Combine Tractor Powers Snowblower

Combine tractor powers snowblower COMBINES Conversions 13-1-36 A home-built "tractor" fashioned out of a salvaged Deere 45 combine works great to power a 7-ft. snowblower and can also be used during the summer for light row crop work. Elmer Kroneman, St. Ansgar, Iowa, built the snowblower tractor because he has neck problems and didn't want to have to continually look back to run a 3-pt. mounted blower. The blower on his home-built rig mounts in clear view ahead of the operator just ahead of the drive wheels, providing excellent traction. "It works better than I ever imagined. It turns on a dime, has plenty of power and it makes moving snow fun," says Kroneman. He selected the Deere combine because it had variable speed drive, and because he was able to buy it cheap ($150). He completely stripped it down to parts, removing both the drive axle and the rear axles, as well as the transmission and miscellaneous components. He narrowed up the drive axle 10 in. so he could use the tractor on both 30 and 38-in. rows during summer months and mounted both axles on a frame he built from scratch out of 6-in. channel iron. He discarded the original 4-cyl. engine and substituted a V-8 Chevy 283 engine. The engine is matched up to a clutch housing from a 410 Massey Ferguson combine (because the MF combine had been fitted with a Chevy engine) and kept the original Deere 3-gear, variable speed transmission. The radiator, steering column, and other miscellaneous parts, like pulleys and sprockets, were also saved from the Deere combine. He made the live pto out of an axle from a ¥-ton Chevy truck. The engine belt-drives the transmission, a hydraulic pump, and a gearbox that drives a pto at 600 rpm's to power the blower. Hydraulics raise and lower the blower and also turn the directional chute and raise and lower it for precision control of blown snow. Kroneman fitted the tractor with a Year-A-Round cab complete with heater. The factory-built blower itself is 80 in. wide. "It's fun and easy to operate. There's no power steering but because most of the weight's over the drive wheels, the rear steering wheels turn easily. And the variable speed drive works great for slowing down and speeding up as needed while blowing snow," says Kroneman, noting that he worked on the combine tractor in his spare time for nearly two years. Contact FARM SHOW Followup, Elmer Kroneman, Rt. 2, Box 133, St. Ansgar, Iowa 50472 (ph 515 736-4636).

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