I think he had to drive it himself!

Dandy Dave · Post by **Dandy Dave** » Sun May 23, 2010 2:14 pm

And yet crawler tractors went the other way. Cletrac, Allis Chalmers, and many Fordson F convertions had steering wheels in the begining. Even the early Caterpillars, the Two Ton for example, had a two handled tiller and the 75's had a wheel out front and a steering wheel. All went to levers by the mid 1930's. Nothing in the world like being in control of a D8H Cat dozer.

I have run a D8K in the past. Weighs in at 42 ton with blade, roll over protection cab, and ripper. 300 flywheel HP. Dandy Dave!

JC · Post by JC » Mon May 24, 2010 7:04 am

I'll bet that I could steer that tractor. I ran a Clark 667 log skidder, one summer, that steered with a lever. For those who don't know what a skidder is, it's a 4-wheel-drive, articulated, machine with a dozer blade on the front, and a hydraulic grapple on the back, made for lifting one end of the logs and dragging them. Anyway, the steering lever was on the right side about the same height as the seat. The same lever also controlled the blade. It was a lot of fun to try to make something smooth with the blade while steering at the same time! The grapple controls were also on the right side. In order to pick up a log, you had to be able to steer while opening and raising or lowering the grapples, so I would run the grapples with my right hand and run my left hand across my lap and steer with it, while backing up. It took a while to learn how to run that one!

Speaking of crawlers, Dandy Dave, I ran a lot of D-8H 46A's in the past. I used to love the sound of the older ones with the straight pipe and the megaphone in the stack. You had to wear ear plugs with ear muffs over them to keep your ear drums from falling out.
The newer, high-drive, Cats with differential steering, have a single tiller to steer with.

Dandy Dave · Post by **Dandy Dave** » Mon May 24, 2010 1:03 pm

JC, I can see that you are a man with experiance. I love the sound of the older slow turning cats also. The most fun is watching someone try to run a cable power shovel that never has before.

Nothing but cables and pedals. Every make is a little different. A man use to running a Bucyrus Erie, (Ruston Bucyrus across the pond.) will have a tough time in a North West as all the levers are backward. The swing in a NW is to the right and pull to swing right, push to swing left. Compared with many of the other which the swing is on the left. push to swing right and pull to swing left. Are we having fun yet

A Byers Bearcat Junior the swing is to the left but push for left swing and pull for right swing.

....

Guys like us would be running that lever steer machine with percision in no time. Dandy Dave!

JC · Post by JC » Tue May 25, 2010 8:13 am

I've never run a power shovel. One time I loaded some mud mats onto a trailer with a Bucyrus Erie 30B. It wasn't fast or pretty, but I was the only one there and it needed to be done. That's the closest I've ever been to the operator's seat of a crane or a shovel.
That Byers Bearcat Junior sounds like it would be about as easy to run as the Model D Case that RH mentioned