Mini 4-WD's Took 4,000 Hours To Build

Mini 4-WD's Took 4,000 Hours To Build AG WORLD Ag World 21-1-22 "They're proportionally correct in every detail and people go wild over them every-where I take them," says Gary Geiger about a pair of 1/2-scale 4-WD early 1970's vintage tractors he built. The International 4786 and the Case 4890 each took about 2,000 hours and cost $3,000 to build, notes Geiger of Woodland, Mich. Each is 10-ft. long, 6-ft. high and weighs about 2,000 lbs.. He built the International over a period of about 18 months. It's powered by a 4-cyl. Wisconsin gas engine coupled to a hydrostatic transmission. It has a rear end out of an Economy garden tractor, 8.4 by 24-in. duals mounted on rims off a New Idea corn picker, and hydraulic articulation with cylinders off a rear steer Deere combine. "The hydraulic drive presented a lot of problems because I had to fit 150 ft. of 3/8-in. dia. hose into it, exactly half the amount and half the size of the real tractor," Geiger says. The Case 4890 took a period of about four months to build. It's powered by a 4-cyl. Perkins diesel, with rear end and trans-mission out of an old Ditch Witch so the tractor "crab" steers. It features 17-in. wide tires and rims off a rear wheel assist combine. It's complete with a working 3-pt. "The sheet metal on the Case was the hardest part," Geiger notes. "Everything's double angled, nothing's straight." Geiger takes his tractors to about a dozen area shows every year, pulling them on a 24-ft. trailer behind his motor home. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gary Geiger, 2280 South Clark Rd., Woodland, Mich. 48897 (ph 616 367-4995).

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