Steering Toward the Future: A Deep Look at Crawler Tractor Steering Systems

Reader Contribution by Leslie C. Mcmanus
Published on April 12, 2016
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With this issue, we welcome Robert Pripps to the pages of Farm Collector. Author of several books of interest to old iron fans (The Big Book of Farmall Tractors, John Deere: Yesterday and Today, Big Book of Farm Tractors, Big Book of Caterpillar, Ford Tractors and more), Pripps’ name is familiar to anyone with an interest in antique tractors.

His topic in this issue is the evolution of crawler tractor steering systems. In the late 1800s, steering systems on steam-powered traction engines with crawler tracks were fairly straightforward, if primitive. Introduction of the internal combustion engine in the early 1900s complicated everything. Years went by before individual steering brakes were added to early gas crawlers.

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