Farmall B rescue mission is on!

I don"t know how wide a B is, but I have a trailer that is 16" long and 6 foot 10 inches between the fenders. If you want to go with the relay that was talked about on page 2, I could probably get the tractor from North Platte or Lexington, Nebraska to your home some of these weekends. Reply on this forum if that would be feasable for you. Larry

I used a 1/2 ton pickup to haul a Farmall A. The least that I would use is a 3/4
ton with heavy suspension and good tires to haul that B a long distance. Good Luck, Hal
PS: My late dad was from Waveland, IN. It was near the IL border.

You need a full size pickup, ½ ton at the very least, ¾ ton is better. Preferably, you should have a receiver type of hitch mounted to the frame of the vehicle, not just a ball stuffed in the hole on the bumper. Unless it is a very strong bumper and attached very well, you are moving too much weight too long a distance for that. When you load, that B can sit at a diagonal if necessary on the trailer allowing for the rear wheels to be wider than the trailer and still fit on top, however if it has raised sides on it you will need to devise a way to deal with them. Make sure the trailer brakes work, but don’t depend on them.

Two other very important things you should keep in mind; tongue weight and tire pressures. Try to get the load almost balanced on the trailer, but slightly to the front. I have found that with a couple hundred pounds of the weight on the hitch for a ½ ton works pretty good, more on a ¾ ton. Too much weight on the hitch (lower than normal rear end height on the pickup) lightens up the front end of the tow vehicle and can lead to less braking ability and handling instability on wet, or (Lord forbid) snowy/icy roads. At the same time, you need to have enough weight on the hitch (if you can lift the front of the hitch, you are too light) or you may not have enough traction to safely pull the trailer on wet or slippery roads. Look at the whole picture after you’re done loading; both trailer and pickup not sagging or lifting up either end is what you are trying for.

Make sure that the tires on the trailer and pickup are up to their rated pressure. Low tires pull hard and over-heat, which causes failures and potential blow-outs. Blowing out a tire on a loaded trailer is no fun, and then you have to deal with changing it. As far as tires, almost all tires on trailers are rated heavy enough so that if you have two axles, you should be able to have at least 6000# of trailer and cargo on them, which should be enough for what you are hauling.

Anchor the chains to the side of the trailer in such a way as to prevent movement of the load rearward and forward and if possible side to side. I like a diagonal line from the side of the trailer behind or in front of the load to the load and then diagonally to the opposite side of the trailer straight across from the first side to form a V. On the load, choose a location to place the chain so that it won’t damage anything (such as thin wheel casings) when you hit that big, bad, nasty bump in the road. Don’t be afraid to use a “cheater” on the chain binders, I’ve never yet seen a chain get tighter on a load while driving. Check the chains after two (2) miles, again after every ten (10) miles until they quit loosening. After that check them every time you stop. I like to position the binders where I can see them in a mirror, that way I can keep an eye on them.

Don’t let anything I’ve said scare you or tempt you to chicken out; just some things to be aware of not scared of. My intent is to make your haul home a pleasant and uneventful one!

Good Luck, and God Bless!!!

Width of the tractor is probably the biggest problem. I have a car hauler (no sides) that is 6' 4" between the fenders, which are nearly 9" above the deck. A B with 9" tires set in as far as possible (wheels and disks both turned in, wheels inside the disks) will just fit between the fenders. Larger tires can not even be set this narrow because of clearance problems. So a B with 10" tires will need another 1" for the tires plus 4" for track setting (total 6' 9" minimum). I have hauled my B with 12.4" tires by pulling it on forward until the rear wheels reach the fenders. I only do that for the nearest local show (low speed trip) and question the sanity of even doing that.

I did a long distnce haul of that tractor once. I loaded it over the front corner of the trailer so the rear wheels ended up as close as possible to the front side of the fenders. I used an equalizing hitch and it handled fine. Interestingly enough, I lost 3 truck tires within about 300 miles on that trip. The tires were about 5 years old with about 28K miles on them. That was most likely the heaviest load the tires had ever hauled, but probably not excessive. One tire man that inspected them beleived they had either been over cured or under cured in the first place. The tires had all been from the same batch. By the way, the first tire I lost was a front, which propably wasn't carrying that much more weight than it did with the empty trailer.

So, plan on the worst case for weight, be ready to deal with the width question and be ready for surprises.

Glad to hear it! Where in Indiana is your B located, city wise? I do not know the width of a B, but an H will fit on a normal car hauling trailer, here is a picture of the H that I bought last night, on my new H&H 18 foot trailer. You should be able to get the B, and the bush hog on your 16 foot, it may take some doing since I figure that your bush hog is most likely a pull type, and not a 3 point.

Jeff

Here is a better picture of the tractor, one lever is the normal shifter, one lever is for the M&W Live Power hand clutch, and the last lever is a p.t.o. add on shifter, maunfactured by some company? If you have any questions, my email is now un blocked.