Awaken The Beast- 1911 Rumely "B" 25-45 

I remember here in the 60s th farmers one by one got tractors and they would remark on how it could work all day with no feed ,no water and didn't need a rest. I understand your statement

I don't think OSHA would approve!

@@mainoffender5557 OSHA guy had to go back to his car to get more violation writeup pads.

Back when men were men and no one me gave a shit about OSHA. The good ol' days

That's only half of it, it's a two piece crankshaft, out of a big compressor engine that pumped natural gas

Love Antique Powerland. Their Steam Up is my state fair. Took their steam school a couple years back and drove the steam engines, well worth doing if one has the interest and time.

They are the ultimate expression of simplicity in motion.

Oh yeah.

No government regulations

...yep that's how you do it.

Just out of curiosity.. Could you translate 'do-mah-flatchie' into proper non-native friendly English for me, please? Because I was actually wondering, why these guys voluntarily put their arms this close to the flywheel... thanks in advance ☺

No problem, the fuel pump on these engines is located on the side of the engine right beside the flywheel. The fuel pump has a manual priming lever on it so you can lift fuel from the tank under the floor up to the carburetor on the top of the engine. Normally the engine runs the pump as it operates but sometimes it loses prime and starves the engine of fuel but it is possible to save it from stalling by quickly pumping the lever by hand before the engine stops. This is why you sometimes see operators scramble to push that lever behind the flywheel. Normally the pumps are trouble free but they can be temperamental on startup. Hope this answers all your questions. Cheers.

Awesome, thanks for the detailed explanation! However, I think it would have made sense to put the lever somewhere else (e.g. next to the steering wheel) to protect the machine operator. Anyway, gotta love those old machines... keep up the good work :-) greetings from Germany

That made me a bit uncomfortable to watch... That's not "Shake hands with danger" but rather "Cuddle danger in a lovely hug and take'er to a romantic walk on the beach"!

Glad you enjoyed, I love showing folks how they work close up.

Jarvis Family How so? I’m just curious

@@bean_bttf3 Boilers can explode on steam tractors

Lol I thought it was a steam tractor but wasn't sure

@@bean_bttf3 The number of different ways that a steam tractor can kill you is amazing. The boiler can get a teeny little crack you can't see - and the next thing you know it blows apart and, if you're unlucky, you're standing where all that water-and-steam want to go, and you die in parboiled agony. Another fun way to die around a steam tractor is to run the boiler low on water while it's standing still. This results in the crown sheet (the piece of the boiler which projects over the top of the firebox, and which is *always* supposed to be covered by water) getting super-hot - then, you just have to move the tractor. When you do he water in the boiler sloshes over the top of the extremely hot crown sheet, which flashes the water into steam, which instantly overpressurizes the boiler, and blows the crown sheet (remember that thing?) out of the back of the boiler and down into the firebox, which results in all the steam and hot water and burning wood/coal/straw/whatever all being blown out the back of the firebox, maiming or killing everyone standing on the tractor footplate behind the boiler. A fella did that at the county fair one county west of us a few years ago - the tractor owner died, his neighbor/assistant died, a few spectators were killed, and a bunch of people in the vicinity got badly injured. Then there's exposed machinery, and rotating shafts, and belts - all very DEFINITELY not OSHA-compliant, but the big Rumely's and other internal combustion tractors of that era had all had those problems too. Not to mention that it takes quite a long time - hours? - to take a steam tractor from "cold" to "ready-to-work", while an internal combustion tractor could do that in minutes. Steam tractors are fun to watch from a safe distance - but *work* with them? No thanks - I'll take my Fords and Deere's any day of the week when it comes to doing real work.

@@jarvisfamily3837 Wow, that’s really interesting! Thanks for the reply, by the way

Oh yes, standing on the operators platform makes you feel like your operating some kind of machine from a steampunk novel, everything moves, everything makes it's own unique sound.

Very neat to hear from an original owner's family. Strange as a starting method as it was, that was how it was done.

ahh yes, the days when the only power steering that existed was your arms.

And lose every bit of mechanical advantage when stopped. Kinda like my Model A's They don't weigh 12 tons though!

Something about seeing the mechanism's on the outside working away really sparks the mind.

Fireplace mode cooling, interesting.

Its surprising how easy to steer the beasts are after you get used to the three turns of free play.

Hard work and hard people.

Thanks so much.

@@Rainhill1829 love chain steering tractors

Yeah, sadly they are worth a mint.

The guy reaching for the flywheel at 2:00 was too close...

@@nvo7024 being close to the smooth side of a flywheel isn't an issue. The inside where the spokes are is the dangerous part.

That and both pistons move in synch with each-other instead of being offset 180 degrees like most two cylinder engines.

@@Rainhill1829 so it basically tries to do the chacha across the barn as it idles, oh wonderful

Hard to believe that is actually the proper method.

