Rare Oliver “Twin Tractor”

2020 - Volume #44, Issue #6, Page #16

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Retired Iowa farmer Clinton Mantz says it took he, his son, and a neighbor almost a year to create a single articulated tractor out of two Oliver 1950 diesels.
“We were farming about 3,200 acres back then, before Steiger came out with their big 4-wheel drives, and we wanted more horsepower, so this was our solution,” says Mantz. “We owned the 100 hp. tractors and had seen a similar setup, so we decided one winter to see if we could make it work.”
The trio removed the front wheels and axles from both tractors, then built a coupling system on the drawbar of one tractor to hold the front end of the second one. That swivel mechanism allowed the tractors to articulate, with the weight of the back tractor keeping the front tractor level.
“We mounted hydraulic cylinders on both sides of the drawbar of the front tractor to the frame of the rear one. The cylinders turned the front tractor, and the back one then followed, just like articulated tractors do now,” Mantz says. “We worked a long time on getting those cylinders to work together because initially one would activate faster than the other. We put restrictors in the lines so the flow was equal.”
Mantz says the operator rode on the back tractor and controlled both throttles and clutches from that location. “We’d start the front one first, put it in gear, then jump on the back one, put that in the same gear, and go to work. With the large flotation tires we had plenty of rubber on the ground, so traction was excellent.” Mantz says they used the rig to pull a large tandem disk in the fall and a field cultivator in the spring.
“In tandem we had 200 hp., which was a big tractor for those days. We used it for 6 or 7 years and replaced it with a Steiger that had about 300 hp.”
Mantz says he sold the twin Olivers to a farmer who he thought retrofitted both 1950’s back to their original 4-wheel front steering configuration.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Clinton Mantz, 506 West Sycamore St., Ogden, Iowa 50212.

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Rare Oliver “Twin Tractor” TRACTORS Conversions Retired Iowa farmer Clinton Mantz says it took he his son and a neighbor almost a year to create a single articulated tractor out of two Oliver 1950 diesels “We were farming about 3 200 acres back then before Steiger came out with their big 4-wheel drives and we wanted more horsepower so this was our solution ” says Mantz “We owned the 100 hp tractors and had seen a similar setup so we decided one winter to see if we could make it work ” The trio removed the front wheels and axles from both tractors then built a coupling system on the drawbar of one tractor to hold the front end of the second one That swivel mechanism allowed the tractors to articulate with the weight of the back tractor keeping the front tractor level “We mounted hydraulic cylinders on both sides of the drawbar of the front tractor to the frame of the rear one The cylinders turned the front tractor and the back one then followed just like articulated tractors do now ” Mantz says “We worked a long time on getting those cylinders to work together because initially one would activate faster than the other We put restrictors in the lines so the flow was equal ” Mantz says the operator rode on the back tractor and controlled both throttles and clutches from that location “We’d start the front one first put it in gear then jump on the back one put that in the same gear and go to work With the large flotation tires we had plenty of rubber on the ground so traction was excellent ” Mantz says they used the rig to pull a large tandem disk in the fall and a field cultivator in the spring “In tandem we had 200 hp which was a big tractor for those days We used it for 6 or 7 years and replaced it with a Steiger that had about 300 hp ” Mantz says he sold the twin Olivers to a farmer who he thought retrofitted both 1950’s back to their original 4-wheel front steering configuration Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Clinton Mantz 506 West Sycamore St Ogden Iowa 50212

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