It has been too long since we attacked you with some good ol’ fashioned tractor action. Our open love of tractors is shared by a good portion of the BangShift universe, so when we were tipped off to a handful of cool steam tractor videos we knew we had to share them. BangShift forum member Glen has the tractor bug too, and he turned us on to these videos.

At the turn of the century, steam locomotives were the space shuttles of their time. Scaling down the technology and putting it on wheels led to the invention of the steam tractor. These truly gargantuan creations were capable of doing the work dozens of horse teams would take weeks to do in a day. The ability of steam engines to make loads, and we mean loads of power at low RPM made them perfect for pulling. 

The were hungry and thirsty though. Feeding logs or coal into the fire box and keeping the boiler full of water so it didn’t go into melt down were literally full time jobs. In the long run they were still cheaper than horses and despite packing a turning radius slightly wider than a cruise ship, they were less of a hassle too.

Here are two tractors hooked to an old fashioned dyno called a Prony brake which measures the torque of the engine by making it turn a drum using a friction belt. It is old school, but effective.

Listen for the torque numbers. The new Ford “Scorpion” diesel looks like a mis-firing Yugo engine next to these guys!