Putt-Putt Tractor A Popular Parade Attraction

Putt-Putt Tractor A Popular Parade Attraction AG WORLD Ag World 19-1-21 You've never seen anything like the one¡of-a-kind "Putt-Putt" tractor Frank King, rural Oklahoma City, Okla., built out of scrap he had lying around his farm shop. "I built it as a show car for old steam and gasoline engine shows and it always draws its share of the crowd," says King. "I started with some scrap 4-in. channel iron I had around the shop and just kept adding parts. I stick anything on it I see around the shop that I think will attract people's attention." That includes air horns, bull horns and, most recently, red strobe lights mounted atop the vehicle's cab. A 3 hp. engine out of an old Deere grain auger supplies "Putt-Putt" with power. Converted to run on propane, the engine has a flywheel on each side, a real attention-getter. Two German-built Ford transmissions provide the tractor with 18 gears. "They give me good power in low gear to pull a 16-ft. trailer around the place," King says. "I can go from a slow creep up to 20 mph." Hydraulic brakes, backed up by a mechanical emergency brake, stop "Putt-Putt". It's fitted with four 13-in. wide tires. An old Datsun car radiator mounts in front to cool the vehicle. About 5 1/2-ft. high at its highest point, "Putt-Putt's" cab is made out of sheet metal with windows out of an old camper. The door at the rear of the cab is a cut-down storm door. There is a "huge number" of switches and gauges and even a 5-in. TV inside the cab. It's big enough to hold the driver, who steers from the right side, and one passenger. The cab has air conditioning from an air conditioner out of an old Ford car and can be heated with an Arvin water heater for winter use. The vehicle is just 4 ft. wide so King can haul it to shows in the back of his pickup. He's taken it to shows in six states since building it in 1982. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank King, Rt. 10, Box 271, Oklahoma City, Okla. 73165-9810 .(ph 405-794-5929.)

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