Big Bud, world largest tractor is back

[charheep]

I have zero need for any farm equipment, but this was a interesting read. Thought I would share.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2023/0...-at-70000-pounds-is-back-after-40-year-break/

The high-horsepower articulated tractors were some of the biggest and baddest in the field, tugging a 35,000-pound cultivator down rows at an acre-a-minute.

 

[EdFred]

What's the over/under on how soon @Ted finds a used one to add to his collection?

 

[Ted]

What's the over/under on how soon @Ted finds a used one to add to his collection?

They're saying the new ones will have a Cat C18, which will make @NealRomeoGolf happy and therefore also makes it a potential to add to my stable. Er, farm.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

They're saying the new ones will have a Cat C18, which will make @NealRomeoGolf happy and therefore also makes it a potential to add to my stable. Er, farm.

At least we know they'll run.

 

[Ted]

At least we know they'll run.

One of the YouTubers I like watching, Adept Ape, is a Caterpillar mechanic. On his latest video they had him working on an Intertrashional with a Navistar engine. Seeing that compared to the normal 3126, C15, etc. he's working working on you can see what junk the International is from an overall design standpoint. I enjoy seeing what International/Navistar did differently, because you always learn something by seeing different designs. Sometimes, it's what not to do.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

One of the YouTubers I like watching, Adept Ape, is a Caterpillar mechanic. On his latest video they had him working on an Intertrashional with a Navistar engine. Seeing that compared to the normal 3126, C15, etc. he's working working on you can see what junk the International is from an overall design standpoint. I enjoy seeing what International/Navistar did differently, because you always learn something by seeing different designs. Sometimes, it's what not to do.

We had a JV with them for years. It didn't go all that well.

 

[Ted]

We had a JV with them for years. It didn't go all that well.

JVs when one company knows their **** and one company knows they’re **** (or, worse, doesn’t know they’re ****) usually don’t work out.

 

[Zeldman]

at an acre-a-minute.

(expletive deleted) WOW.!!!

 

[cowtowner]

Welker Farms on YouTube has multiple older Big Buds they use to farm. Seem to work great on those huge fields in Montana

 

[JOhnH]

At least we know they'll run.

I thought that was a Deere!
(or have I been taken in by crass commercialism?)

 

[MauleSkinner]

(expletive deleted) WOW.!!!

Just to put it in perspective, it’s probably about 8 mph with a 60-ft cultivator. We used to drag an 30-ft cultivator about 5 mph with a JD 4020.

Impressive.

I remember seeing one of those in the mid-70s at Farmfest in MN.

 

[Racerx]

JVs when one company knows their **** and one company knows they’re **** (or, worse, doesn’t know they’re ****) usually don’t work out.

GMs jv with Navistar on the 4500/5500 comes to mind. I've had problems with my F550 going through turbos, but still don't think I'd consider going a different route.

 

[Craig]

Welker Farms on YouTube has multiple older Big Buds they use to farm. Seem to work great on those huge fields in Montana

I think they pull a 120 foot air seeder with theirs. They were visiting a Canadian farm one time and they were running even bigger seeders on their 22,000+ acres.

 

[Ted]

GMs jv with Navistar on the 4500/5500 comes to mind. I've had problems with my F550 going through turbos, but still don't think I'd consider going a different route.

I wasn’t aware of that one. Which engine was used there? And curious which engine is in your 550.

 

[CJones]

Welker Farms on YouTube has multiple older Big Buds they use to farm. Seem to work great on those huge fields in Montana

The Welkers are who I thought of when I saw this.

Should be interesting to see how it pans out. Lots of advances in fuel efficiency since the 70s/80s, though it sounds like they're going to want to balance technology vs. reliability/supportability, so will be interesting to see where the scales end up.

 

[EdFred]

so will be interesting to see where the scales end up.

Probably maxxed out.

 

[Racerx]

I wasn’t aware of that one. Which engine was used there? And curious which engine is in your 550.

6.6 Duramax. It's just a very odd looking truck and I'm usually partial to GM.
My 550 is a 2017 with a 6.7 power stroke. 40k miles and on it's 4th turbo.

I believe GM and Navistar also entered an agreement to develop a hydrogen fuel cell tractor trailers.

 

[Ted]

6.6 Duramax. It's just a very odd looking truck and I'm usually partial to GM.
My 550 is a 2017 with a 6.7 power stroke. 40k miles and on it's 4th turbo.

I believe GM and Navistar also entered an agreement to develop a hydrogen fuel cell tractor trailers.

Ahh ok, so the normal Duramax, but an International truck. Makes sense.

Surprising to hear that your 6.7 is going through that many turbos.

 

[Racerx]

Ahh ok, so the normal Duramax, but an International truck. Makes sense.

Surprising to hear that your 6.7 is going through that many turbos.

