61-Year-Old Home-Built Tractor Still Going Strong

61-Year-Old Home-Built Tractor Still Going Strong TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 30-3-14 "After 61 years of use, my home-built tractor is still going strong," says Gerald Gilbertson, Avoca, Wis., who recently sent FARM SHOW a photo of the tractor he built in 1945 when he was just a senior in high school. The tractor's 4-cyl., 25 hp engine came out of a 1926 Dodge and is connected to a 4-speed transmission off a 1940 Chevy truck. The rear axle was taken out of a 1940 International Harvester 2-ton truck. The tractor rides on 38-in. rear wheels and 15-in. front wheels. To make the rear wheels, Gilbertson bought plain wheel rims and then welded in spokes made from 2-in. sq. tubing. The tractor's steering shaft and gears came out of an old Dodge. He built the frame from scratch out of channel iron. "During World War II new tractors were hard to come by and also expensive, so quite a few farmers built their own," says Gilbertson. "At the time I built it we had just gotten electricity, and I was able to use a 125-amp welder on 110-volt electricity. Otherwise, we didn't have a lot of powered equipment available. I used a hacksaw instead of a cutting torch. "I used it to haul manure during the winter when we were milking cows. I also used it to pull a motor-driven hay baler and a 2-bottom moldboard plow, and with a belly-mounted, 2-row cultivator." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gerald Gilbertson, 2674 Maple Hollow Rd., Avoca, Wis. 53506 (ph 608 583-4924).

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