On our way to Mt. Pisgah, our favorite edge-of-town hiking spot, I finally caught this venerable old IH farm truck. Finally? I’ve seen four of these identical trucks parked at Jim Evonuk’s Seavy Loop farm since we moved here twenty years ago, but in recent years, they’ve always been parked behind the barn. I knew they were used for his mint harvest, but had never seen them in action. I know here it’s hooked up behind the tractor, but when it’s full, it gets driven to the mint still (for making peppermint oil) under its own power. As it has been doing every year since the four of them were bought, some sixty years ago.
Here’s a closer shot. I’m not intimately familiar with the process, but obviously the mint (which has been smelling incredible when we’ve been driving by the past few weeks) is cut and blown into the truck body. Then its unhitched and driven to the still, in a steel building across the road, with a large chimney. Needless to say, peppermint oil is used in a wide variety of products.
Why they have four of these identical trucks is beyond me, unless at one time the harvest required that. Perhaps two trucks each to keep two harvesters going? In any case, I hope to be seeing these fine old Mintbinders for a long time yet.
. . . and you never need an air freshener in the cab. 🙂
For bigger farming operations, these old single axle trucks are woefully undersized these days. My BIL graduated out of some of these in the 80s (they were holdovers from his father) first to tandem axle trucks, then to a semi. It looks like a small Oregon mint farm is just the place for these old guys.
Good point; his mint fields are quite modest compared to the giant monocrop farms.
I forgot to mention that the mint “straw” after it’s gone through the still makes fab compost; we’ve used it for years in our garden, and it smells much better than steer manure!
It looks like the harvest process involves cutting the mint with a mower, windrowing it and then using a pickup reel to get it into the “chopper,” where it is augered over to the blower (the big round green thing with the spout coming out). The blower has a big blade attached to the paddles, as the product is augered into the blower it is chopped finely and blown into the wagon. Having the truck hitch allows one person to drive the whole system, much easier than having a truck driver have to keep up with the chopper, and a truck can easily line up to hitch up or unhitch. Maybe multiple trucks to keep the system moving? Plant material chopped that finely will start to ferment very quickly, wouldn’t smell so good then. We had a similar John Deere chopper-two in later years-to harvest silage, with two-row corn heads. They can move a lot of stuff. Couldn’t have smelled as nice as mint, though!
That’s either a ’51 or ’52, the ’50s had hidden (internal) door hinges.
Neat shot! We have a good bit of mint and catnip around the house, and do enjoy us some fresh mint tea from time to time.
I admit that I just took a guess at its exact year; too busy in our own garden to research that detail 🙂 But I figured the IH experts would weigh in.
What makes ID’ing these even more fun is that they were titled in the year sold, not built. My truck was a ’50, but was titled as a ’51.
Exactly–IH’s policy was to just rebrand last MY’s leftover stock as this MY–may have worked for them, but makes it hell for those collectors who want to know what year their truck really is.
And yes, a single-axle truck is really not enough for even a modest operation these days. When my grandfather bought a new farm truck in 1976, he got a special offer on a Ford L700 (already available, rather than the 800 he would have had to have ordered) with an …18? foot grain box, but that big of a box, when fully loaded with 400 bushels of corn/beans/oats, is technically (okay, not technically, it IS) overloaded. The only reason we’ve never been ticketed is because from the elevator to our farm is just over 2 miles, and our farthest land is 9 miles from the home place.
On one occasion (late 70’s, I think), my dad and uncle rode down with Grandpa 50 miles into NW Iowa to pick up a grain bin (some assembly required). I can imagine how rough that must have been, both on the way down and back up–even a full bin’s worth of metal (remember, this is a late 70’s bin, a lot smaller than today) is far less than the max payload; I think there’s over a dozen leaves in the springs. Rides real solid when full, though.
No it was not IH policy to rebrand the leftovers as the current model year as IH did not recognize model year until 1970. Just like the Aussies they recognized the Model designation which is why unlike say Ford or GM that kept the F-series designation when they introduced a new truck IH changed the designation to indicate a new or substantially new truck. So you have K, KB, L, R, S and then they started over with A-D1x0 then 1×00 A-D. Even once they started recognizing model years they kept up with a new designation so there were then 1×10 and finally 100, 200, 500 and 150, 200 and 500 for the final models. Also unlike the big three the models were not neccesarly introduced at the same time every year.
For example
C1x00 models were produced from Jan 1963 until Dec 1964
D1x00 was produced from Jan 1964 until Mar 1966
1x00A was produced from Mar 1966 through Dec 1966
1x00B from Dec 1966 until Dec 1967
1x00C from Jan 1968 until Mar 1969
1x00D from April 1969 until Aug 1970
At that point they started recognizing model years to the production of the full size truck ran from Sep to Aug just like the “other guys”.
The Scout held out a bit longer with the 800B ending production in Mar 1971 and the new Scout 810/II starting production in April 1971.
A single axle or 4 wheeler truck can gross 14,000kg here thats about 30.000 itty bitty pounds, you simply cant fit that much into the body of that truck its fine for the task at hand and since they have more probably dont even load it heavy and just operate a shuttle system to keep the still running
International Harvester built Trucks, working vehicles not annual fashion statements meant to be traded on next years restyle.
Great find. It is surprising that they hook the truck up to the tractor and tow it through the field. Sure it means that it is a one man job but maneuvering that combination has to take a lot of area.
I bet when they’re done, they hook the tractor and implement up behind the truck and pull it all home. (c:
So, is everyplace in Oregon named after a place in Maine? There’s Portland of course, but I also have great memories of climbing Mt Pisgah Maine as a child and picking gallons of blueberries.
Definitely cool truck though.
