My Turn!

[Glen112 2]

Last fall, my B112 took up residence at our vacation/future retirement home in northern Michigan, 470 miles from "home". A great place for it with over 3/4 acres of great potential tractor time sm01. In early December I purchased a 42" snowblower for it from MDB. At Christmas time, I loaded it into the trailer and took it for a ride. I immediately installed it on the B112, expecting normal northern Michigan winter weather. Unfortunately, mother nature did not cooperate as can be seen here:

I did not even put the chains on, knowing that we would not be returning until after Easter. Sadly, for months, I watched all of you having fun in the snow. I felt like a kid in line at Disney World, waiting for my turn. I was sure it would not happen until next winter. Last Wednesday, we made the trek to northern Michigan for a short after-Easter vacation. The weatherman was predicting some bad (good?) weather. Was it too much to hope for? Meanwhile, the B112 waited patiently:

I put the chains on and went to bed, with visions of tractor-time dancing through my head |). I felt like a little kid at Christmas waiting to see what Santa might bring. Well, this is what greeted me on Thursday morning :Qsm044i:

About 4" of real wet nasty stuff! Could the old girl handle it? Well, here is what it looked like after the first couple of passes:

The wet snow put her through her paces, but it got the job done. I found that it would blow it in spurts as enough of the wet stuff made it into the blower instead of pushing ahead. I am not sure I really found out what this equipment could do in normal dry snow (or maybe I did find out, simply by the fact that it managed to move this wet stuff effectively). Here are the final results:

The last picture was taken with the tractor in the same place as the first picture in this post. Much happier looking tractor, and much happier tractor owner ;). There is a tractor god! I got my turn this year, even though it took until mid-April. Looking forward to more fun next year.

[AGCO918 0]

Glad uou got to play.Maybe you will get to play more next winter.Nice looking tractor & blower.

[Kent 436]

Nice tractor and an even better story and pictures... The key to blowing the wet heavy stuff is to go fast enough to keep a solid stream of it coming out of the chute. As long as you keep a solid stream, it won't clog...

[MPH 12]

Glad to see a grown man got to 'play' in the snow. I think these tractors make us really sick:D:D

[Glen112 2]

Kent - I did not have any clogging, but the stuff was so wet it would push ahead before it would slide into the chute. Maybe a faster approach would have sheared it cleaner and kept it moving in better. Much faster and the old tired 12 HP would have bogged down pretty good. I did find that as I went out into the road where the neighbor had packed it down, it bogged the engine down more, but blew much better. Do you recognize the blower? According to Mike, he bought it from you. The tractor has been in the family for over 38 years. My dad bought it new on February 3, 1969. It was used hard on the farm for many of those years. I don't know if you noticed the rear counterweight. I think it is one of a kind. My dad made it out of two flywheels, susposedly one from a Model A and the other from a Model T. I am sure Marty will appreciate the "homesteader ingenuity". Here is a better picture of the weight:

[MDB 134]

Great lookin rig there Glen:D Excellent looking B112 and the 42" blower looks all business. I am glad to see you got to play with it :D

[comet66 0]

Nice work Glenn. How far north are you?

[perry 1]

nice pics, good story. great to hear the tractor still in the family.

[Kent 436]

Glen, These old Briggs sing their sweetest song when the governor kicks in -- usually when blowing deep or wet snow or when tilling hard ground... :D I thought that snowblower painted black inside looked familiar. Boy has it gotten around -- I picked it up in Northern Connecticut, kept it here for a while, then hauled it to Ohio... :D

[Glen112 2]

John - To answer your question, our place is near Cheboygan, however my roots are much closer to where you live. I grew up on a farm west of Saline.

[Glen112 2]

Kent - I figured you would remember the black insides. Have not seen any others painted that way. One rattle can of black Rustoleum touched up the inside. Used one can of "Chevy Orange" on the orange part of the spout, the belt cover, the chain guard, and a few rusty welds. The rest of the housing got a rub-down with rubbing compound and a coat of wax. Looks pretty good for now. This summer it will probably become an "Allis Chalmers" with a new coat of yellow all around and a new decal.