Only the H will start

For the last week here in southeastern Va. high temps have been in the twenties with night lows in the low teens and had single digits for the last three nights. Then it snowed ten inches yesterday. Wood goes fast in this weather. The woodpile at my outdoor furnace had gotten low, so I went to get the tractor and trailer to haul some. 2510 said Unh! 1020 said Click urrr. Soooo, I walked over to the H and she cranked right up, as usual. Pulled the trailer-full through ten inches of snow without a whimper, but I did have to assist the turns with the appropriate brake. Went right through a couple of three-foot drifts with a little help from the governor. Last winter she pulled 12 foot logs out of the woods when the other tractors wouldn't start. Love that H, she will do anything I ask of her.

They are amazing little power houses.
I really like my 42 H.
Richard in NW SC

Hey, Richard... you get much snow or did Charleston get it all?

Your mention of it's toughness reminds me of a spring some 50 years ago. Neighbor man had a good sized woods & ran a sugar camp. He had 2 tractors, a WD45 with a wide front end and a Ferguson TO20. Both of them were "out of commission" at the time & he had early in the fall cut some trees for lumber to do some re-modeling in his home. He had a fellow that would haul the logs & mill them for him if the neighbor would just get them to the barn yard. Well the fellow called and said he had time and was ready to cut the logs. Kinda put the neighbor in a bind because the logs were still in the woods, both his tractors were broken down & sugar season had just closed which means the woods was a real mess! He asked if we might be able to help him outta this jamb. Of course we agreed to try.

We had 2 tractors, a '45 JD H and a Farmall H, both narrow front which we knew would not be helpful. We chose the more powerful Farmall because these logs were pretty good sized & it had better brakes too. We started one Saturday morning & headed for the woods with all the chain we owned. All we managed to do was wallow around in all the ruts still really rough, deep in some places frozen. We never got but half way to the logs before we gave up knowing if we had THIS much trouble getting back there with nothing in tow, we'd never pull the logs out! Yes, we gave up, wallered our way back out & went home!

Next day after Church Dad asked us boys if we wanted to try something? We had just disassembled a '39 JD H that had frozen up & both the head & block were broken badly. Dad had bought it at a liquidation sale because it had brand new rear tires on it! Dad wondered what if we put both sets of rears on our little JD H & tried THAT? We agreed, lets go!

We again took all the chain we had & headed for the woods BUT.... With the tiny little H with all that rubber on the rear it would straddle the ruts & steering was the only problem so we wandered through the trees keeping well away from his rutted trails making sure we only crossed them at right angles. We chained up short, we chained up long, we went straight where we wanted to turn then backed up or turned around. Some we pulled butt first, others (particularly the big ones) butt last sometimes switching ends to zig zag our way through the standing timber. About the only thing we didn't do was stand 'em back up! We only had to cut a few brushy trees here & there but the neighbor who was gone all day came home to see his barn yard full of all his cut timber ready for the sawyer. He called Dad asking how did you get 'em out? Dad just laughed & said we just put the right color tractor on the job!

I've been driving that little H since I was 5 and I'm still surprised every now & then by what that little 12 horse tractor will do! When it doesn't start, it's either outta gas or its set too long & the points need cleaned!

Hope this makes you smile.

I used to use mine in the woods. Really surprised me how big a log it would pull. 2nd gear and barely crack the throttle. Tires were not loaded either.

Jethro, we got no snow out of that storm. Had 2 1/2 inches a few weeks ago. We are waist deep in very cold weather though.
Supposed to warm up next week.
Richard

And to think people with other brands of tractors think they own tractors. Here is more proof they don't.