
Ex-WWII tanks still used as paddock bashers on Australian farms - astdb
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-19/tinkering-with-tanks-and-preserving-australian-farming-history/8017194
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45h34jh53k4j
And this is the kind of aussie ingenuity that is sometimes missed by the
world. Because of resource and distance, sometimes the battler needs to think
creatively and repurpose what is available.

Sadly as we pivot to a pure consumer society of plenty this ingenuity is no
longer a necessity. (China is closer to Australia than US. Cheaper consumer
goods, sometimes cheap ($<10) every day mfg goods are cheaper in AU vs US).

~~~
grecy
As an Austrlaian living in North America, this is something I feel on a daily
basis.

When somethings stops working, needs repair, or just some attention, it
boggles my mind when my suggestions of repair and improvise are completely
ignored in favor of "order a new one with overnight shipping".

I personally derive great satisfaction from fixing the stuff I rely on, and
it's working out really well for me now I'm traveling through West Africa.

~~~
knz
Kiwi in the US here.

It probably varies depending upon your social circles. Plenty of North
Americans repair and improvise, especially those not in dense urban areas.
Americans may love their disposable consumer goods but I wouldn't write of
their ability to adapt and improvise just yet!

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grzm
I remember hearing (perhaps apocryphally) that the _repair_ meaning of _fix_
was one of the early American English words, dating back to the 1730s or so.

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azernik
Misleading headline - according to the article body itself, the tanks were
used as bulldozers in the immediate post-war period when they were cheaper
than purpose-made bulldozers. What's going on now is that farmers that own
tanks from that period are acquiring, restoring, maintaining, and running them
in their original military configurations for historical reasons.

Which is still super cool.

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douche
On the History (haha) Channel show Ax Men, there was one season were one of
the crews was using a yarder rig mounted on an old M4 Sherman chassis. My dad
has also told me some stories about converted surplus tanks used as bulldozers
and half-tracks skidders back when he was starting out logging in the 70s,
before there was a lot of really specialized equipment.

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dmoy
Good to see old stuff still useful. Up here in Seattle we use old M60 tanks to
shoot the mountains for snow clearance in the winter.

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marssaxman
It's always fun to baffle visitors from other states by bragging that our
highway department is better-armed than their highway department.

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h4nkoslo
Australia is kind of interesting in that it has a lot of preconditions for
success (relatively high IQ & conscientiousness, high levels of social
cohesion, stable governing institutions, good education, high social & human
capital in general) but just an enormously spread-out geography, both
internally and externally, and a relatively tiny population.

It ends up with a really odd economic dynamic where they have to leverage
their internal resources because, eg, it's simply too much of a PITA to get a
particular rare part shipped from a hemisphere away (from a supplier that
isn't really set up to routinely ship to them anyway because it's not a huge
market), and yet they actually end up being pretty good at it.

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r00fus
The proverbial _swords to plowshares_. Reminded of a very powerful mtg card...

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Demcox
That is just awesome. I love how they utilize old war machines, which was
build to destroy, to create life and provide food!

Even though it has crazy poor fuel/range ratio, it has outlastet the CO2
footprint is initially made.

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crypto5
Soviet WW2 T-34 is still in use in Syria and Yemen nowdays:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OoS8Zhg6EM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OoS8Zhg6EM)

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vvanders
6 gallons of diesel an hour, uf da.

Our little 2-cyl Ford 1500 CUT has a 5 gallon tank and uses half a gallon an
hour.

Curious if they ever tried to rig a 3pt hitch in one of those.

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userbinator
You should compare them to bulldozers; a quick search reveals that they use
just as much fuel:

[http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?4846-Fuel-
co...](http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?4846-Fuel-consumption-
of-Cat-D8-Cat-D6)

~~~
countingteeth
well, that wasn't as alarming as "one down the shed there that'll use 13
litres of petrol every hundred yards." I hope it is moving a lot of dirt in
those 100 yards.

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Chris2048
Not sure how this would replace a bulldozer, what is the purpose?
Transportation?

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ethbro
Tractors -> Tanks (see Christie selling M1931s to the Soviets after the US
military passed on them, shipped as the less suspicious "agricultural farm
tractors")

So not inconceivable to turn them back into tractors. In fact, if you shed a
lot of the armor, you'd probably have a pretty decently performing vehicle,
especially for the price.

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vvanders
The armor isn't a bad thing, generally with tractors the heavier the better.
It's really common to have tires filled with fluid and wheel weights for
traction and stability reasons.

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cryptozeus
Batrock international :)

