Blade And Boom Tractor

Blade And Boom Tractor TRACTORS Made-It-Myself I think it s handier to use than any tractor on the market because it can do so many jobs says Karl Darge Mankato Minn about his blade-and-boom tractor that s equipped with a front and rear-mounted blade as well as a rear-mounted boom and winch The one-of-a-kind tractor also is equipped with a hand-held sprayer that Darge uses to spray apple trees as well as for weed and mosquito control I needed a garden tractor and looked at commercial ones but they cost too much money says Darge who built his tractor in 1982 I use the 5 112-ft wide 16-in high front blade for pushing dirt and in the winter I replace it with a 22-in high blade for pushing snow I use the 5-ft wide 12-in high rear blade to scrape snow off my blacktop driveway and to push out tree stumps It has a lot of downpressure because it s mounted on a 3-pt hitch The boom is really handy I built it in two sections One 30-in long section is permanently mounted and is hollow I can slip either an 8 ft long boom or a 15 ft long boom into it By mounting a 2 by 6-ft scaffold and `hold-on hoop on the end of the 8-ft long boom I can stand on it to paint my house or to pick apples I fill 5-gal pails with apples and let them down with a rope I use the 15-ft long boom with the winch and 100 ft of cable It works great for shingling roofs I built a platform that hooks onto the end of the cable and holds three bundles of shingles at a time The tractor has tremendous power for its size because it s geared down I can drive at fast idle against a tree and all four wheels will spin but the engine won t kill Darge built the tractor s frame from 3 by 3-in sq tubing He narrowed up the axles from a wrecked 1966 4-WD Ford Bronco and installed a 4-cyl 1 700 cu in engine 4-speed transmission and hydraulic clutch salvaged from a rolled¡over1973 Toyota car The running gear and transfer case are from the Bronco There wasn t room to run a driveshaft between the transmission and transfer case so Darge installed a no 60 drive chain between them He left the transfer case in low range to reduce the gear ratio He removed the Bronco s front axle lock-out hubs and replaced them with solid lockups to provide permanent 4-WD The front differential was damaged so Darge replaced it with the front differential from another Bronco and welded a pivot pin to the top of it that allows the axle to pivot from side to side The Bronco s front and rear differentials both had 4:11 gear ra¡tios but the replacement front differen¡tial had a faster 3:50 gear ratio so to make up for the difference Darge mounted 15-in tires in front and 32 in tires at the rear The 30-in long permanent boom is fastened by a 1-in dia pin to the base of the tractor cab and is raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder The winch powered by a hydraulic motor is mounted below the cylinder Darge installed a Bronco front axle lockout hub on the side of the winch spool and uses it to lock or unlock the spool He built the snow blade from 10 ga sheet metal and the other two blades from 16-in dia well casing split lengthwise Front blade is controlled by a hydraulic cylinder which allows up and down movment Rear blade is mounted on a 3-pt hitch which is raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder Another cylinder is used to pivot the rear blade from side to side There are three hydraulic controls - one for the front blade one for rear blade and a universal one that can be used to operate winch boom or rear blade To use the sprayer Darge mounts a 15-gal tank on the tractor s front grill and a screw-type Bendix washing machine pump on the right side of the tractor A fan-driven belt operates the pump which sends spray solution through a 50-ft long garden hose equipped with a nozzle Darge built the cab from 3 by 3-in sq tubing and sheet metal A rollbar runs down the center of the cab and the hood tilts forward for access to the engine He welded lengths of angle iron on the per¡manent boom and the 8-ft long boom to create a ladder that lets him climb down from the scaffold onto the top of the cab then down steps on the side of the tractor Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Karl Darge 108 Bittersweet Lane Mankato Minn 56001 ph 507 388-8331

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