How to Build Your Own Tractor



Well, not these days. I'm talking 60 years ago. Now every Tom, Dick, and Hillary will find a way to make it financially and legally impossible for you to do so. So let's get that out of the way first. This is all retrospective and nothing but wishful thinking. 


The Cockshutt 20 and 20 Deluxe and Oliver Super 44 and 44o were built off a very straightforward formula: 


Take a Clark rear end... 
attach a cast engine tub frame or two long 'C' channel frame rails... 
drop in an easy mounting Continental F140 flathead engine... 
bolt in a Borg and Beck single clutch unit...
add a Peerless radiator...
Donaldson air cleaner and muffler... 
a Cessna hydraulic pump... 
a Ross or Saginaw steering gear...
an Autolite electrical system...
Guide head and work lights...
Stewart Warner gauges...
French & Hecht wheels...
Goodyear or BF Goodrich rubber...
build your own front axle and steering linkages...
make your own 3 point hitch unit... 
a steering column and throttle linkages...
fenders, floorboards and brake and clutch pedals and linkages...
stamp out a fuel tank and hood and grille and dash to match your bigger tractors...
annnd... 


TADAA!!! 





The only thing you really have to make is the frame, front axle and steering linkages, 3 point hitch, drawbar assembly, sheet metal, and all the bracketry to tie it all together. Even the seat pan and steering wheel would be vendor items. The biggest deal by far would be the hydraulic tower for the 3 point hitch. And chances are you could find one of those ready made too if you really tried. America was an industrial powerhouse in those days, and if you really wanted it you could find it. Even the Cockshutt 30 was built this way. The entire rear end in the Cockshutt 30 was a ready-built vendor item: a Timken unit, designed and built by the Timken bearing company, and used in other tractors such as the Long Model A, the Intercontinental C-26, Farmaster FG-33, and the Sheppard Diesel SD3. They cast their own tub frame and front axle, stamped out fancy body panels, and added all the ancillary hardware odds and ends, and there was the snazzy new Cockshutt 30. 


Other than building their own transmissions, Massey-Harris used this EXACT formula to build their tractors to tremendous success:

For instance a Massey-Harris 44 was a:

Continental H260 engine
Purolator oil filter
Pierce governor
Marvel Schebler carburator
Donaldson air cleaner 
Stanley or Donaldson muffler (I forget)
Peerless radiator
Autolite electrical system
Exide battery
Stewart Warner gauges
Guide head and work lights
Ross steering gear
Borg and Beck clutch
Timken bearings throughout
French & Hecht wheels
Firestone tires
Monroe Velvet Ride seat
etc...

Add their own transmission, tub frame, front axle and steering, drawbar, footboards and pedals, linkages and sheet metal and the 44 was born. And so well executed was the blending of existing, off the shelf components you'd think they built every part of it themselves.

It would all be a little more complicated than this, but that's the gist of it. 


Many tractors, especially from shortlines, were built this way, such as the Norseman, OMC, Rokol, Regal, Lehr Big Boy, Custom, Wards, Friday, or Love, using post WWII military surplus Chrysler engines and Dodge truck components. Empires and Brockways and Eagles and Silver Kings, etc.., were all built in a fairly similar fashion.



If you were already building tractors anyway, this approach to a new model would be a walk in the park. Once they knew you were building a tractor, half your work was already done because the sales teams for all the vendor component companies would be knocking on your door... POUNDING on it... and offering their products. You wouldn't have to make one nut or bolt or washer because they'd all be delivered to your door. Even the ignition switch and choke cable. Your biggest decisions would be Continental, Chrysler, Perkins, Hercules, LeRoi, or Buda engine? Ross or Saginaw steering gear? Autolite or Delco electrical system? Donaldson or Stanley muffler? Goodyear, BF Goodrich, or Firestone tires? And what style hood and grille and colour scheme? That last one would be your most difficult.






If it was all still as easy as this I'd be talking long term business with a local welding and fabricating shop, and the first of the Bowes 'Scotsman' Series of tractors would soon be making its debut: the nifty little 25 horsepower Laddie. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Save the SS United States!

Image
When the fastest ocean liner the world has ever known is about to be decapitated and sunk something needs to be done! Think about it: The entire goal of an ocean liner was to cross the Atlantic (or to a lesser degree, the Pacific) in the shortest time possible. Luxury was a secondary matter. Notice how so many stories of ocean liner travel involved business magnates, politicians, or famous actors or authors. Ocean liners were the only vehicle of international businessmen. As there was no wireless communication at first, they could not conduct or manage important business while at sea, so getting them to and from land masses as fast as possible was of critical importance. Those businessmen built nations and industries. Besides that, being at the mercy of the sea was no picnic. The sooner it was over the better. That went for wealthy businessmen and poor immigrants looking for a better life abroad alike. Greater and greater vessels of higher and higher endurance and speed were built by a...
Read more

Tim Tabbert

Image
  Some people really leave a mark on you. I mean an indelible mark. And, their absence leaves a hole nothing and nobody else can fill. Tim Tabbert was for sure that kind of person.   It's well over two years ago since Tim passed into the Lord's everloving arms. I think about him a lot because we spent so much time together. He was truly one of a kind. Nowhere near perfect, but who among us is? There's a definite spirit to being a Queen's Liner. Membership has its benefits. It's an Exclusive Club, and it has Prestige, and nobody's getting in. They can want in, but they're not getting in. You can only get in by birth, marriage, or moving there and living there at least ten years. And before anyone brings it up, you're right: I no longer live on the Queen's Line, but I personally ratified the rules to effect Lifelong Status for members like myself and Cory McClure and the MacKay boys. Tim Tabbert was for sure a Queens Liner. As a matter of fact he was p...
Read more

The Ice Cream Man of Deception

Image
  These days deception takes so many routes and arrives in so many varieties it is just bewildering. Everywhere you turn, there is an ice cream man of deception with exactly the mouth-watering flavour you couldn't possibly resist right in his outstretched hand. He can intimately and intuitively sense your weakness. That is the most sinister part. Through constant monitoring of practically your every spoken or texted word, he knows you better than you know yourself, so he will bring forth that irresistible combination of flavours and textures and colours that he knows you will not only fall for, but jump at. Don't feel bad, though; he's been at this for a long time, and he has a well-trained army in lockstep with him. That Q-Anon stuff is just a prime example. Consider that, as of September 20, 2024, it's been over 244 weeks since Jan 6 2020. There are stories of planes 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑦 flying in and out of Guantanamo Bay with political prisoners. If they got rid of ...
Read more