I believe it has to do with the vanes sticking. It seems every time you sort of pull out in front of someone after it sat for an hour and you really need to go...the boost gets pegged and goes into limp mode. They say my idle to run ratio is high. I blame Chicago traffic. At least I don't have a crane on it that would need the pto. Out of warranty now so I'll be looking at a more permanent fix next time.

 

[Ted]

I believe it has to do with the vanes sticking. It seems every time you sort of pull out in front of someone after it sat for an hour and you really need to go...the boost gets pegged and goes into limp mode. They say my idle to run ratio is high. I blame Chicago traffic. At least I don't have a crane on it that would need the pto. Out of warranty now so I'll be looking at a more permanent fix next time.

VGTs are a known sticking/trouble point, that's a common complaint on my Cummins as well. Does your truck have an exhaust brake? If so, what it's probably really doing is moving the vanes to max restriction. My Cummins 6.7 does that too.

The side effect of using this exhaust brake (aside from less brake pad wear) is that the vanes also are clearing away the diesel soot that makes them stick. So the turbos will last longer that way. Just one thing you can try if you aren't already. It seems most manufacturers are going away from the VGTs these days though due to overall reliability issues.

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

I thought that was a Deere!
(or have I been taken in by crass commercialism?)

We've changed their slogan for them to:
Nothing runs - Deere.

 

[Racerx]

VGTs are a known sticking/trouble point, that's a common complaint on my Cummins as well. Does your truck have an exhaust brake? If so, what it's probably really doing is moving the vanes to max restriction. My Cummins 6.7 does that too.

The side effect of using this exhaust brake (aside from less brake pad wear) is that the vanes also are clearing away the diesel soot that makes them stick. So the turbos will last longer that way. Just one thing you can try if you aren't already. It seems most manufacturers are going away from the VGTs these days though due to overall reliability issues.

It does and Ive been using it more. But I have to turn it on every time I get in the truck and I never remember.

 

[Zeldman]

Just to put it in perspective, it’s probably about 8 mph with a 60-ft cultivator. We used to drag an 30-ft cultivator about 5 mph with a JD 4020.

I remember the first time I saw a enclosed cab tractor I thought this guy must be rich. Then my dad told me it was air conditioned. I was thinking tractors can't get any more fancier, until my dad told me it also had a AM/FM/CB radio.....WOW.!!!

As a teenager I spent hours a day just breaking up the ground up on an old 8N Ford for 50 cents an hour. It took almost a week to break up 5 acres...

 

[Ted]

It does and Ive been using it more. But I have to turn it on every time I get in the truck and I never remember.

That was my problem with my truck as well. I made it part of my startup flow every time.

There are some tuners out there that will allow the computer to remember which mode you had it in. Now my truck keeps the exhaust brake in the "auto" mode all the time (comes on whenever you hit the brakes). The other option is "full" which turns it on anytime you let off the throttle.

 

[CJones]

I remember the first time I saw a enclosed cab tractor I thought this guy must be rich. Then my dad told me it was air conditioned. I was thinking tractors can't get any more fancier, until my dad told me it also had a AM/FM/CB radio.....WOW.!!!

As a teenager I spent hours a day just breaking up the ground up on an old 8N Ford for 50 cents an hour. It took almost a week to break up 5 acres...

I remember when it was a point of pride for how straight your furrows were when using a 2-3 bottom plow. Even when I was working for a farmer in Iowa pulling a 10-bottom plow with a worn out JD 8630 or new JD 9400, I really wanted to make sure the mile-long furrows were straight as an arrow. Now they have autosteer to sub-inch accuracy so the driver could be asleep and still lay off perfect rows. Sigh.

 

[Timbeck2]

I used to take pride in pointing that silver arrow on the hood of a John Deere at something on the other side of the field and making a straight line.

I miss those days. Even now I’ll look down at the mowers on the airfield and think about going down and asking to drive the tractor for a while.

 

[Timbeck2]

I remember when it was a point of pride for how straight your furrows were when using a 2-3 bottom plow. Even when I was working for a farmer in Iowa pulling a 10-bottom plow with a worn out JD 8630 or new JD 9400, I really wanted to make sure the mile-long furrows were straight as an arrow. Now they have autosteer to sub-inch accuracy so the driver could be asleep and still lay off perfect rows. Sigh.

That shows how long it’s been since I drove a tractor. The last one I drove was a 4840 which was a beast for it’s time.

edit: changed to 4840 instead of 4650 which wasn’t made until I left home for the Air Force

 

[CJones]

That shows how long it’s been since I drove a tractor. The last one I drove was a 4650 which was a beast for it’s time.

Whey my dad farmed in Alabama when I was growing up, the 4640 was the 'big' tractor. ha!

I always wish I could have had my grandad in the combine (JD 9610) in Iowa when I got into a river bottom and were showing 250 bu/ac corn (and if you pulled back on the hydro, you could make it spike to over 300 bu for a couple of seconds). Dad joked that more corn was left on the ground in Iowa than what they made on a crop in Alabama. ha.

