Air Cycle Becoming A Parade Favorite

Air Cycle Becoming A Parade Favorite FARM HOME recreation 30-5-28 Fifty years ago, Harlen Grovom started to make a small snow plane but then stopped when he got busy farming, and forgot all about it until recently when he pulled out the parts and decided to make an "air cycle" out of them instead. He had hung onto the 30-in. propeller he bought back then for $3 out of Popular Science magazine. Last year he mounted the propeller, a steel dump rake seat, and two motorcycle wheels on a frame, with a single bicycle wheel on front. "The propeller is belt-driven by a 7 hp Wisconsin air-cooled engine, taken from an old grain elevator," he says. "It'll push you along at 20 to 25 miles per hour - faster if you're light. There's a throttle and brakes to slow you down. The frame is made out of conduit pipe. I have a cage around the propeller to make it safer." Grovom says he drove the air cycle in the 4th of July parade last year in Park River, and got a great response. "It was very unique and popular û everybody was taking pictures and waving." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Harlen Grovom, 12643 Hwy. 17, Park River, N. Dak. 58270 (ph 701 284-6528; hlgrovom@ polarcomm.com).

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