old hit & miss engines and early tractors

[the chi]

Originally Posted by BobTheBiker

thats a lot of really awesome history right there. he should make sure its written in his will thta it becomes a museum when he passes on so those things arent just scrapped.

x's 10!! That stuff is awesomely cool! Its nice to see its still in good shape too!

['73 H1 Triple]

Originally Posted by derf

That is cool as shit. Do they all work?

The first one moves but hasn't been running in a few decades. All the ones in the later pics run.

Originally Posted by Gas Man

Looks like most of them are in running or near running condition. That is like going to a muesum... VERY VERY COOL!

He donated quite a few engines and other early equipment to the local historical museum. An old farm was donated to that historical meseum so now instead of static displays, they have them working.

Originally Posted by Particle Man

This was manufactured about 40 minutes from my house. Unfortunately, it's gone now (as are most of the old manufacturing companies in Syracuse). If you want to look at some cool stuff, Google Syracuse, NY early manufacturing companies sometime.

My friend Bill lives outside Syracuse that why that picture got put up. He just got a fairbanks 3hp model Z like the first one.

Originally Posted by shmike

Very cool.

What would the 5hp Challenge engine be used to run?

$270 was a SHIT-TON of money in 1902!

That was very close to the price of a car in a few years.

As I said in the first post, it's mounted in the engine shed. The wide leather belt runs up to the pulley shaft mounted at celing height. A lever either powers the left side or the right side of the shaft. On the outside of the engine shed is a pulley ( on each side). The one on the "barn bridge" side has another wide leather belt that runs the corn grinder.
( barn bridge -- that's the dirt ramp that goes from ground level to the second floor of the barn)

Sam runs that engine every year and sometimes still uses it to grind corn for feed.

Originally Posted by unknownroad

That's some cool stuff! Looks like he's got it set up almost as a museum.

Lots of good stuff in there. The wall behind the upright two cylinder has old seat pans covering it.

Originally Posted by BobTheBiker

thats a lot of really awesome history right there. he should make sure its written in his will thta it becomes a museum when he passes on so those things arent just scrapped.

They will not be scrapped, the two sons have their own collections and the entire family knows the value.

I'm going to go back over in a couple of weeks and write down all he can tell me about them.

Originally Posted by The Chi

x's 10!! That stuff is awesomely cool! Its nice to see its still in good shape too!

The quality of the castings is amazing. He's gotten engines that have been outside for decades and they clean up nice with only very minor pitting. If you left a casting from today out for a few years, it would corrode and flake away.

[G-Rex]

That's very impressive! They sure don't make them like they used to!