Question for jdemaris

[GraderDan]

Hello, was wondering if that is your Oliver HG on Cletrac.org, we had a 1946 HG 42 with a Ware loader that we used to gather sap with for years, that thing was great in the snow, sometimes if we had a lot of snow I would have to break the sugaring roads a month or so before we started sugaring, but other than that it was unreal in the snow.
Thanks, Dan

[jdemaris]

Hello, was wondering if that is your Oliver HG on Cletrac.org, we had a 1946 HG 42 with a Ware loader that we used to gather sap with for years, that thing was great in the snow, sometimes if we had a lot of snow I would have to break the sugaring roads a month or so before we started sugaring, but other than that it was unreal in the snow.
Thanks, Dan

Yes, that's mine. I fabricated an aux-trans setup for it and posted the specs. HGs are pretty useless for pushing dirt unless you install an aux since they are so fast in 1st gear. HG and OC3 goes 2 MPH in 1st gear at full throttle. Compare that to a Deere 420C that goes .87 MPH in 1st - a huge difference. 2nd gear in a 420 is the same as 1st gear in the Cletrac HG or OC3 - thus the problem. Install the aux, and 1st travels at .64 MPH at full throttle - much better - and even slower than the Deere.

We sugared with a 420 Deere crawler hooked to a sled with a gathering tank. Half the woods was on taps and buckets, and half on pipeline and vacuum pump, One year, with over two feet of snow on the ground - it died (snapped a drive coupler as I recall). So, my boss borrowed an 8N Ford somewhere, put chains on it - and then found it was absolutely useless. We then ditched the Ford, and had to use a team of horses. That was kind of neat - and awful - all at the same time. Horses pulled fine - but . . . many times I'd walk off with two buckets hanging over my shoulders, fill them, come back to dump in the tank, and find that the horses went back to the boiling shack - quite a distance away. I'm not a good "horse man", and those horses had been on welfare most of their lives. They weren't used to being worked.

[GraderDan]

I use to help a guy in town gather sometimes and he had a team of work horses at the time, he would feed them chewing tobacco. As much as I don't like horses, his were pretty good, they would stop a a given spot and stay until he gave a command, then go to the next gathering spot and stop till he gave another command to move. Now they are all pipeline

[jdemaris]

I use to help a guy in town gather sometimes and he had a team of work horses at the time, he would feed them chewing tobacco. As much as I don't like horses, his were pretty good, they would stop a a given spot and stay until he gave a command, then go to the next gathering spot and stop till he gave another command to move. Now they are all pipeline

Yeah . . . I won't deny what a good team of horses can do when the guy or girl running them knows what's going on. With me - I've had a few horses - but they've always been in charge.

My wife helps runs a water and steam powered grist and saw mill. Every winter, we have an ice-harvest there. Much of the ice marking and scoring is done with a team of oxen and a team of mules. The cut ice is brought to the ice house also with a team. All goes very well - but that's because I'm not the one trying to give those animals the commands.