[AT] Homemade tractors.

[Herbert Metz]

At the LaGrange, IN Gathering Of Orange (1997?) show, I talked with a
fellow who had been an Allis dealer in southwest Ohio.  He and two other
small dealers had gone together (decades ago) and had a local
welding/machine shop modify approx two dozen Allis G's to where they were
narrow enough they could pull a one horse drill between rows of standing
corn.
I am not surprised by Farmers mentioning that "a lot of them ended up
turning over".
Herb


> [Original Message]
> From: Francis Robinson <robinson at svs.net>
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Date: 12/23/2007 12:28:27 AM
> Subject: [AT] Homemade tractors.
>
>     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"