"I use it to 'walk' my corn and soybean fields and to haul repair parts for my center pivot irrigators. It lets me drive out in the field without knocking down any of the crop," says Terry Kuchera, Bassett, Neb., about the hydrostatic drive, high clearance "field checker" he built.

The 3-wheeled machine carries Kuchera about 8 ft. off the ground. It has a single lug-type drive wheel on front that came off an old pivot tower. The rear wheels are off a Ford Escort and are spaced 10 ft. apart to span four 30-in. rows. The frame was made from 1 1/2 by 3-in. sq. tubing. Power is supplied by the Escort's 4-cyl. engine which mounts on a frame 8 ft. above the ground, between the two rear wheels. The engine belt-drives a 25-gal. hydraulic pump, which powers an orbit motor that chain-drives the front wheel.

The driver's seat rides up or down on a steel column above the front wheel, powered by an electric winch that operates off the engine's battery. All controls mount on the seat, including the ignition key, a toggle switch to raise the seat up and down, a control valve to drive the machine forward or backward, the steering wheel, and throttle.

A hand-operated winch is used to lift up spare parts like gearboxes, jacks, etc. They hang from the back of the rig's frame by a cable or chain. There's a toolbox located under the oil tank. A triangle-shaped steel gas tank is located above one of the rear wheels, while the hydraulic oil tank mounts ahead of the engine.

"It's really easy to operate. I just get in the seat at ground level and winch myself up," says Kuchera. "The machine draws a lot of interest. When I drove it in a local parade last fall, a lot of people came up to me and wanted to know what it was.

"The wheels are narrow enough that I can turn around in the middle of the field and do very little damage. In early growth soybeans I can go across the rows and in 30 days you can hardly even tell where I drove.

Kuchera says his machine won't go just anywhere. For example, it won't go in mud or over deep pivot tracks. "The main limitation is that the front wheel spins in the mud, but usually I can push it out by hand after I get off," he says.

Kuchera says he originally planned to use a 20 hp Briggs and Stratton engine to operate the pump, but it would have cost a bit of money so, instead he used the Escort engine. "I thought I'd have way more power than I needed, but I was surprised to find that the machine has just enough power," he says.

If he built another one Kuchera says he would make it direct-drive instead of hydrostatic drive, to lower the cost.