Built-From-Scratch Garden Tractor "Belly Grader"

Built-From-Scratch Garden Tractor Belly Grader MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers Carl Kirkman likes to buy and repair old Wheel Horse garden tractors But the Alma Ill man took things in a different direction when he recently built a Wheel Horse “belly grader” from scratch He started with the frame and steering wheel off a junked 1968 Wheel Horse garden tractor and equipped it with a 4-ft grader blade that rotates on a circular steel platform The blade is hydraulically-raised and lowered using the hydraulic mower deck lift mechanism off another Wheel Horse tractor A spring-loaded handle is used to manually angle the blade left or right “It works great for grading my driveway I can angle the blade left right or straight across and with hydrostatic drive I have precise control ” says Kirkman “The tractor is powered by a small 7 hp Briggs & Stratton engine However I don’t need much power for grading and I don’t need to go very fast so it works fine ” After assembling the tractor he salvaged the subframe off another Wheel Horse tractor and bolted it on upside down under the tractor’s frame He welded a 2-ft dia 3/8-in thick circular steel panel onto the frame then made another 2-ft dia panel and welded two 4-ft grader blades back to back on it Then he bolted the 2 panels together and ran a big pivot pin through the center of both panels He also cut 3 notches into the bottom panel to accommodate different blade positions “It’s built heavy and pulls from the front of the tractor where it’s solidly mounted I added a pair of 55-lb weights on back of the tractor for extra traction The hydrostatic drive makes it easy to control the tractor’s speed and the hydraulic deck lift provides just the right down pressure ” says Kirkman Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Carl Kirkman 5203 Wright Rd Alma Ill 62807 ph 618 547-7394 or cell ph 618 292-7309

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