Dad's Large Homemade Tractor

[bluetractorfred]

Hey there,
I'm not much of a tractors guy myself but I thought I would share with you my Dad's homemade tractor that he built in 1979 which he used until he retired about 2 and a half decades later. Part of the reason we are sharing it is because my Dad would like to get in contact with others who have made their own tractor, so if that is you, send me a PM.

Thanks

About 2 minutes in you will see the tractor operating in its final run.

 

[TSO]

Very cool... Looks like a beast! 400 lbs/TQ !

 

[George2615]

Very nice. You don't see that ingenuity very often. I've known people that have built homemade tractors but never on that scale.

 

[Republic of Texas]

That's absolutely awesome! Aussie engineering at its finest.

I'd like to see a breakdown of how he built each section, and also the problems he faced and the solutions that he came up with.

 

[hddnis]

Really impressive tractor your dad built there. Testimony to his craftsmanship that it ran so long.

I've built a lot of machines, but no big tractors.

I grew up near Steffen's and they made their own balers, stackers, compressors, the whole works. Really impressive watching their machines. I think they've mostly switched out for the big high speed balers from Hesston, and a lot of the stackers and loaders are now Cat machines. But I've heard that some of the machines they made are still running on farms in the Willamette valley.

Here are some videos I found. Your dad might enjoy seeing what farmer on this side of the big pond have built.

Steffen 8x8 big balers - YouTube

81 road loader and 77 big baler - YouTube

Steffen Big Bale Stacker - YouTube

steffen hay loader - YouTube

 

[dickfoster]

Truly impressive.

 

[rgr33]

My home made projects have so far been implements. I don't see any way I could get past step #2 on a build of that scope.

Very impressive.

 

[Egon]

That is a nice looking tractor.

 

[94BULLITT]

That is really cool.

 

[comancheflight]

70s? Yep looks like complete with smokey and the bandits CB antenna. ...what an undertaking

 

[sdef]

My compliments to your father. Never in my wildest dreams would I have suspected someone would or could build something as large and capable as that tractor in any kind of acceptable time frame.

 

[BobG_in_VA]

Really something...at the start of the video when he pulled the tractor up...I said to myself.."that really sounds like a Detroit"/// WoW...I used to run a Euclid earth mover dump unit that had a 4-71 in it..run that sucker wide open all the time...just don't over rev it...VERY NEET! Bobg in VA

 

[bigdeano]

Very impressive tractor. I ran a AC HD10 crawler with a 4-71 in it in the summer of 1963.

I don't know if your Dad has gotten any replies from Australia, but I've built 2 tractors, the large one also in 1979. It's not as large as your Dad's but it's done a lot of work. It has a Chevy 230 engine and a four speed truck transmission.

The garden tractor is 4wd articulated hydrostatic drive with a Honda CX500 motorcycle engine.

 

[bluetractorfred]

Thanks all for your kind responses and compliments, I showed your posts to my Dad and he read them all, I can tell he really appreciated it, it's quite a niche interest so to get feedback from around the world on something he's kept quiet for many years is fantastic. I'll try and get some more personal replies to some of your posts soon.