Home-Built

Home-Built TRACTORS Loaders 22-1-35 These vehicles and implements make life a lot easier around my ranch. The first is a 1953 Jeep CJ-3 that I use to pull my 8 ft. field harrow and spike tooth harrow. I bought it for $400 from a neighbor who intended to fix it up but never got around to it. It had been equipped with a V-6 engine out of a Buick car and fitted with a roll bar for use as a "dune buggy". I reassembled the Jeep and installed a power steering unit and steering column out of an old GM car. It has all the power, speed and traction I need, and has even pulled tractors and trucks out of the mud. Next is the chopped down chore car I built out of a 1981 4-WD Subaru station wagon with 200,000 miles on it. This particular vehicle is ideal for a project like this. A neighbor gave it to me because it wasn't road worthy anymore. I removed the tailgate, rear doors and back seat, then used a metal cutting saw to cut off the roof and sides above the wheel wells. I used a section of the roof to enclose the cab behind the front seat and cut a hole in the rear of the cab with a chop saw so I could install a Plexiglas window. A shop-built 4 by 6-ft. wooden box slips in the back of the vehicle between the wheel wells. It's ideal for holding fence-fixing tools, rocks, sticks, etc. Cost only about $100, including new battery, water pump and oil seal. Finally there's my old Ferguson T0 30 29 hp tractor. I used to use an old-style loader and 30-in. manure bucket on it but got tired of stepping over the arms, which attached to the rear axles. Step-through loaders for these tractors are extremely rare and expensive so I built my own out of a 42-in. wide Ford tractor loader that I bought used for $400. The hardest part was making hanger brackets to fit the front and rear of the engine. A Vickers hydraulic pump off an old shop- built hydraulic press drives off the engine crankshaft. A surplus stainless steel fire extinguisher, with 1 1/2-gal. capacity and pipe fitting brazed in the bottom, mounts upright on the rear stanchion of the loader to serve as a reservoir. I welded 10 in. of steel to each end of the bucket, increasing load capacity by about 2 cu. ft. Lifting capacity is limited to a maximum of 800 lbs. but the loader still works great for cleaning out barns and doing many other chores around the ranch. (Charles George, Grand View Farm, 7411 288th St. E, Graham, Wash. 98338; ph 253 847-7204)

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