Ramp?

[craigc]

   I was wondering if anyone knows the official name of the "ramp" that is built next to some old barns.  It was for getting wagons in i would assume.  I have heard it called a spear and wanted to know if that was correct.

[tyb525]

Sometimes barns that were 2 story and had a ramp to get wagons or livestock to the upper level were called "bank barns"

I don't know of a name other than "ramp" for the ramp.

[Thehardway]

I believe the term you are searching for is "Bridge".




Some were earth rather than wood.

I will share a short story about bank barns and the barn "Bridge".  As a kid growing up in western PA, I started my first payed summer job at age 12 as a hay helper on a farm nearby.  It happened to have a bank barn.  The hay storage was on the upper level and accessed by the earthen bridge or "ramp" leading up to it.  The cattle stalls were in the downstairs at ground level.  To unload the hay off the wagons, the wagons had to be backed up this fairly steep narrow bank and through a fairly narrow door.  Not sure how many of you have backed up a hay wagon but it is much different than backing up a trailer.  It has to be done very smoothly and steady.

The tractor of choice for this job was his old 1936 John Deere Model "A".  This tractor had no power steering and it had no starter.  It was started by opening up the decompression petcock valves on the cylinder and then spinning the flywheel by hand. It was easy for him, he was left handed, I always managed to hit my elbow right on the funny bone when trying to do it.  In short, you didn't want to stall it.  These tractor sat high enough that the steering wheel only cleared the top of the door opening by a inch or two.  The first time I tried the delicate procedure of backing the wagon in the barn I received a stern word of caution:

"Mind your head, neck and hands when you back in" he said.  "If you don't, you'll get part of ya jammed between the barn and the steering wheel.  It'll cut ya pert' near in half before ya can get stopped and Lord knows what'll happen to the barn and wagon.  I don't need no more problems!"

I didn't ask how this knowledge had been obtained but I guessed it was by one of my predecessors first hand so I heeded it.  It was pretty simple to see how in ones preoccupation with watching out for the barn doors, keeping it straight and giving just te right amount of throttle and clutch, one could forget to duck and the rest would be history.

That barn bridge provided plenty of adventure in my life and it became a love hate relationship.  This was the problem with building a bank barn on flat land where no natural bank existed and having to mound up a bridge.

I believe the term "Spear" was synonymous with hay fork or harpoon, a device used for picking up loose hay off the wagon which would be parked on the bridge under the hay trolley. The hay was speared, picked up into the air on the trolley, trollied back into the barns hayloft and then dropped in a haystack where one could fall fast asleep if you weren't careful.  Some older barns still display a prow and the old hay trolley apparatus which the spear would have been connected to.

[tyb525]

Our barn still has the trolley, but it is filled with straw instead of hay. But it does not have a bridge, it is on flat ground and in order to get to the "haymow" you gotta climb on of several ladders.

[Carpenter]

     We have a 1934 John Deere A.  I spent many hours on that tractor.  It didn't have petcocks and could be a bear to start.  You had to have the choke set just right.  It had two tanks we always started it on straight gasoline and then switched to a gasoline diesel mix in the main tank.  You didn't want to forget to switch tanks before the gasoline tank ran out because it would wear you out to try to start it hot.  We also had 4 JD B's 1935,36,37, and a 47 with an electric start.  The 35,36,and 37 did not have petcocks but the 47 did.  Not a long story, but your story of the John Deere A brought back memories.  We ran those tractors every year in the hayfield untill 1999.  Then slowly phased them out when my Dad and Uncle started baling instead of stacking hay.  I thought haying was a lot more fun then.  But, it took 5 of us most of the summer to put up the same amount of ground that a two man crew can cover in two weeks now. 
     I've got a great uncle in Milcreek Pennsylvania who has an old barn built into a hill like that.  I've never given a thought to what the dirt and stone built up road going to the hayloft might be called, bridge could very well fit the description.  From what I remember the whole 1st story was stone and was used as a milk barn and the second story was timber framed.  I remember walking across the beams as a kid as a daredevil stunt with my cousins.  Neat old barn, I wish I had some pictures.

[tyb525]

Off Topic, why did you run the tractor on a gas-diesel mix?

[beenthere]

tyb
The alternate fuel was usually referred to as distillate, and was much cheaper than gasoline. Kerosene was also cheaper, as was fuel oil, and might be called distillate (a by product of oil distillation).
The JD's I was around (similar to those carp mentions) sometimes would smoke a lot when switching to the cheaper fuel. Had a shutter on the radiator to keep the water hot and the two cyl engine hot.

[Carpenter]

Off Topic, why did you run the tractor on a gas-diesel mix?

     Good question.  I've always wondered that myself.  Beenthere probably answered that better than I could have.  The diesel added to the mix did give the tractors more power and better fuel efficiency I think.  They were designed to be run off of it they were made with two tanks a 1 gallon tank for gas and a tank for tractor fuel.  My dad tells me that when these tractors were common that you could buy tractor fuel which was basically the same thing as the gas diesel mix.  Anyway it worked for 60 years so thats what we did.  The mix was two gallons #1 diesel to three gallons gas.  On a side note all of these tractors are still running or runnable with the exception of the A.  The oil pump went bad on it and Dad never could find a replacement part.  Evidently John Deere doesn't stock parts for a 1934 tractor anymore and he would know he is a parts man for the local John Deere. 

[pineywoods]

Distillate was in the past quite common in the oil and gas fields of the south. It was considered an un-refined waste product and frequently was marketed as tractor fuel.
On some wells, You could open the valve to the well casing and get a few gallons right from the well. We called it casing head gas. Octane rating 40 or maybe 50. A model T ford would run on it once the motor was started on gas and warmed up. I've known depression era farmers to use it as antifreeze.

[Thehardway]

My grandfather was a wildcatter in Oil City/Titusville, PA area.  He lost just about everything in the Great Depression.  While he worked the oil leases he would fuel his Model T from the well head condensate.  This clear white fuel was actually naptha. They called it white gas or "hi test".  It was also used in lanterns.  The actual natural gas coming out of the oil wells that did not condense was used by the "hit or miss" single cylinder engines that powered the well pumps.  Some of these oil field engines where there was less natural gas were given a carburetor and ran on a combination of gasoline, kerosene, and water.  They had three separate tanks.  The engine was started cold on gasoline, when warm, the engine was "turned over" to kerosene and water.  the kerosene provided more power than the gas and the water was added to cool the cylinder and prevent pre-igntion or "pounding".  This was a very efficient, economical system.  These engines were rated for continuous duty and ranged form 4-40 HP.  They drove large flywheels, which in turn drove the eccentric and rod lines to the individual pumps. I would guess some of these later took up duty in sawmill operations.  More can be learned about them in "Oil field engineering Volume 18" pg. 607-609. by C.V. Hull

I guess the JD tractor version used diesel instead of Kero.  Not much difference there.

These engines were the beginning of ICE driven sawmill operations.  Many a farmer had an old JD tractor as the power supply for a belt driven small sawmill.  When the lumber was cut the tractor went to plowing or cultivating.

I feel bad for hijacking this thread with my little story but hopefully the question was answered sufficiently before we wandered down memory lane.

These single cylinder engines could be heard for miles.