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"Tractor Pull" Gate
When one of Sten Nielsen's field entrances needed a new gate, he decided to create something that he and others could enjoy. The result is an artistic 36-ft. gate featuring a tractor pull silhouette.

    Nielsen, who is a trained welder, said he had a picture in his head of what he wanted to make. But he thinks nearly anyone could do what he did.

    He fashioned two identical tractors, pointed in opposite directions. Each is inside one of the two frames that form the gate panels. Two sections of chain are used to tie the gate closed û each is welded to one back tractor wheel, giving the impression of the two tractors "pulling" on each other.

    The tractors are made entirely from scrap metal Nielsen already had around the farm. The tractor shapes brace the frame of each panel. Each tractor hood is made from a piece of heavy tin and the steering column from a length of 5/8-in. sucker rod. Miscellaneous iron and rod make up the remainder. Three strands of barb wire (not shown in picture) run from rings positioned down the front of the tractor, across to holes in a vertical piece of flat iron welded near the outer edge of each panel's frame. Nielsen placed another strand of barb wire below each tractor, running between the front and back wheels. The unpainted barb wire fills in the larger, otherwise open spaces around the tractors.

    Nielsen also used four steel wheels off a Case side delivery rake.

    The tractors' vertical exhaust/muffler pipes extend a few inches above the panel frame's top pipe. He did this on purpose, placing a hole in the top, so that they could be used as lift hooks to hang the panels from his front-end loader when mounting the gate.

    The main gate posts, as well as two additional posts for bracing, are made from 15-foot sections of six-inch hollow steel pipe. All are cemented into the ground 10 feet down. Between the two steel posts at each end of the gate, Nielsen welded five bars made from one-inch sucker rod. This bracing stabilizes gravity's pull on the main gate posts from the weight of the panels.

    The outside vertical ends of each panel have pipe hinges built right into the frame, complete with grease zerks. Nielsen was thinking ahead when he added this feature, and points out that, "big gates tend to seize up over the years."

    Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Sten Nielsen, 53452 Rg. Rd. 225, Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada T8A 4V3).


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1999 - Volume #23, Issue #6