Sherman Combination Transmission

Earl and I have been working fools lately.  Earl dug, and I dumped, seven truckloads out of our foundation yesterday.  That would be 35 tons of sand, rock, and dirt.

Some of it I dumped in the big wet spot so I can spread it out with the tractor to try to get it to drain better.  I still have a sneaking feeling that there's a spring there bubbling up from underneath.

The employee lounge.

This is a cool photo.  You can see that it's all sand, rock, and gravel, under a foot or two of very rich topsoil.  You can also see a rock the size of a compact car in there.  I don't know how we're getting that out.  Dynamite maybe.

As time allows, Pam and I have been adding to the stone wall (linear pile of rocks).

At the end of the day, we took a walk.  The low light was beautiful in the woods.

Coming out of the woods and looking up the hill, I was impressed with how much we've accomplished.   I took this photo from where the spring/ground water drains to.  This is still wet.  It will be a good place to grow pumpkins and watermelons.

I've run into a problem with Bessie the Tractor.  Bessie has a high/low shifter on the transmission.  It won't go into low anymore.  So I thought.

I read through the 1952 Ferguson owner's manual last night and couldn't even find a reference to this shifter in it.  After doing some internet research and emailing with an expert Ferguson mechanic, I've learned that Bessie doesn't have a high/low speed shifter as I thought, but has a Sherman combination step up/step down unit transmission.  This was an option that could be ordered from the factory and is relatively rare.  It gives the operator the conventional speeds, plus a lower "step down" for low speed torque, and a higher "step up" to move the tractor quickly, such as on the highway.  This gives the tractor twelve forward speeds and three reverse.  The shifter actually has a shift pattern.

So maybe I've just got it shifted over to "conventional" and I only need to push the lever in to get it to step up and step down.  That's what it feels like, anyway.  When I push the lever forward, I only get neutral, and the speed of the tractor is faster than at step down, but not as fast as step up.

Wouldn't it be nice if that's all it was?  Operator error.