Home-Built 4-WD Articulated Tractor

Home-Built 4-WD Articulated Tractor TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 17-5-40 "I built it because my Farmall H tractor didn't have enough power and versatility to do the many different jobs I wanted done," says Kenneth Hart, Plainfield, Ind., who built his own 4-WD articulated loader tractor for $5,000. Hart's tractor is powered by a 6-cyl. gas engine salvaged from a 1958 Chevrolet car and has the car's "power glide" automatic transmission. It has two 2-speed truck axle rear ends - one off a GMC, the other off a Ford - and two 2-speed gearboxes that give the transmission a high and low range. Hart used the frame from a Chevrolet truck, reinforcing it with channel iron and steel plate. The tractor has new 11.00 by 24 lug tires mounted on the wheels off an old New Holland combine. The combine wheel hubs wouldn't fit on the truck axles so he cut the center out of the combine wheels and welded them to the truck wheels. Both axles have the same gear ratio and are locked in low gear. Top road speed is 25 mph. He built a variety of loader-mounted attachments, including a dozer blade, bucket, heavy-duty fork, 10-ft. snow plow, remote-control "high-lift" painting platform, hydraulic-powered winch, and fork-mounted log splitter. "I built it over a period of 15 years. It started out as a 2-WD model with the drive wheels in front, but I didn't have enough traction with the bucket loaded so about 10 years ago I rebuilt it to make it 4-WD. The steering wheel connects to a hydraulic steering valve that is the most expensive piece of equipment on the tractor. I wish it had a cab, but there isn't enough room for one. "There are two hydraulic pumps - one for power steering and the other for raising or lowering the loader. The loader will lift 3,300 lbs. There are six hydraulic cylinders on the bucket - two to raise it, two to tilt it, and two to automatically keep it level as it's raised or lowered. "I used lengths of old International mold-board plow beams to make six prongs for the bucket fork. I can haul up to 40 small square bales on a pallet that slips onto the forks. I stack the bales by hand in the field and use the loader to haul them back to my barn. I can also use the forks to carry a hydraulic-powered log splitter that slips onto two of the prongs. I use loader hydraulics to power the splitter. I can use the fork to raise big logs so I don't have to stoop down to cut them with a chain saw. "My front-mount forklift raises up 27 ft. which is high enough to paint my house. I bought it at a junkyard and made a mounting bracket for the loader arms. I converted the forklift's long hydraulic cylinder from one-way to two-way. I made a 4 by 8-ft. platform and mounted an ignition switch and control box on the platform so I can start or stop the engine to raise or lower the forklift from the platform. I can remove the forklift by removing four pins." For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kenneth Hart, 815 Avon Road, Plainfield, Ind. 46168 (ph 317 839-4863).

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