He Put Tracks On A Pedal Tractor

He Put Tracks On A Pedal Tractor TRACTORS Antiques 27-3-23 "I built it for my grand kids," says Frank Miller, Mott, N. Dak., about the 1/4-scale Deere tracked tractor that he built out of an old Deere pedal tractor. The tracked tractor is designed to look like a Deere 420 model, which was originally made in the 1950's. The driver turns the pedals to make the tractor go forward or backward. He pulls on a pair of levers to turn left or right. Miller started with an old beat-up Deere 60 pedal tractor that was given to him. "The casting was broken in several places and the rear axle housings were shot. There wasn't anything I could do to convert it back into a working pedal tractor," says Miller. He removed all the wheels and built new rear axle housings, then replaced the wheels with large sprockets. The rear drive sprockets are blank sprockets that he purchased from a hardware store, while the front sprockets came off a Deere combine. He drilled holes into all the sprockets to make them look authentic. The pedals chain-drive a pair of shafts that connect to the rear sprockets. To make the track, Miller mounted no. 40 roller chain around both sets of sprockets, then welded a series of flat steel cleats onto the chain. The cleats measure 1 in. wide by 4 in. long and are 1/8 in. thick. One cleat is welded onto each chain link. "The track carriers are spring-loaded so the track stays snug all the time. However, the tractor is fairly heavy and there's a lot of track area to cause friction. As a result, my grand kids can pedal the tractor forward or backward, but they don't have enough power to make it turn," notes Mott. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank L. Miller Farms, 307 Iowa Ave., Mott, N. Dak. 58646 (ph 701 824-2637).

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