CLAAS ETRION 400 and the future of American tractors

First watch the above video.  My guess is the design you see will probably make it's way to the states in 20 or 30 years.  It's not the compaction that will bring it but the need to put more horsepower to the ground and the need to get from here to there faster.  A manufacturer could add additional axles (Duetz-fahr or Big Roy ) but now you are getting to a length that becomes unmanageable when viewing either what is coming or the equipment you are pulling.  As they said in the video lifting a set of middle tracks would allow the mobility you need to scoot down the road.

Where will this end?  In my opinion? Automated, motorized tillage equipment or AMTs.  Eliminate the operator AND the tractor from the equation by setting multiple AMTs out to the field with wireless communications between the AMTs and the owners.  Just like ants.

Heeeeere's Henry!

Cousin Henry spent the night so here is a gratuitous post just for Henry.

Henry said "Merry Christmas!  Now I have to get back to my game with Zane."

Zane turns 10

He is currently sitting across the room skyping with cousin Henry from northern Illinois.  And now he is on the cell phone with Aunt Angie. This is all after he skyped with Sue in Rochester and Cousins Roxie and Magnum in New Hampshire and then took a phone call from Uncle Todd.  Granny Kroft did it the old fashioned way, she stopped by.  This kid is getting more attention than Chad Goodman got in his high school career.

Lost: 2 Posts

My posts on the 12th and 13th are gone.  ???

Oliver 2255 with a 3208 Cat

I was browsing some pictures I took this year at the Tippecanoe Steam & Gas show and stopped to marvel at the Oliver 2255.

This is one serious looking tractor.  TractorData lists this weighing 16,500 lbs with 147hp engine. Funny, most data sheets you see list this engine as a 210hp base with up 435hp fully loaded. It also said the 3208 was a replacement for the Cat 3150 (here is one from another 2255 at the Rantoul show)

This 3150 is the same engine that was in the Steiger Super Wildcat. In the Series II Super Wildcat the 3150 and later the 3208 were used and both engines were listed as 200hp.  The Series II Bearcat lists the 3208 at 210hp.  From what I have found online it appears the 2255 was Nebraska tested with he first 3150, never the 3208.  Do the later 2255's have more power?