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.

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?

My daughter and Jon Kinzenbaw at Half Century of Progress

 

Thanks to my wife Audrey got to meet Jon Kinzenbaw, the creator of the machine below.

Tippecanoe Steam and Gas Show 2011 part 5

Finally, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the show.

Tippecanoe Steam and Gas Show 2011 part 4

The previous videos were really fun to shoot as I knew one of the participants.  Eric Miller, a Purdue University grad student, is seen tossing the wheat into the thresher.  Eric is one of those who will charm you with his "Aww shucks" attitude while slapping a "kick me"  sign on your backside, but still a hard worker through and through.
  I took 72 photos and videos so I probably won't post them all.  Here are a couple to give you a little scope of the size of the event.

The live demonstration scene was pretty involved - especially for the shelling.

Tippecanoe Steam and Gas Show 2011 part 3

Tippecanoe Steam and Gas Show 2011 part 2

Tippecanoe Steam and Gas Show 2011 part 1

No Southern Indiana pictures. How about these?

The pictures I took in southern Indiana did not turn out very well.  I was using my phone camera from a moving car.  What could go wrong?  Blurred, too high, too late, too low, too soon, and finger on the lens.  Yep.  When I do it - I do it right.  So I have two other pictures I thought I would toss up here.  The first is my daughter and me heading down the road, wide open on the previously mentioned 4020.  1964 Synchro-Range.  Diesel.  1 family owned.

The next picture is from the Annual Tippecanoe Steam & Gas Power Show in Battleground, IN.  (Battleground is right next to Lafayette and Purdue university.)

I took picture (with the phone camera) because it reminded me of a build-it-yourself from Popular Mechanics magazine in the 1950's.   Yes it is a Gibson tractor, but it does look homemade.