 

[a572mike]

It's good to see Big Bud back. I lived in Montana for 10 years and it wasn't uncommon to see many Big Bud 525/50's and old HN-320's while out and about. I spent quite a bit of time in Havre (I was their airport engineer) and I got to know many people who worked in the original factory back in the day...

 

[NealRomeoGolf]

We need to all pitch in an get one of these for @Jim K

 

[Craig]

I remember when it was a point of pride for how straight your furrows were when using a 2-3 bottom plow. Even when I was working for a farmer in Iowa pulling a 10-bottom plow with a worn out JD 8630 or new JD 9400, I really wanted to make sure the mile-long furrows were straight as an arrow. Now they have autosteer to sub-inch accuracy so the driver could be asleep and still lay off perfect rows. Sigh.

How about a Case 150 with a 50 row plow....

 

[SoonerAviator]

VGTs are a known sticking/trouble point, that's a common complaint on my Cummins as well. Does your truck have an exhaust brake? If so, what it's probably really doing is moving the vanes to max restriction. My Cummins 6.7 does that too.

The side effect of using this exhaust brake (aside from less brake pad wear) is that the vanes also are clearing away the diesel soot that makes them stick. So the turbos will last longer that way. Just one thing you can try if you aren't already. It seems most manufacturers are going away from the VGTs these days though due to overall reliability issues.

The other thing that helps is pouring the coals to it every now and then. Forcing the turbo vanes to go through the entire sweep and blow out the soot. I could definitely see where a VGT with high proportion of idle time would have more issues than ones that spend a higher amount of time at higher rpms. They also make a turbo cleaning spray as a preventative maintenance item (kind of like using SeaFoam in gassers) but I'm not sure how much it would help in his case. He could always get a non-VGT turbo and have a tune written for it, a lot of the high-HP guys do that for rigs where they don't care as much about throttle response/low speed power.

 

[GaryM]

I remember the first time I saw a enclosed cab tractor I thought this guy must be rich. Then my dad told me it was air conditioned. I was thinking tractors can't get any more fancier, until my dad told me it also had a AM/FM/CB radio.....WOW.!!!

As a teenager I spent hours a day just breaking up the ground up on an old 8N Ford for 50 cents an hour. It took almost a week to break up 5 acres...

I've got some time driving a Ford 8N, though on the ranch it had been refitted as a bucket loader and relegated to use in the hay barn.
My serious tractor time was with a few International Harvester machines, only one of which had a cab, and it lacked AC or radio. We also had an old Allis-Chalmers and a Massey Ferguson still seeing some use. The really fun one, though was the IH TD-6 'cat', which we called the kitty because it was too small be really be considered a cat. It only got pressed into service when something got really stuck. It was exceptionally good at pulling things out of mud. Ours wasn't as pretty as the one pictured.

 

[Ted]

The other thing that helps is pouring the coals to it every now and then.

Wait, I'm confused.

Isn't that every time you drive it?

 

[Flatiowa]

I used to take pride in pointing that silver arrow on the hood of a John Deere at something on the other side of the field and making a straight line.

I miss those days. Even now I’ll look down at the mowers on the airfield and think about going down and asking to drive the tractor for a while.

I’ll never forget when I was growing up and when one of the neighbors son got old enough to plow his own starter furrow, it was dark and he did the same, focused right on the yard light on the horizon so he would make a perfect line… but the “yard light” was a light on another tractor two sections over plowing 90 degrees to his direction. That field didn’t look right for years.

 

[Ted]

The original one had a Detroit 2-stroke, 16V92TT.

While they're moving to a C18, I think that another option like a 3416 (or whatever the Cxx equivalent is now - C32?) would be even better.

Time for another engine swap...

 

[Jim K]

We need to all pitch in an get one of these for @Jim K

I'd even let you all come and run it for free.

Actually, I'd let you come and run my 9230 if you want.



Aunt Polly has a fence that needs whitewashing, too...

 

[Timbeck2]

Jim you have no idea how much I’d love to do that…not the fence

 

[Jim K]

I'll admit I haven't been watching this new build. Seems like a bit of a vanity project. The original was built out of need for something that didn't exist on the market. Nowadays 600+ HP horsepower 4WD's are commonplace.

I’ll never forget when I was growing up and when one of the neighbors son got old enough to plow his own starter furrow, it was dark and he did the same, focused right on the yard light on the horizon so he would make a perfect line… but the “yard light” was a light on another tractor two sections over plowing 90 degrees to his direction. That field didn’t look right for years.

Haha...One of my college buddies was working for a local farmer and did something similar. In his case he picked a brightly colored train car sitting on a siding a half mile away. He didn't notice however when the train started pulling away...creating a prefect graph of the train's acceleration curve.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Actually, I'd let you come and run my 9230 if you want.

View attachment 115987

My grandkids have developed an attraction for tractors…fortunately they’ve got members at their church who let them come out and drive tractors on their birthdays, etc.