Good video-thanks for link. I don't mean for my reply to hi-jack your post, so I change subject line slightly.

During the late 50s, early 60s, the tandem hookups were popular in our area (NE IL). However, we had nothing as sophisticated as Monroe hookup. They were mostly known as piggy-back tractors here. Some called them double-headers. Everyone here drove from the front tractor. Nothing as sophisticated as the Monroe rear-drive. A local welding shop helped build ours. I think '58 was it's first yr. Ours started out w/a JD720D on the front w/an IH SuperM on back pulling Oliver 6-16 pipe plow. Following that, came an IH560D on front, then finally a JD4010D on front...still SuperM on back. On ours, the SuperM was also the mounted picker tractor (IH 2MH), it was also the loader tractor, so it had to be "quickly" dismountable to do all the jobs. The back tractor was hitched to the front with just a pin thru the drawbar. The hydraulics were operated by the front tractor. So, you just had a hitch pin & 2 hoses coupling the 2 tractors.

I'd say the JD4020 finally ended the piggyback reign here. Most guys could pull 4-5 bottom OK w/4020 & that was the first mounted plows for most here. Made life much easier. I can see that Monroe's hitch would've been much easier to steer sitting on the back, though I assume visibility was a problem.

1st photo below is our piggy-back as it appeared in 1958. That's brother Larry sitting on 720. Sorry about Polaroid quality. Second photo is 1/64th scale copy that my son built of our setup. He built the tractor about 7 yrs ago. A gentleman in MN custom-built the Oliver pipe plow for him. Bobby Greif (veteran NAT poster) supplied the literature photocopy for the builder to use. Builder had never seen pipe-plow.

Yeah, I've seen it up close.  

Who do you have to be to get a chance to look at all his tractors? 

I always have heard stories of how my grandpa would hook Oliver 88's together, but that was way before my time. A few years back my dad hooked a JD 4555 together with a JD MFWD 4250. We were pulling a 15 ft twisted shank chisel plow about 15 inches deep around 6 mph. It worked out pretty well, both tractors had 466's and 15 speed power shifts. We used an 8 row buffalo Cultivator toolbar to hook them together.

The 4250 went on the front and the 3 point just lifted the front tires of the 4555 off the ground. He had linear actuators on the clutch, throttle, and gear shift. He also switched the 4555 over to solenoid shutoff and put the kill switch in the 4250 in case things got out of control.

 I wish I had pictures of the inside  of the cab, this is all I could find though.

Devin

 Hi Ron. This is part of the old Louis Toavs collection. There are a couple more pics of some of his stuff on this page of my website: www.boysungrain.com/toavs.htm

The collection is being scattered since Louis' death. Daughter and SIL are selling it off. 8020 is gone to a local hobby farmer, ex JD salesman.

Double hookups were very popular for a time in the golden triangle, south and east of Ernie's farm. Operator rode the rear tractor on any that I saw. There were a few of them used around here also. They were not without problems. Took 40 acres to get them turned around and most of the owners admitted to getting hung up in the corner of a field when they mis-judged just how much turning room they needed. The rear tractor suffered from over-heating on the hotter days of summer. Front tractor's drivers stirred up a good portion of debris that found it's way to the radiator. The dust that the second one ate was also murder on the engine, given the sorry oil-bath air cleaners of the day, and the front tractor made enough heat to supply the rear tractor with a supply of pre-heated air that greatly diminished the cooling capacity. 4WDs replaced them with no one I ever heard of wishing for the good old days of double hookups.

Bobby

First of all, let me quantify my answers by saying that I NEVER drove the piggy-back. At the time of the photos above, I was only 10. My first plowing was probably 3-4 yrs later. We acquired a couple more plows on single tractors when I started. First started on the 720D w/a #8 4-14s going solo. So-all my info comes from my uncle who spent lotsa hours on piggy-backs, comprised of various front power units. I'm not sure the piggyback was made for anyone who might not be 101% attentive. It's probably best I didn't start out w/this unit.

The S-M does have a grill in it. Probably just the Polaroid quality. If you look carefully, you can see that lacquer kind of stuff you had to smear on the Polaroids when you tore them out of the camera...almost as complicated as the piggy-back. We always had an external screen over the grill also. It's on there somewhere.

Vision? Probably not good from what I remember riding on the fenders. A couple yrs later we took the seat off the back tractor to help vision. By then we had another tractor to put on the picker so job-switching didn't need to be so instantaneous.

Shifting? Yes. Clutch lever & throttle were on a bracket above the grill cowl on the SM. We'd go ahead & stop both tractors & then drop 1 gear in the front tractor, but not shift the SM. I think it pretty much stayed in 2nd gear, sometimes 3rd. Speeds didn't have to match exactly. There were very few identical tractor piggybacks around. Lotsa F-20/30s that became permanent rear tractors. A couple WC/WD rear tractors. Also a couple JD A/Gs. Neighbor on the N 1/2 of our sections had 2x JD70Ds piggybacked. A neighbor to the south had 2x IH 560s. I think 1 diesel, 1 gasser. I'll have to ask. Most guys had the more modern/refined tractor w/a starter, lights, & live hydraulics up front. You'd just pull the back tractor to start it. When we finally put the JD4010D in front of the SM, power wasn't much problem any more.

Bottoms tripping were always problems for us. We have a fair amount of rocks and of course a tripped bottom usually meant instantaneous plugging since it lifted the plow a little & trash quit flowing.

SM was stock from what I know. The only M&W on it was the throttle. But, they still drank a fair amount of gas when plowing. Fueling was pia also. You had to carry both diesel & gasoline....in 5 gal buckets. No fuel barrels or trailers that I knew of. They must not have been invented 'til the mid-60s for us.

Special built tractor for back would've been good. Later on when I started plowing, I always dreamed (brother always worries when I go out in the field because when I'm done, the saws/welders/torches come out to build the projects I was dreaming about...) of taking the rear 1/2 of some tractor, like an Oliver 88 w/simple coupler input shaft & powering it with the pto of the lead tractor. Do away with the engine & frame rails. Shorten it up a little, since as EdB noted, the piggy back was too long, and weight the heck out of the rear end. For road use or turning, you could disengage pto. Well, later I realized I was probably dreaming of what was really a 4wd tractor anyway. A nice Jimmy Yamaha engine in the back tractor would've really increased noise level. As you can see, you only sit a couple feet from rear muffler, but you're only a ft or 2 more from the front one anyway. I don't remember seeing any farmers wearing ear muffs for noise back then....none of them. I'm guessing piggybacks wouldn't be legal these days.

Did I answer all questions OK? Thanks again for supplying literature for pipe plow.

I'd kinda doubt that a cab 8010 would have been part of the Toavs collection. Think he'd have painted it and had it on display. You never know though, as he had a lot of sheds on his place and they were all chock full of JDs waiting to be repaired or canibalized for parts. Most of them were packed so tightly that you could hardly walk, crawl, swing from the rafters to get from front to back.

On an unrelated note: Not unusual for Amtrak to be late during busy times around the holidays. I'm in the phone book too. Next time, give me a call and I might even buy you a cup while you're waiting for the Empire Builder.