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3:16 pm
March 22, 2010
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This is video shot by my little brother of my Dads friend's Don and his Holt steam tractor
This is a one of a kind, Holt actually built this tractor but there was no known surviving example so Don built one. The only original part they had was a crank shaft and the rest was built from original documents and photos. I was at his place towards the end of construction and Don did an incredible job. Many of the parts too hard to cast (like the engine block) are weldments
Don is a retired tool and die maker and just plugged away at this thing for years until he was able to steam this thing down a field....
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
5:33 pm
NWBA Member
November 8, 2010
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Welded boiler? That's a pretty crazy contraption there. I'm slowly coming around to loving steam-era stuff. Call it a late-blooming Steampunk fascincation with rivets and technology in an era where new bewildering discoveries were being made everyday. Reading about our transcontinental railroad made me realize how far we have come since before that, transportation hadn't changed since the days of Caeser.
They only remember you when you SCREW UP~!!!
5:35 pm
NWBA Member
November 8, 2010
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Holt- didn't he invent the tracked crawler? I'm trying to remember the history of armored tanks and his name figured prominently.
They only remember you when you SCREW UP~!!!
3:00 am
NWBA Member
April 19, 2010
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Steve H;9606 wrote: Holt- didn't he invent the tracked crawler? I'm trying to remember the history of armored tanks and his name figured prominently.
holt became catapillar tractor i believe ... also made a helve type power hammer ....
3:34 am
March 22, 2010
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some one who knows should answer (not me who only knows enough to get it wrong) I think Best and Holt both had tiller wheel tractors ( like this one) and at some point in the 20's Best merged with Holt to form what we know know as the Caterpillar tractor company... I think several dealerships in California still bear the Holt name...
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
4:23 am
March 22, 2010
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http://www.google.com/search?h.....38;bih=624
I use Google images and videos a lot, great reference stuff.
2:56 pm
March 22, 2010
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As Holt's early tractors grew larger and more unwieldy, their giant wheels bogged down in the farmlands, encouraging the development of the pioneering Holt track-type model.
The Holt family business tradition goes back to the mid-1880’s in California when Benjamin Holt produced his first horse-drawn “Link-Belt Combined Harvester,” starting a tradition of invention and innovation that has endured for generations.
Later, Holt produced some of the earliest steam traction engines and also charted a new direction
Finding that heavy farm equipment bogged down in the loose soil of the San Joaquin River Delta, Holt put his inventive mind to work again, using self-laying tracks instead of wheels on his new invention. On November 24, 1904, the first successful track-type tractor, the “Caterpillar®,” crawled across a California wheat field, making history every foot of the way. Its commercial success was assured once Holt found a way to power it with a gasoline engine in 1908.
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
3:19 pm
March 22, 2010
Offline
Daniel Best, as with most industrialists, was always looking to improve, simplify, or create pieces of equipment that would ease operations. It began when he saw the need for an improved traction engine, what some now call a steam tractor, to pull his combine harvesters. He first purchased the rights to build a successful steam traction engine from Remington of Woodburn, Oregon in 1888. He immediately began to make improvements until his engines were known as the strongest, most dependable, and longest-lasting engines in North America.[citation needed]
Around 1891, Daniel began to experiment with gas engines to replace the steam engines on his tractors. He developed his first gas-powered tractor in 1896. To prove its superiority, he staged a tug of war between his steam tractor and his new gas-powered engine. Not only did the gas-powered engine win, but it pulled the steam tractor around the block. As word spread of his dependable traction engines, he received more and more orders from clients all around the world. At this time,
Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln
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