Michigan twin garden tractors

No doubt, and everything else we have now that makes it that far. Stuff like this old tractor, when used, are FAR more likely to live that long than a Tesla, though. I remember a story of a pilot talking to another, one was flying a DC3 and the other a 727, if I remember correctly. The 727 pilot was marveling at the age of the operating DC3, and the DC3 pilot said, yeah, and it will likely be flying for decades after that 727 is in the boneyard. The 727 pilot said, yeah, wouldn't surprise me, or something to that effect. And there are many of them operating still to this day.

Pretty close.

Thanks so much, I will start adding captions to further explain some of the design details of these machines.

I am working on it for some of my video's now, hopefully that helps clear up some questions for folks.

@@Rainhill1829 Hope that you make the video. There are more people than you know that are interested in these old tractors. Bob from Australia.

I believe I have some clutch video either posted or will be posted in the near future, thanks so much for watching.👍

There is no language barrier when it comes to this sort of thing, I can tell you love it.! Peace from the UK.

None at all. But you can order leather trim and Bose loudspeaker.

7316bobe id opt to have power steering before any of that 😂

@@The_DukeX You may be right. Seems that people can not plow a straight furrow any more. They need a satellite spinning around the earth to keep them on line. How did we ever manage in the old days when this beautiful old Rumely tractor was king. I would have loved to have seen a brand new one sitting there all painted up with gleaming brass and copper work. That would truly be a sight.

7316bobe I found a video of an all claas combine harvesting wheat the other night, no cruise control no auto steer no cab nothing was fascinating to watch someone actually driving a combine instead of sitting in the cab watching the computer do it all

They are quite big, they also run in phase with each other instead of a staggered motion which contributes to the rocking.

big heavy cast iron ones i suppose

Guess they didnt understand balance back then. Still cool as hell, proving that they where real men back then. Lol

The engine sounded like a one-holer. I see now it's two, but they fire together.

Cool, love the Big4.

Rainhill1829 They are massive that’s for damn sure! Especially the lone surviving 6 cylinder unit.

You had to work a lot harder for your goals, nothing was handed to you and it was only worth as much as the time you put in it. That's what made it special.

J

Thanks so much.

@@Rainhill1829 You are welcome also.

Even then it is probably not as hard on a man as Big Bertha was.

I believe early units could prime their cylinders with raw fuel and start by snapping the magneto impulse but thats not possible anymore since most of these tractors had spark plugs fitted at some point during their working lives.

ebu97 The big box is actually the radiator, it uses the exhaust pressure to develop a vacuum in the box to draw air over the radiator plates inside the box. Normally it ran on kerosene but we now power it with gasoline.

@@Rainhill1829 ok neat idea

Yeah chain steering is a workout.

And yet surprisingly quiet even at full power.

Check out tractordata.com . I'm sure it's listed there.

Priming up the fuel pump behind the flywheel.

Absolutely, 3D printing technology allows us to scan original parts into computers and make perfect casting negatives, the rest is just good ol' elbow grease. The Brits did it with 60163 Tornado.

So essentially, this 60163 Tornado that has been made recently, is new and not a century old. Right? That is really cool.

That's right, brand new, finished in 2008 with a level of accuracy so high it is considered the 50th Peppercorn A1 built, after the original 49 built in 1948-1949. Not a replica, but a continuation of production with a 60 year gap.

Sure you can, all you need is an iron foundry, an industrial machine shop and a few hundred thousand dollars! Best of luck

Rainhill1829 6

I know right? You get used to after a while, but it's still thunderous.

Rainhill1829 you can see ole boy in the hat jump a lil

I dont think that the tractor rattled and clanked as much as a Harley, but then again I could be mistaken.

It is rather low, they used water injection into the carburetor (mixer) to prevent detonation under heavy load.

@@Rainhill1829 Not sure I'd want to be around when that thing "pings". ;-) I'll bet there's a chance you might actually FEEL it.

Middleweight for that era.

Oh ok good to know thanks

No problem at all, the wheel that they crank over is the engines flywheel which is directly mounted on the crankshaft of the engine, this is the starting method of these particular unit's. The flywheel used it's immense inertia to smooth vibrations and conserve the momentum of these slow running engines. Over the years flywheel's became progressively smaller as engine speeds increased so today they are small enough to enclose completely so you rarely see them anymore, but they where a huge item back then. Cheers.

Pioneer Acres Museum in Irricana, Alberta. We have a big show each year in August.

Just one. Your spelling got mangled 'toing' this.

@@cletusspucklerstablejeaniu1059 Just fixed it, thanks for the note. I try to proof read everything before posting, buggs me too when I see mispelings.

@@kpkndusa .... 'bugs' 'misspellings' .... ware u hom skooled?

@@cletusspucklerstablejeaniu1059 I dun got me a colige deegree.

Oddly enough this was the actual starting method used from day one.

Not as long as it would take you with a horse team. And when you stopped it stopped eating unlike a horse.

Yes, making a noise like that it's life will probably be limited to only another 200 years, without repair. ;-)

They actually steer quite easily, takes a lot of turns on the wheel but it's easy to turn. Hardest part is the delay between steering input and anything happening. They even steer pretty sharply for their size.

She always announces her awakening in the most spectacular way.

Can't deny that at all.

Think of it as "expert mode".