No, and too bad – if there were an Orono in Oregon that would make great alliteration.
It’s easy to get the idea from the place names in the Willamette Valley that the area was settled by New Englanders, and I believe that idea would be substantially correct.
Yes; Salem comes to mind.
Lake Oswego is named after Owego, NY. Makes sense, much of New York was named after European places and when those East Coasters moved West they named their “new found” homes after East Coast places.
I believe you mean Oswego, NY, not Owego, NY. Two different cities.
Cool as I had an Aussie AL110 flat bed many long years ago 51 was on the registration papers, and Ive rarely seen another let alone in use, That combination would turn as easily as 3 drawbar trailers on a field no big deal yeah you need plenty of room but its a farm they allow for that when planting.
Nice to see Ed isnt the only one with nice classic gear, I had my parts SuperMinz dragged to a gantry for dismembering with a Fordson Dexta on tuesday the little 3banger ran great, photos unfortunately are in my fone
Nice rig, the agricultural counterpart of the Road Train.
What’s pulling it ? A Kubota ? (given its color)
So far I’ve only seen their small toy-tractors for horticulture and fruit cultivation.
Yes. I don’t think I’ve seen a big one like that around here until this one. Too bad it wasn’t a vintage Farmall.
International Harvester, the farmer’s Land Cruiser, worldwide 😉
Oh no, this is most definitely not a “road train.” A road train is when my father pulled seven wagons home with the tractor from the 9-mile farm. Limit on trailers behind road vehicles is two, but with off-road vehicles, it’s as many as you can handle. Thank goodness there’s only one turn between that farm and the home place…
That’s impressive, bit hard to back up I guess…
In this video it’s more the other way around, a bunch of tractors pulling only ONE wagon. (Harvesting corn silage in very wet conditions)
http://www.vastgereden.nl/mediabase/video/8109/302c8e9948/kipper-vast-tijdens-extreem-natte-maisoogst.html
I highly doubt he would make something like that up (sorry if I sound defensive; I don’t mean to be). I do realize I have nothing more than anecdotal evidence, but he wouldn’t have told me it happened if it wasn’t something that made an impression, good or bad, on him. It’s definitely not something we would ever want to try again, even if today’s tractors have much higher HP.
David, I mean driving the whole rig back up would be hard. Not that I don’t believe it what you said. (like in “show me a computer back up !”)
Anyway, regarding the boys in the video: it says it was a “sport” to get as much corn silage from the plot as possible. The harvest was actually already given up because it was way too wet.
But 2 or 3 big AWD tractors pulling just one wagon is pretty common here in very wet harvesting conditions.
Back up as in reverse, in this case!
I saw a B-double truck (two trailers) reversing out of a narrow residential street after a wrong turn years ago – talk about busier than a one-armed paper-hanger in a gale!
Yeah, looks like the boys were having some fun-could have gotten out a lot easier if they would have simply unhitched the front tractor and let the tongue drop, then dig some of that dirt out from in back of the wagon-as it sat, it was basically a tractor pull sledge. Makes for a much better story over beers this way, though, and with video to back it up.
Dont be too particular on what the makers claim these things will carry its myth, A friend of mine did a season on the weighbridge at the wheat silos in Narrabri NSW.
Farmers bringing in loads that defy both the road laws and manufacturers recommendations were a daily occurence, make and model didnt matter they overloaded everything they can get their hands on and some of those old heaps were only ever run during harvest for the last 50/60 years, I wish I’d carried a camera when doing wheat grading for planting on big Stations in the bush the ancient machinery still in use or laying about was amazing.
I’ve lived in California my whole life and have driven by countless fields growing everything you could image but never mint. Must smell incredible when they are harvesting like that. I wonder if it thrives further north because as far as I know we don’t grow it down here commercially. My grandma always had a patch growing in her backyard, for personal. She was the only one who could grow it.
Some farmers grow it in northern Indiana, so perhaps there is something to the cooler climate theory. I have understood that it is occasionally planted for crop-rotation purposes to give the ground a rest from corn or soybeans. I had some planted in a little square of dirt outside the side door of my old house. That stuff started turning up everywhere. The horticultural version of The Great Escape. I finally pulled it all out. Did smell good, though.
Mint spreads like wildfire once its established I have a square meter in the yard I trim back with the mower.
Peppermint oil deters mice.
Effective, and cheaper than a cat.
Back when I was sure I could do anything, I once had three antique vehicles. One of them was a 1940 IHC half ton that was actually manufactured in 1939. It had a flathead six that was still functional and all I had to fix was a broken rear axle. When common sense attacked I gave it to my nephew.
Point is that the engine appeared to be the same as was running a number of grain trucks. Elevators are spread all over so the trip is seldom far in wheat country. Some of the grain trucks were almost as old as the farmers that owned them.
Been a while since I was there so who knows now. Btw I think my truck was a 1940 because it was first sold to the santa fe railroad in that year. I keep thinking I might have sold the wrong antique. No mulligans.
What a lovely looking truck with nice patina, I just love scenes like this. I am glad I am relocating to Oregon. I have been in the Mint Room at Celestial Seasoning so I imagine the smell is like that only a lot stronger.
Why four trucks? That’s common when running old equipment. One breaks down; there’s an identical one standing by. Bigger repairs requiring parts? Cannibalize one. There’s plenty of down-time in the off-season to hunt up parts or get all four up to running order. And, of course, using old equipment means the per-unit investment is very low.
There’d be one advantage to using a modern “medium” over these antiques. With an automatic transmission, the truck could be hitched but started and left in gear…the torque to the rear axle at idle might assist forward movement, help prevent wheelspin on the tractor…an old school-bus chassis with that dump box and a cab out of a boneyard might do it.
Just a thought…