"Made-It-Myself" Ford 8N Implements

Made-It-Myself Ford 8N Implements TRACTORS Made-It-Myself To save money and extend the usefulness of his 8N tractor Galen Mommens made a variety of implements for it out of scrap metal      I do a lot of work around here with my 1949 8N tractor It may be close to 60 years old but it s still a workhorse It s a Cat I machine so while there are a lot of implements available they have price tags that are hard to justify Mommens says     The Tecumseh Neb man built an adjustable 60-in wide cultivator using salvaged tines from a field cultivator a neighbor was going to throw away     The simple design allows the tines to be moved sideways to account for row width Mommens also made a crop shield so it could also be used as a row cultivator      I can also add more tines and do some ripping with it he explains Using the position control on the tractor allows me to adjust the depth It works excellent for tilling up garden plots and cultivating between rows     He also modified a horse-drawn disk to make it into a 3-pt hitch unit      I found an old four-gang horse drawn disk in a neighbor s field Even though I knew it was too large for my 8N tractor I figured I could modify it and use it he says     Mommens started by unbolting everything that would unbolt Then he used the original tongue and lever bars these were 2-in steel tubing to construct a frame to hold the disk     On the front of the frame he constructed a Cat I 3-pt hitch He used the original ties on the outboard bearings to connect the gangs to the frame and to act as a pivot point to adjust the gangs     The new disk is eight feet wide and uses 16-in discs He retained the weight trays in case he ever needs to add any weight     Mommens also modified a 6-ft tine harrow to work on the 3-pt hitch     He had a section of old tine harrow laying around that he used to put in lawns      Dragging a harrow with a chain can be somewhat dangerous - the chain can catch on the rear tractor tires he cautions There is also no way to pick the harrow up after you are done with it The harrow was also too light and the weight I put on it seemed to fall off unless it was tied down I decided that the best course of action would be to convert it to three point     Mommens used some 1 by 1 by 1/4-in angle iron 2 by 3/8-in flat stock and parts from an old rotary hoe that he salvaged however these parts could be easily made he points out     Mommens rotary hoe has a similar history of being from recycled parts     He salvaged a 5-ft wide section of an Alice-Chalmers rotary hoe from the scrap yard and constructed a 3-pt hitch on the top frame      I took some 1/2 by 2-in flat stock some 1/2-in plate and some hardware to turn this into a useable machine again he says I use it for æclod busting in garden plots and also as an aerator for lawns and pastures It works great and cost less than $10 to modify!     Mommens is in the process of working on a few more items including modifying an older grain drill for 3-pt hitch use For those who are interested in doing their own projects Mommens has a website where he s offering detailed plans for each individual item as PDF file downloads     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Galen Mommens 72648 618th Ave Tecumseh Neb 68450 ph 402 335-1216; doxn @alltel net; www scroungeman com

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