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We have a machine that pulls the bales apart so all we have to do is stand on the back and keep it loaded with bales.
We cart the bales on a 4 wheel trailer, the sort with a turntable on the front. It is a very nice trailer as far as trailers go and has served us well. Can't remember exactly how long we've had it but we got it to replace the old one which got burnt in a barn fire we had, probably 30 something years ago. The old one was so ancient it was wooden and most likely first built to be pulled by horses, the current one is pretty posh and has suspension and brakes (not that the brakes have ever worked while in our ownership)
20 years ago I would be dragging it around with a 2WD International, these days it gets dragged along the roads with a newer (but just as shagged) 4WD. The old International is still used to drag it round the fields though.
Well today I had to take the trailer from one farm to another as we had finished there. I dragged it the 10 miles or so with the International for a change, it was empty so no bother.
Had to stop at a builders merchants on the way to get some ear defenders, the screen fell out some years back and the noise is too much.
From there a lot of the trip is up hill, the old girl pulled it admirably. i was only saying last night to a certain young man just how well these old beasts will drag a trailer, loads more go in them than our SAME has ever had.
The steering is a bit vague at times, or perhaps the word is sensitive. It takes very little to have her all over the place so you need to watch where you are going and seriously concentrate on it. There's no play in it, just a bit twitchy.
You can't really go flat out either as that makes it even more twitchy, think of it as having a quickrack and power steering.
After 7 miles I had got used to it and I had her flat out, she was loving it. For the last God knows how many years she has done nothing apart from potter about barely ticking over. A good thrashing really does do them the power of good and I had her on full steam.
Going up the hills I am seriously impressed at just how she's pulling. I know it's only an empty trailer but the other, newer tractors would have been down a couple of gears by now. She's still flat out in top and not dropping any revs. I have a soft spot for this tractor and I am thoroughly enjoying myself, I'm grinning from ear to ear.
These old Internationals always had blue smoke out of them, it was pretty much their trademark. None out of this old girl today, I reckon she had her afterburners on and she was rinsing every last drop of power out of that diesel, there was nothing going up that pipe other than an awesome roar and a heat haze that would shame a jet engine.
She was tearing up that road and I reckon if it was night time that stack would have been glowing bright red. She's smelling hot but I put it down to the thrashing and possibly just a bit of the newness coming off her
I've got bits of rust hitting me in the face, not falling to bits rust but the bits that were pinging off the manifold through the heat. So I'm almost struggling to see where I'm going, I definitely can't look behind because it would be suicidal at this speed. I just truck on.
The last bit of road is steeper still, this will test her a bit more (there's a tale about the folks from Rolls Royce testing the new cars up this road but maybe another time for that one) she flew up, top gear and full revs, she sailed up there and could have kept going up there. (what's very notable is the fact she did keep going at all. What usually happens is the two fuel filters can't cope with the fuel flow from going flat out and starve her to a shutdown)
Anyway, halfway up the hill I shut her down and pull into the yard, trundle through to the other side, swing the whole lot round and turn round to back the trailer into place.
That was the first time I noticed the trailer was on fire
(Sparks from all the rust and carbon being blasted out of the exhaust landing on the loose straw of the trailer)
