[AT] Homemade tractors.

[Ed Stewart]

Good morning! I have had experience with homemade tractors. When I was 
young there were three in the neighborhood, My dad had one made with a 
Model T Ford engine, tranny and frame shortened some, with a Model A 
Ford tranny right behind the Model T tranny coupled to a Model T truck 
worm drive rearend with dual wheels and chains, It ran hot so he put a 
heavy 50 gallon oil drum crossways on the backend of the frame over the 
rearend and plumbed it in between the engine and radiator, then it 
stayed cool, just below a boil when working. One neighbor had a Model A 
with a chain drive conversion kit with about five foot steel wheels, 
Later own after we quit farming we were logging and needed a skidder so 
Dad and I took a 1950 Chevy Stubnose cab over truck and shortened it and 
removed the cab and put an A frame(old moblehome tongue) with tie rods 
running up front and placed a 55 gallon drum of concrete in the center 
front of the A frame for weight. It was amazing the size trees it would 
skid out of the woods, but you had to keep your foot close to the clutch 
always because if the log hung up you had to be quick or it would rear 
up fast.. I now have a homemade tractor using a 6 horse hitnmiss 
Hercules engine with a Sears-Roebuck Ford conversion to farm tractor kit 
for a rearend I am chain driving the Model A rearend and there is a 
pinion gear that replaced the ford rear wheels and a big gear that is 
inside the five foot steel wheels I have a four speed tranny chain 
driving a three speed and it runs from a very slow crawl to about 6 mile 
per hour,It has unbelievable power at the back wheels. I also have a S24 
Speedex driven by a twin Wisconsin and a much converted S 17 Speedex 
running gear with a Four Horse Sattley throttle governed flywheel engine 
which I take to shows. I will post a link with pictures.. Merry 
Christmas, Ed

Francis Robinson wrote:
>     Has anyone here ever owned or used a homemade tractor? I never have but 
> have always been fascinated by them. I used to see a bunch of them setting 
> around parked for good during the early 1950's. Most were made out of an old 
> car or truck chopped down. A lot were made out of Model A Fords. Many were 
> built during the war (WW II 1941 to 1945) or just after when tractors were 
> really hard to come by. When I was at BSU in the early 1960's they were 
> still using cut down Model A Fords to pull ganged golf course reel mowers to 
> mow much of the campus. The only other thing I saw used for mowing there was 
> Farmall Cubs with rear mounted flail mowers used on rougher grounds. Did I 
> just say "grounds"?   ;-)
>     A lot of homemade tractors were small and narrow made just to pull a one 
> horse wheat drill down rows of standing corn. I also remember a lot of CUB's 
> and Pony's being narrowed up for wheat drills. A lot of them ended up 
> turning over...
>     Larry, I believe I once read of a lot of Economy tractors being set up 
> to pull one horse wheat drills.
>     I have two one horse wheat drills that  are strictly "yard art". One of 
> them has a few good sized bullet holes in the sheet metal guard panels. 
> While I always fess up eventually I do enjoy giving the grand kids a line of 
> crap as they come along about my having been attacked by Indians while 
> working in the fields...   ;-)   I bought these at sales, we never planted 
> any wheat like that during my lifetime. We always had one field of early 
> corn that we could get picked in time to plant wheat. We only grew about 20 
> to 30 acres of wheat.
>     The grandkids usually half believe the Indian stories since they think I 
> am old enough to have been attacked by dinosaurs.   ;-)   A couple of other 
> tales I like to work in on them involve how I used to play the grand piano 
> in the marching band and that I was once in the Olympics. My event? Why 
> javelin catching of course...   ;-)
>
>
>
> --
> "farmer"
>
> Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the
> well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are
> showing a new road.  ~Voltaire
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana, USA
> robinson at svs.net 
>
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>   

-- 
I use Ubuntu Linux version 7.10 code named:"Gutsy Gibbon" ONLY!
Ed Stewart
Reynoldsville, PA
15851