Pedal-Powered Deere B

Pedal-Powered Deere B AG WORLD Ag World 21-6-21 It would take a pretty strong "kid" to power David Hartogh's pedal-powered 1941 Deere "B", which was recently featured in "Green Magazine". It's become quite a conversation piece around Riceville, Iowa, where Hartogh farms. Some people think it's a trick when they see Hartogh pedaling the tractor in a parade. Others just want to know how to build one themselves, he says. Hartogh used a tractor he got from his cousin for the "repower". The engine no longer ran and one day he just got a crazy idea" Why not rig it up with pedals? He installed the pedals and drive components on the tractor, mounting the rear sprockets on a driveshaft made of 5/16-in. rerod running across the width of the tractor. Two V-belts run from the pulleys on the shaft down to the tractor's belt pulley which turns the transmission and drives the rear end. Flowers grow in the engine compartment and a stalk of corn sticks out of the exhaust pipe. "We've had it in two parades since building it last spring," he says. "The tractor probably weighs 3,000 lbs. without the engine so it takes two adults to pedal it about two blocks. We need relief pedalers along the parade route in order to finish. They get on real fresh and get off completely beat. "If I'd ever ærepower' another tractor, it would probably be a Deere æH' since I believe they weighed about 1,000 lbs. less." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, David Hartogh, 2912 Hwy. 9, Riceville, Iowa 50466 (ph 55 985-2391). For more information on Green Magazine, contact Green Magazine, 2652 Davey Rd., Bee, Neb. 68314.

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