by Dave Patterson When I was a kid (still am to a degree) about two I guess, my parents couldnt find me one day. They were horrified (we lived by the railroad), my mother thought the worst: "Hes been run over by a train, hes gone forever!" Where did they find me? Perched up on the seat of the tractor. Id probably plowed about 3000 acres (in my head anyway) by the time they found me. This is where my love for tractors started and has only gotten worse in my tender 50 yrs on this green planet. Im partial to the orangeAC ones cuz thats what we had and I restore to-day, but honestly love all colours. If it pushes/pulls/bellows black smoke or spins the wheels its cool in my books. When I see one that excites me I say to myselfhey! Let me on that seat Ill show you what shell do, .hook it on to something BIG and make that work! So hopefully you can see where Im comin from... I love tractors! To the story: One of my toys is a 1586 International FWA (believe its an 81) and I use it in my security business for subsoiling cable (to bury various types of alarm and closed circuit television cables) . I fabricated the subsoiler from a ripper tooth from a backhoe and converted it to three point. (another story) Pull up the pictures Ive sent in with the article and youll see what I think is one of the nicest 1586s around. It looks tough and pulls like a train, has a few more than its advertised 161 horses! I also use the tractor in the winter for snow removal, not a lot, but, do it for a company that I do alarm work for if their equipment is busy. To do that I had purchased a 9 dozer blade (J.D. overstock) from a farm dealer some years ago and refabricated it to fit on the front of my 7000 Allis. Did it work good? Too good! When you mount something like that on the front of a tractor with 110 horse, there are forces exerted that can play havoc with your machine if it isnt engineered right. (Youll read about the havoc further on) Man! that thing would push for what it was, and it was only a two wheeler I had the tractor for about 6-7 yrs and used it to subsoil and as a loader tractor, but up here in Ontario Canada we have a heavy clay that requires not just horsepower, the 7000 had lots thanks to my good friend John Wilkerson of St Clair Wilkerson Agco dealer in Woodstockbut with the subsoiler it was difficult to get it to the groundit had 20.8 x 38s loaded with calcium and 1000# rear wheel weights to boot (it weighed in @15, 000lbs), but still not enough grab! So one day as I was driving through Jarvis, I noticed the 1586 FWA, the rest is history. When I mounted the blade on the front of the 7000, I made the mistake of building the frame from the center of the tractor only. I didnt tie it in to the rear axles. Lesson1 - DONT DO THIS! I felt we had ample strength in our frame to support the blade and the pushexerted by the tractor. Welllll, the tractor would push so hard that it would cause the engine side frame rails to to twist and torque to the point of destroying the gasket between the block and timing covers and the tractor would start to leak oil. I went to the trouble of changing them once, thinking that it couldnt be from pushing (just couldnt be) that frame was well built it just couldnt twist that much, could it?????? WRONG! It could be and it was! So with this mistake in mind, things were gonna change if I ever did that again. A little blade history here: After trading in the 7000 for the 1586, I decided to convert the blade (which we had put a 4x 16 cylinder on for angling purposes) to a three point rear mount. This we did for the 98-99 winter season. The winter here was relatively kind, however;we had piles of snow for the month of January. I dont have to tell the people that know, that using a rear blade to move snow will take the neck out of you in short order. Again; when I was a teenager, I used to go to town in the 60s on my D14 and Snap Coupler 6 blade and clean driveways all day and come home with $150.00 in my pocket thinking I was billionaire Bill Gates. I was young and my neck could take it, but to-day its a whole nother story! With the blade on the back of the 1586 it pushed scary amounts of whatever, Rick the mechanic at ONeils farm equipment in Binbrook where it is serviced was impressed with what it would move. On the front they push even more! I will make this statement : A rubber tired tractor with a front blade or loader on hard ground will push more than a tracked machine of like size/weight on a hardpacked surface, however; on wet ground the reciprocal is true! Boils down to lbs/sq.in. Spring of 99 came, then summer, now Fall. Time flies... how does the saying go? When youre a kid, the days go by like years, when youre old the years go by like days. Man it seems like that. Oh well! I mulled things over in my mindwhat the heck..Ill just leave the blade as a rear mount I thought, and thought, but the winter of 98-99 changed that. My neck would never be the same! Ill never look backwards again, less I run over somethin... haha! With the memories of neck spasms fresh in my mind, I made a call. Hello!..Doctor John ? Its time", I said. Push has come to Shove Whaddya wanna do now, John said. Weve done many many projects together and Ive heard that line many times before. "Lets mount that dozer blade on front of the 1586. Think we can ??" I said. (Ive never heard the man say No). " Sure when do you expect it back." he said. "When its don,e Johnny.", I said. (He does his best work when hes not rushed and can sit there and dream about it). His shop isnt the biggest but he is swamped with work because of his excellent work and very reasonable price. So, in the next few paragraphs and with a few pictures I will share with you what transpired over a period of about a month. Note*** I am not saying this is the only way to do itthis is simply the way we did it. If we can help you by seeing what we did then thats great, like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Theres always a better way so to speak, we realize that but its fun sharing the experience with you. I am an IBEW Local 804 electrician by trade who started and own a company called Big Dog Security Systems Inc. I was brought up on the farm and when I started in construction in late 60s I ended up travelling all over Canada looking after jobs for various contractors in the pipeline industry. I started Big Dog in May/93 and never looked back. John and his father owned a large Sod Co. and John used to fabricate and repair equipment for their Co. These are our credentials... No Engineering degrees or PHDs here! Only degrees we have are from the School of Hard Knocks!
Well, there you have it. I dont know if it helped anyone and hope I havent bored you. We had fun scratching our heads and coming up with ideas. Now all I have to do is take it out and see if it works... I know it will! If anybodys interested Ill take some pics when Im working it and post them on this site if theyll let me. Again I hope I havent bored you and if you enjoyed the article, let me know cuz I have another project Im doing: restoration of a 54 WD-45 Allis. I have been taking pics along the way and done some neat things to it. If anyone is interested, Ill do an article on it. Thanks for your time! Sincerely---Dave Patterson--- Big Dog Security Systems Inc.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters |