Homestead mailing list

["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html 
> I wonder if it's a thing you can get to put onto a brush hog that does
> not yet have it.

Yes, you can get an after market overriding clutche.

> Thanks for the guess as the the right size for it. I'd much rather
> take more turns around the field than go looking for PTO gears or
> transmission parts because I pushed it too hard.  The H-4 tractor was
> tested at about 29 horse power (though the manual never says what the
> rated output is.)  The service manual shows the width of the rear
> tires to be 65 inches, so a 5 foot brush hog would cut just about that
> wide.

These mowers are rated by size and power.  Size is easy.  The power rating
is in the gear box and that may take a little research.  Your 30 hp is a
common size.

>  From what I can see in the manuals, the W-4 I have is the wide front
> wheeled version of the H-4.  The I-4 is the industrial version and
> came with a pulley and a different set of speeds in the transmission.
> (My tractor has the pulley engagement lever, but not the pulley
> itself. The plow frame seems to be in the way where the pulley would
> be, and I'm not sure what I'd use a pulley for, except an emergency
> generator.)

W stands for either Wide or Wheatland depending on who is telling.  The W-4
is a plowing tractor used in the large fields such as wheat fields.  The
Farmall H is a higher center of gravity tractor for row crops.  There was
also an low profile O-4 used in orchards.  The O-4 could be had with smooth
fenders that would not catch on trees.

All could be had with a belt pulley on the right side of the tractor.  At
the time most farms had belt driven equipment.  A pulley on an I-4 would be
rare as these were used mostly as tow motors to move stuff around industrial
sites.