Life before raincaps?

Since I"m only 50, I don"t remember a time when tractors didn"t have raincaps (flappers, ting-tings, etc.) When did they come about? Who had them first? I know soup cans have been around a while on farms, but what did dealers put over the stack when on the lot, on the train or truck being shipped, etc?

The first ones were on diesels,that's all I can remember about it. Must have been in the 50s. Oliver had the majority of diesel sales back then,so a good possibility they at least had more with rain caps at the start. I seem to recall going to the dealer with Dad and the diesels had them,the gassers didn't. The first time I bought one from TSC to put on a tractor was in the 60s. Right now only one of my gassers has one. My 1550 Oliver. They all sit inside,so pretty much don't need'em. There is a soup can on one of the hydraulic levers on my 1600 though,just in case.

I have a couple of restored tractors and sometimes they set outside at a show. Do not like th4e look of raincaps and they sometimes cause exhaust fumes to blow back into your face when driving. For a raincap, I have sewed a sleeve of vinyl material which is the correct color and fits over the exhaust. Then if you happen to forget and start the engine with the cap on, it doesn't fly off and mark paint. Yours or another nearby tractor.

I read this forum daily. Thanks to all of you who contribute...

A lot of the old Case tractors had a low place just before the manifold straight under the muffler with a drain hole in case you forgot to cover the exhaust.
Richard

I think from the 'invention' of the tractor, till the time you were kids.... it was one of the biggest investments after the real estate itself. These vertical pipe or under foot exhaust machines were kept in a barn, garage, sturdy shed, heavy tarp- anything but outside in the open, where the weather could devalue your lifetime investment... as this stuff got old, and cheap, all that didn't mater anymore...

I took a glance at a 1945 Montgomery Wards catalog and I didn't see any raincaps listed. Mufflers were in the area of $2.50 depending on application. Jim

Massey Ferguson put a 'U' bend on the manifold with a small hole at the lowest point to let the water out. They didn't fit rattly raincaps until around 1976.
Sam

I remember them back into the fifties, and some retrofits to older straight stacked tractors. They became more standard into the sixties...

I am 76 yrs old, so maybe I can add a little history of the rain caps. rrlund is basically correct, except what I recall in Iowa in those days the IH M Farmall diesel was far more numerous than Oliver diesels built just up the road in Charles City. Whatever....

The first cap I ever saw was on an MD at the IH exhibit at the National Dairy Cattle Congress at Waterloo,Iowa about 1952 or thereabouts...that show was a real big deal in those days with huge machinery displays. (IH display was bigger than JD even though JD had their factory next door.)

Somehow, thru the years those caps became some kind of "gotta have" for owners of gassers too.

But to this day whenever I see a proud owner posting a newly rejuvinated gasser with a cap, I cringe. "That ain't the way it was!".

And I never have liked the constant rattle of the things...drives me nuts. I also recall our friend Hugh MacKay making plain what he thought of the rattle cap.

For years I have said the official gasser cap is a Campbells soup can. The tomato can, really.

Now one of you mentioned making a vinyl cap, a wonderful idea! I too often forget my tomato can and it comes down on my hood when starting and that is not good. Will be interesting to see how high I can make than vinyl cap go.

LA in WI

yeah - a campbell soup can until you forget to take it off before starting and it pops twenty feet in the air, landing on your wife's car windshield putting a little crack in it while she's watching you.

THEN you'll prefer the rattle cap, trust me.

A photo for some input. I've forgotten where I found it online, but saved it because I love pictures of vintage tractors on trains.
Threse a better one somewhere, but I dont have it saved to my computer, and cant find it online at the moment.

Here is the better one I recall:
As best as I can make out, they did nothing to the exaust for shiping. Would be fun in any one that seen them delivered/ worked for the dealer knows for sure, and if not, did any ever manage to arrive locked up?
Farmall Tractors Ready for Shipment

Also, out of curiosity, I looked and the AC WD/WD 45 parts book lists a flapper rain cap, but the WC book dose not. and it is shown clearly in conjunction with the GAS WD/WD45 pages, not the Diesel. Not saying they were first, but their books do show it with the WD.

Zetor did this also,with a cotter pin through the hole.

Some early diesels could accidentally run backwards if you were not careful when starting them. A cousin had a Case big 400 start backwards once when he was moving a manure spreader. The tractor started, but it moved backwards in a forward gear, it moved forward in a reverse gear and oil was comming out the air intake. He shut it off, restarted it and it was OK. We decided it could not have been good for the engine bearings with the oil pump running backwards.

A flapper cap on the exhaust could have prevented the engine from drawing air into the exhuast and running backwards.

Rain caps just pulled the muffler off or broke it off when it hooked on a tree limb. Green been cans worked good, and it was fun trying to catch them when you started the JD.

ss55... An INTERESTING post about a concept I have never hear about before, a good idea, perhaps?

(quoted from post at 15:19:37 01/21/13) Here is the better one I recall:
As best as I can make out, they did nothing to the exaust for shiping. Would be fun in any one that seen them delivered/ worked for the dealer knows for sure, and if not, did any ever manage to arrive locked up?
Farmall Tractors Ready for Shipment

Click to expand...

That's a really nice photo! Thanks for sharing!

(quoted from post at 21:41:59 01/21/13) Rain caps just pulled the muffler off or broke it off when it hooked on a tree limb..

Click to expand...

I always have my tractors raincap pivot point at the frt so tree limb just briefly closes RC while limb passes. IIRC my dad's tractors had raincaps in the 50's.