High-quality black-and-white photographs of large old machines and tools

[cmarlow]

Somehow I think that is an original condition machine. The lugs, treads, or spades were usually supplied in a case and added later to suit the ground the machine was working on instead of being bolted on at the factory. Any of the old timers I asked about the iron wheel tractors always said how much better the pneumatic tires were and told me even with the big spades on the iron wheels they would still get stuck. Many of these old tractors were used more as an engine to drive other machinery like threshers instead of used for pulling ploughs. The old guys told me they often hitched the horse to the threshing machine to pull it from one farm to the next and thought they were doing good if the traction engine could move itself. Sometimes they had to use horse to move the engines too. The spades did prevent the engines from sliding toward the threshers or mills as they worked so there is that to it too.
Not being old enough to have ran one I have to trust what my Grandfathers told me about them.