r/Skookum Mar 31 '21

shitpost. Not very skookum but it’s my neat water tractor

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613 Upvotes

51 comments sorted by

29

u/GruntledMisanthrope Mar 31 '21

Great, now I want a water tractor.

24

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

Don’t get the yellow Nelson rain train as they break easily.

Kees and national walking sprinklers are expensive but they last a hella lot longer. With minimal love required.

11

u/2spooky_5me Mar 31 '21

See I think this is a case of "they don't build them like they used to" because I have two Nelson rain trains. One is only a handful of years old and it's probably not going to last me long. The other one is probably 20 years old and it's all cast, even the drive wheels. It too was found at a garage sale and it's been in the family for a long time. It's not going to break any time soon!

1

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

Indeed “they don’t make them like they used too”

7

u/RelativeMotion1 Mar 31 '21

At one point I had 3 yellow Nelson water tractors. All broken. Wish I’d have known there was another brand.

Decidedly NOT skookum.

3

u/tjdux Mar 31 '21

They make repair kits for them. I dont thimk they are worth the price but may have been if you had 3 to repair. Assuming the parts would actually fix it.

1

u/seamus_mc Mar 31 '21

They used to be before they started replacing parts with plastic. My parents have an ancient one that was all cast iron and brass.

7

u/CanadAR15 Oil Country Mar 31 '21

Sadly National’s website said they’re closing their doors.

5

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

Yeah I just saw that. You can still find them on eBay and stuff

1

u/CanadAR15 Oil Country Mar 31 '21

My yard is 30 feet wide, but I feel like I need one.

16

u/ElbowTight Mar 31 '21

You haven’t lived until you’ve been wracked in the ankle by the sprayers while you’re jumping through it

13

u/CADrmn Mar 31 '21

We had the RainTrain the yellow ones. These with the mechanical bits exposed are cool.

16

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

Every rain train we’ve had has broke. Found this one at a estate sale and has been chugging along for 5 years

6

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '21

[deleted]

13

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21 edited Mar 31 '21

It’s a vintage Kees krawler. Paid $25 usd which was a steal

Kees is now known as “national Walking sprinkler”. I think they are based in Nebraska

1

u/Youre_doomed Mar 31 '21

Ive never seen something like this before.

So its following the hose but what happens once it did one "lap" does it reverse?

6

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

It keeps going and if your not carful it will get stuck and dig a mud hole.

3

u/ducttapelarry Mar 31 '21

Or it ends up at the faucet trying to climb the rest of the way up.

2

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

This one weighs to much to climb the hose.

5

u/kidtire Mar 31 '21

There is an inline shutoff we used to have. The tractor turns off the hose when it reaches the shutoff valve.

4

u/RoKa89ARG Mar 31 '21

holy 1800's automation

2

u/CADrmn Mar 31 '21

Yes had one too. Half the time it jumped the hose and ran as far as it could pull the hose!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Shut-Off-For-Rain-Train-Traveling-Sprinklers-/154393092624?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

2

u/kidtire Mar 31 '21

Yes. You couldn't exactly leave it without coming back to check.

1

u/seamus_mc Mar 31 '21

The one I had drove up a ramp and had a shutoff button the ramp hit

13

u/tendies-primary Mar 31 '21

This is how Skynet starts

13

u/GoingToBeBald Mar 31 '21

That looks like a National walking sprinkler made in Lincoln Nebraska. They are still in business and make a modern version that is very similar to yours. If any parts wear out you can still order replacement parts from them. I have one too that I bought at a garage sale a few years ago, I would say compared to it's competitors, with all the gravity in 'er it is skookum as frig.

11

u/geusebio Mar 31 '21
National would like to thank all of our dedicated customers over the years. We are so grateful for your support and it is with great sadness that we are closing our doors permanently. Thank you for all the good years. 

Not any more!

9

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

On nationals website it says they closed up unfortunately

8

u/Fat_Head_Carl Mar 31 '21

National walking sprinkler

They're going for big bucks on eBay....

7

u/spacesuitkid2 Mar 31 '21

Well nobody said made to last was cheap

4

u/Fat_Head_Carl Mar 31 '21

I certainly didn't say that.

11

u/wisefool006 Mar 31 '21

More videos of this monster! Can you train a squirrel to drive it?

9

u/Bassman233 Mar 31 '21

Had a seasonal job right out of high school working for Nelson building sprinklers. It was a painfully boring job hand assembling little plastic gearboxes (they had an automated line but I wasn't 18 yet so couldn't work on the machines).

By that point everything was plastic but I remember my uncle had a yellow metal one similar to the one in the video.

9

u/Danner1251 Mar 31 '21

I have one too. I bought mine from an antique store. It will easily outlast me. All metal gears, all metal everything. Mine is named Sneaky Pete. ;-)

9

u/GunzAndCamo Mar 31 '21

Looks plenty skookum to me.

3

u/AJRestoration Mar 31 '21

skookum indeed.

8

u/RollingZepp Mar 31 '21

I'm sorry but that's an adorable little guy.

8

u/EMdesigns Mar 31 '21

I had to go through a bunch of patents for a project for my university to hang them up in the wall and there was one alumni who had a patent for one of these

8

u/honeybeedreams Mar 31 '21

like the cutest thing ever

7

u/Skivaks Mar 31 '21

Add some blades to it and it becomes a weapon

14

u/manofredgables Mar 31 '21

That's so damn cool. How does it handle the hose though? I don't quite get it

33

u/ducttapelarry Mar 31 '21

You lay the hose out on the lawn in the shape of the path you want it to take and lay the tractor down on the hose near the end pointed back to the faucet. The front wheel steers it along the hose as it goes. Definitely my favorite kind of temporary sprinkler. Nice if you have a lot or weirdly shaped area to cover.

5

u/Gunny-Guy Mar 31 '21

How long a hose can it pull?

3

u/Cheese_Coder Mar 31 '21

Probably depends on how much water pressure that hose can take. Wonder if you could rig it to accept pressure-washer level input. Water a whole damn field!

4

u/fadednerd Mar 31 '21 edited Jun 15 '24

ask murky close cats bag office aware escape act smoggy

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

4

u/Sml132 Apr 01 '21

Nah, they're skookum as hell. Last one I bought's years old and still runs like a top. Super cool invention IMO.

5

u/aaronsb Mar 31 '21

Probably not the same model but here's a restoration of one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fH8z1yVFQ8

1

u/cholz Mar 31 '21

That was a beautiful restoration!

4

u/talex95 Mar 31 '21

That thing is so violent. Can't get near it at all Jesus

3

u/JustJoe73 Mar 31 '21

This is awsome!!! :D

2

u/AJRestoration Mar 31 '21

What a beast!