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Futuristic tractor 1961

S

sourgum

Member
Back in 1961 International engineers were researching what might power a tractor of the future. Would it be hydrogen fuel cells or something else. They came up with a prototype tractor with an aircraft gas turbine engine. Only 2 were ever made an now only one is in existence. I think it burned aviation grade kerosene, but not sure on that. The tractor never proved feasible for mass production. This engine ran at speeds of 10 - 30,000 rpm's or more, complicating the gear reduction needed for ground speeds of an ag tractor and it's PTO gear reduction to 540 rpm's also. Not an engineer but think the fuel efficiency of this tractor could not compare to a gasoline tractor of the same horsepower. In that time period gasoline might have been 0.25 per gallon. The dawn of the age of diesel engines in tractors was at this time and they took over the ag market and still reign king today. We are not the first to wonder what a future tractor might look like or what fuel might power it.
cvphoto82315.jpg
 
Back in the 1970s the University of Nebraska experimented with a hydrogen-powered tractor. They took an M Farmall fitted it with a solar array, a large oxygen bottle for storing hydrogen and the apparatus for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. They fill the fuel tank with water. The hydrogen was funneled into the tank and the oxygen was released back into the atmosphere. The exhaust was pure water vapor. I read this story in a farm show magazine in the late 70s. There was also a story about powering a diesel engine with vegatable oil. Again the test tractor was a Farmall M diesel. It ran on pure sunflower oil the exhaust smells like cookies baking in an oven. The tractor developed 70 some horsepower with no other modifications. The only drawback was there would be deposits formed in the combustion chamber from the sunflower oil. A tank of straight diesel fuel would clear it right up and you can go back to running sunflower oil again. Again,story in Farm Show magazine.
 
Here you go. Someone made a copy of one some time ago. It's a pretty neat setup. I'd sure be happy with one.

<iframe width=560 height=315 src=https://www.youtube.com/embed/q97nIPVjXNg title=YouTube video player frameborder=0 allow=accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture allowfullscreen></iframe>

Enjoy!

Mike
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EX_PMRdVkY

Rover were developing a gas turbine powered car in the late 1940's. This is a later version on the race track for testing. One of the problems was no engine braking.

I saw a saloon version driving through my town in the early 1960's but could not get close enough to get a good look and in those days, no digital cameras.
Untitled URL Link
 


Ford built three Typhoon turbine powered tractors and put them on tour in 1957. They turned 45,000 RPMs, and output was over 100 HP. They had the governed, however to 50 HP in consideration of the 901 drive train.
 
"Jet" and "turbine" were all the rage in the late 40s- mid 60s. Everything was going to be turbine powered. Even the names of car products and the fins on cars exemplified spinning turbines. The 'jet thrust' engine, 'turbothrust' and other branding monikers.

Turbines are great for some applications. Good for fast, high flying planes. Not so good in the fields, and not so good as a commuter car. Jay Leno has one of the Chrysler turbine powered test cars.

I wonder how many air cleaners they need to run on a turbine tractor? I'm guessing - many. Turbine blades do not like rocks, gravel, grass, well - anything but air.
 
Growing up I remember seeing a lot of the future predictions in various books & magazines. Nuclear reactors for your house. Nuclear powered cars. Robots cooking all your food & doing other chores. Of course robots were going to do it all because the humans were going to be on Mars in the 1980's, and exploring the outer planets & the galaxy by 2000. Just like in the movies.

Mostly it was popular mechanics magazine, but there were some others. Some companies gave it a good try--I did not know about the IH gas turbine tractor. Solar turbines is still in business. Last I heard it was part of Caterpillar.

Obviously there were practical technological problems to iron out that made all of those ideas just dreams.

Thanks for the interesting post. Dave
 
(quoted from post at 05:34:51 03/21/21) "Jet" and "turbine" were all the rage in the late 40s- mid 60s. Everything was going to be turbine powered. Even the names of car products and the fins on cars exemplified spinning turbines. The 'jet thrust' engine, 'turbothrust' and other branding monikers.

Turbines are great for some applications. Good for fast, high flying planes. Not so good in the fields, and not so good as a commuter car. Jay Leno has one of the Chrysler turbine powered test cars.

I wonder how many air cleaners they need to run on a turbine tractor? I'm guessing - many. Turbine blades do not like rocks, gravel, grass, well - anything but air.
Click to expand...


Doc, It takes just two good air cleaners. The main one and the smaller back-up inside. No tractor that I have ever had liked rocks, grass, gravel so I have always run a good air cleaner.
 
Saw a pulling tractor with a turbine when I was a kid--late 70's or so. Real crowd pleaser, as they sprayed kerosene or something similar in the exhaust to make a huge flame when he was idling at the line, then he spun it up and started his pull. May still be some around, but it's been years since I followed pulling.
 
The US Army M1A1 Abrams tank has been powered by a Honeywell AGT 1500 gas turbine engine since it first came out in about 1980. I got to drive one at Fort Knox when I went through the tank commander's course there although I didn't train on it since the unit I commanded was still equipped with M60A3s. It has performed very well for about 40 years although I must point out that the military is not interested in making money. Winning battles is the big payoff and that tank has done plenty of that.
 
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