Schramm 300 pneumatic tractor

[Frank Surber]

The same guy that I got my Ford 755 backhoe from gave me a Schramm 300 pneumatic tractor
it has a 4/71 Detroit engine with a 300 CFM compressor coupled to the engine. the tractor is propelled by a pump mounted on the front end of the Detroit.
I remember about 30 years ago it had a backhoe boom mounted on it with a large pneumatic hammer. Later on he sold the boom off of it and mounted the hammer on his excavator then just used the Schramm as an air compressor About 20 years ago he converted to using a 2000 lb hydraulic hammer and the old Schramm has been sitting ever since. Now that I finally have it moved to my place the other day I thought what the heck I might as well find out if it is locked up or not.
after checking all of the fluids I hooked a battery to it just to see if it would even turn over. It did but not enough battery to start it. I really didn't want to start it with out first making sure the fuel rack is functioning and the shut off. plus I want to drain the old diesel out and change the filter before I actually try to get it running anyway.

 

[Stimw]

Any idea what year it is?

 

[Sprinklerman]

The old hoe ram . Those are still in demand for breaking rock . The air powered hammer hits much better than the hydraulic ones .

 

[Frank Surber]

It's a 1969 model

 

[hturner12]

Diesel itself does not go bad. It my have water and algae in it

 

[Shaneard]

That's a neat piece! We have 2 Schramms, one pnuematractor and one tow behind. They are both gas engines and both 160CFM. Both run/work. Our tractor belonged to the U.S. Navy and still has the brass tag attached and also U.S.N. stamped in the tires.

 

[Frank Surber]

Diesel itself does not go bad. It my have water and algae in it

I know, Now that we have just about completed our move hopefully I will set up my processor again I bought a 9 HP listoroid about 2 years ago that came with a re processor to make diesel out of used motor oil. it also came with 600 gallons of used oil. the guy I got all of that from had ran the listoriod on his home grown diesel for 10 years.
My 14 KW Kubota generator ran fine on a 50/50 mix of home grown diesel and the store bought kind. So any old diesel that I remove from machines that smell bad or has turned dark brown is saved to be run through the centrifuge and the processor old diesel really just needs spun through the centrifuge and the filters not the entire re- processing unit but it will get a better blend if I run it through 1 stage of the heating system.
But for now I will just drain and store the old diesel and clean out the fuel system before trying to get the old Schramm running

 

[hturner12]

That makes sense. I see the comments about old diesel on the Ford truck forum I belong to. A guy will buy a truck and think they got to get rid of the old diesel

 

[Frank Surber]

The old hoe ram . Those are still in demand for breaking rock . The air powered hammer hits much better than the hydraulic ones .

I wanted it for the huge air compressor not having the hoe ram or boom any more is a little bit of a negative because that makes the old tractor incomplete from the aspect of originality, and they never were intended as any form of Agg use but if it does what I really want it to do which is to use as a means of blowing out my 60 ft deep water well that has silted in so bad it can only produce a couple gallons per minute, I'll be happy.
Depending on the out come of cleaning out the perforations plus loosening up the sand and gravel of the strata I might later build a telescoping and folding boom style derrick to assist in pulling wells up to 2 or 300 feet deep. The local well driller guy said that he would welcome having a machine he could rent for those times when he can't get his big rig in without a lot of work
Who knows there are a lot of possibilities for the old machine I can always use it to run my sand blaster and not have to rent a compressor.

 

[Frank Surber]

That makes sense. I see the comments about old diesel on the Ford truck forum I belong to. A guy will buy a truck and think they got to get rid of the old diesel

Man I'll take all of the old diesel that anyone wants to throw away. A really good 1 HP centrifuge a triple filter system a tank that can be heated to 200°f and a couple of small pumps a few pipes, and fittings some chemicals and a storage tank and any old diesel with some used motor oil can be made to run in older mechanical engines But you wouldn't want to run it in the newer pretend diesel engines

 

[hturner12]

7.3 idi

 

[Frank Surber]

7.3 idi

My 93 F350 did fine on it but there was some loss of power which might have been due to my not making a good batch it was my first and only before I had to crate up the equipment. Maybe next summer I will have time to set it up again with better plumbing and a better way to monitor the PH level as the process it being run.

 

[Frank Surber]

Been thinking for a while now that I needed to do something with the Schramm.
I blocked it up on blocks removed the wheels and started looking for used tires to put on them.
Not having any luck finding the size I wanted without having to buy new I decided why not make some adapters and just put truck tires on the back all it really needs to do is to have something to roll on anyway.
Plus I had 8 385/70-22.5 mounted tires from a trash truck. these things are huge and heavy plus 2 inches wider that the agg tire that is supposed to be on it and only 3 or 4 inches smaller OD
So if 2 tires were good enough to roll around on why not just put 4 on for more surface area