Welding Tips and Tricks

Nice work. Enjoyed the pix.

shipj0 wrote:Nice work. Enjoyed the pix.

I would be appalled to hear otherwise.

Thanks.

Damn nice looking job! I am a Florida transplant and am also jealous seeing the pictures of God's Country.

That is a lot of pictures. Great job and good to see some other Alaskans on here!

Mountains and trucks,enjoyment without a welder.

Finally got so sick of the rear hitch being so low on the dodge I decided to fix it.
It needs beefier springs too but I don't have time for that.

So I put a higher reciever tube on the back....

Very nice John, that scenery gets me every time, jealous.

Good choice on the AMSoil, good stuff I've had it tested by Blackstone holds up very well. I run it in my 7.3 Ford.

Agree ! Great pics & job as always - though I don't like how low the original hitch is - I might have been tempted to remove it to improve departure angle.

Trying to guess what the little tractor is on the trailer - can't decide - maybe IH 574 ? with nothing to give scale it looks small & the bonnet shape I recall being shared on quite a few models in the 70's - could even be as small as the 354 / 454 though back tyres look too big - & I think the swept back front axle would be just visible - put us sad tractor spotters out of our misery John please ! my memory is getting bad - I should know this era of tractor even allowing for differences in model across the pond.

noddybrian wrote:Agree ! Great pics & job as always - though I don't like how low the original hitch is - I might have been tempted to remove it to improve departure angle.

Trying to guess what the little tractor is on the trailer - can't decide - maybe IH 574 ? with nothing to give scale it looks small & the bonnet shape I recall being shared on quite a few models in the 70's - could even be as small as the 354 / 454 though back tyres look too big - & I think the swept back front axle would be just visible - put us sad tractor spotters out of our misery John please ! my memory is getting bad - I should know this era of tractor even allowing for differences in model across the pond.

IH 674. 8 speed manual. 4 speed reverse.
Just bought that tractor 2 months ago.
483 original hours.

Love that little tractor.

The low one with the rake is our 544 hydro.

Thanks for the info & more great pictures John - so I was close with my guess - the 574 / 674 are visually identical just 10hp difference in motors (68 / 78 from memory in UK market ) & yes they were great little tractors in their day - actually quite advanced compared with others of the same year - gearbox took some getting used to - yours having such low hours won't but high mileage models suffer from linkage wear & can jam between gears or even select 2 at the same time - then you get to lay under them with a prybar & jump them back into correct place ! never seen the 544 hydro - think it maybe a US market specific model - we had a 354 hydro but they are very rare - idea had it's merit for certain jobs but they never caught on here - to find one now would be make it a valuable collectors model - they had one at the college I went to bought just really to show us about hydrostatic drive as almost nothing used them back then - even combines were still mostly belt drive on variable speed pulleys - I only drove it one time & after demonstrating a near perfect " J " turn was banned !
Slight query - you say 8speed manual box - yes thats my memory but all the UK 674's I've seen have the clutchless 2speed splitter .( like dual power on Fords )

Noddybrian, my Dad drove one of those 544 hydro on a baler. He said it was the best baler tractor that he'd had in 50 years. There wasn't much that it did well apart from that, but that one job it excelled, especially on some of our fen crops where the combines spat the straw out of the back in lumps. You're right on the uk 674's, they all had that splitter. Can't remember what IH called it, but the Ford system on the 7000's was called Dual Power. Masseys had something similar as well on the 165/185/188 tractors.

Interesting - I been around a LOT of tractors but never saw a 544 hydro - I can see on a baler it makes sense - probably on beet or spud harvesters too - the Nasty Ferguson version is called " multi power " & is a nightmare - you have to remember in low the tractor free wheels in gear which is not a bonus ! only good thing was you could still bump start them with a dead battery - fords needed engine running for drive as high & low go through a hydraulic clutch pack - at this rate we're going to need a new topic just for farming !

Multi power, that was it. I remember switching to low and sailing past the farm entrance. If I remember correctly, and I think I do, you could tow start the Fords, but only if you'd stopped them in high dual power and didn't touch the lever. I'm talking the old '70's ones. You're right on the 544, they were scarce. I only saw that one. Never saw the smaller one on a farm, ever.

Starting to sound like farming forum now. Where do you hail from, Noddy?

John, just seen your pictures above. Yup, the U.K. built ones were the same, just a little more "finished" than yours.

@ AK - thanks for the picture update - ours were the same - reminds me of driving a boat ! first UK tractor with synchromesh I believe - ours did also have a hydraulic operated 2 speed splitter like dual power / multi power blue and red.

@ plantwelder - I'm in Kent.

are the pictures mountains of work
or
work with mountains
Oh! wait they're in the background
Always nice photos,thanks John

Great pictures John - looks like hard work - how come you don't use " flat 8 system " ? way less manual handling.

I truly enjoy everyone of your posts, the work is outstanding and the scenery makes me envious. Until I seen the square bales, when I was really hard up as a kid for money I used to put up hay for a friend of the family for 9 dollars a day.

I, too, made summer money bucking hay.
When I gave that up to make money turning wrenches, installing stereos, and welding stuff, I decided if I needed to buck hay to eat, I'd just eat hay...

$0.06/bale in 100* heat in the blazing sun is hard work for the money...

Steve S

1962 worked behind a custom baler 0.10 a bale on the counter, 600-800 bales a day. Good money for a 17yr old,considering a bank clerk made $40.00/wk and small town maintenance man was paid $120 every 2 weeks.

Nice, wish I had a loader for projects like that.

The GOOD money back in the day where I was from was "De-Tassling" corn for a couple weeks. $300.00 bucks for two weeks of work was big money for a kid in 1974. It was also coed, a combined ag education/hickey physiology science.