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"Slow Speed" Tractor A Real Conversation Piece
You've never seen anything like this "slow speed" tractor, painted all yellow and equipped with a crosswise-mounted engine. It was built by Iky Wipf of Huron, S. Dak., who used components from 4 different tractors to come up with the strange looking unit.
   The frame, rear axle and rear end is off a Deere B; the single front wheel, worm gear steering sector, and bolster are off an International Harvester F12; the 4-cyl. industrial engine ù bolted crosswise on the Deere frame ù is off an International Cub; and the fenders came from a Massey Harris.
  "I built it about 10 years ago so I could enter a tractor æslow' race. I could walk alongside the tractor and hardly see it move, yet I still didn't win. But I had a lot of fun building it," says Wipf.
  He shortened the tractor's length by cutting 2 ft. off the front part of the frame. He also cut 1 ft. off the axles on each side of the tractor.  
  Wipf replaced the Deere's original rear wheels with smaller ones off an Allis Chalmers 100 self-propelled combine, building new hubs to fit the Deere axles.
  The tractor's slow speed is made possible by a big 18-in. dia. sprocket mounted on the Deere flywheel, which chain-drives the Deere rear end. Wipf also bolted a smaller sprocket on the Cub's clutch.
  "The 18-in. dia. sprocket is much bigger than the Deere flywheel, which really gears it down. The small rear wheels also help. When I put the transmission in low gear the tractor just creeps along."
  A few years ago Wipf sold the tractor to John Morley of Forest Lake, Minn. "I may paint the tractor 4 different colors û green for the Deere B frame, gray for the IH F12 front steering sector, red for the IH Cub Cadet power unit, and red for the Massey Harris wheels," notes Morley.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Iky Wipf, 616 Nicollet Ave. S.W., Huron, S. Dak. 57350 (ph 605 352-7090) or John Morley, 21661 Fondant Ave. N., Forest Lake, Minn. 55025 (ph 651 464-2778).


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2010 - Volume #34, Issue #5