Made-It-Myself "Parts" Tractor

Made-It-Myself "Parts" Tractor TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 28-3-40 Eric Lindroth of Hartwick, New York, had a lot of fun and learned a lot when he built his own tractor from a wide selection of parts scavenged from a variety of machines. The unique tractor is the only one he has, but it has worked well for him for the past eight years. Lindroth spent a winter and about $400 putting it together. "A saying we've had in my area for years is that poverty is the mother of invention," he laughs. "I got most of the stuff from junkyards and friends who gave it to me. The only expense was for new inner tubes, battery, starter and paint." He took a 1946 Allis Chalmers transaxle and bolted it to a 2 by 4-in. steel tube frame that he made, and added a 4x4 front truck axle, a half-ton Chevy engine, and an automatic transmission. Lindroth took the hood and grill from a Cletrac bulldozer. The hood hinges at the radiator base and tilts forward. "The radiator came from a '64 Ford van and the front wheel steering sector came out of a 1970 Ford pickup," he says. "The back wheels are off an 8N Ford tractor. I converted and welded them to the Allis Chalmers driven discs." Lindroth put a hydraulic/electric snowplow on the back of the "parts tractor," and uses the unit for clearing his yard and driveway in winter. He says this is the main reason he built it in the first place. He also uses it to pull a wood wagon when he goes out to get wood, plus he pulls a big mower with it in summer. "I also use it on a pto-driven post hole digger," Lindroth adds. "It has come in handy for a lot of different things." He says he has towed the local 4-H float with it in a few parades, and entered it in a tractor show û "a lot of people got a major kick out of it," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Eric Lindroth, 246 Bristol Rd., Hartwick, N.Y. 13348 (ph 607 293-7701; email: rnbtime@usadatanet.net).

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