Half-Rite, Half-Rong Tractors

Paul Dotterer and Stephen Grieb split a 1939 Allis Chalmers WC and a 1949 Deere B. They then put the odd halves together to make what they call "Half-Rite, Half-Rong" tractors. Of course Dotterer, a retired Allis Chalmers dealer, and Grieb, a retired Deere dealer, disagree on which end is right and which is wrong. Grieb drives the one with the Allis front end, and Dotterer drives the one with the Deere on front.

"When we built the first one, we made the platform extra wide and installed twin seats and steering wheels," recalls Dotterer. "It had the Deere front end, and we gave it a hand clutch like the old B had. One seat was painted orange and the other green."

"The frame rails didn't match up so we 'persuaded' them with welding and extra iron," says Grieb. "The flywheel on the B front end is decorative." The old B's engine was shot, so they replaced it with a small engine from a Deere combine. An extension was added to the drive shaft to reach the Allis Chalmers flywheel. A ring gear was fabricated for the flywheel so they could put a starter on it. The offset steering wheels were connected to the B's steering shaft with matching chain drives. A double pulley mounted on the end of the steering shaft allowed either operator to control the tractor. The hand clutch was mounted between them. Hand levers were mounted by each operator to control the brakes.

Once they had one tractor operating, Grieb and Dotterer decided to make a match to it. "It was a shame to let all those extra parts go to waste," recalls Dotterer. Matching the WC front to the B rear was more difficult, says Grieb. In addition to matching up the frame rails, they had to match up very different drives.

"We used a gearbox from an old Woods rotary mower and a chain drive to change the drive direction ahead of the B's clutch so we could use it," he explains. "The chain drive was too noisy, so we changed that to a belt drive." A chain drive was also used to match up the Deere steering wheel with the right-hand side Allis Chalmers steering rod.

Since Grieb now had his own Half-Rite, Half-Rong with a green rear end to drive, the green seat and hand clutch on the first tractor were repainted orange. Both tractors are popular additions to local parades and shows. "They're big attention-getters," says Grieb.

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