«Previous    Next»
"Tructor" Moves Quickly Between Farms
"My brothers and I own farmland in three different counties in central Kentucky and we needed another tractor that would be faster and more comfortable to drive than a conventional farm tractor," says J.D. Crawley, Harrodsburg, Kent., about the "tructor" he built with his brothers, Ron and Royce. They also operate Crawley's Auto & Machine Shop.
"We needed another tractor to rotary cut, disk harrow, and move round bales of hay. We built it using a GMC 1 1/2 ton truck and chassis. The rear end and trans-mission assembly are from an Oliver 70 row crop tractor with dual range transmission. We repowered the truck with a 1973 Cadillac engine and automatic transmission, giving our tructor 24 forward speeds and 6 in reverse. It has 105 horsepower and runs anywhere from 0 to 48 mph.
"In order to keep the automatic trans-mission running cool we installed a 20 gal. per minute oil cooler, with an electric fan, directly behind the cab.
"It's also equipped with a mechanical constant speed governor taken off a Huber Warco backhoe. The hydraulic lift system is powered by a 6 gal. per minute pump, belt-driven off the engine crankshaft.
"In order to connect the tractor trans-mission assembly to the truck rails, we used 1-in. steel plate. We made a new driveshaft from Oliver and Cadillac joints. We used the original Oliver tractor brakes on the tractor for turning. There are hydraulic brakes on the front which give us a third brake pedal.
"Our tructor burns approximately 2 1/ 4-gal. of fuel per hour pulling a 12-ft. disk harrow or an 8-ft. brush cutter.
"We painted the trucktor Oliver green with yellow trim. The front wheels are 750-20 GMC truck wheels and tires. The rear wheels are oversize 1200-38 Oliver tractor wheels and tires.
"This rig has performed exceptionally well for two years with no major problems. The approximate cost to build was $2,500."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, J.D. Crawley, Crawley's Machine Shop, 4858 Bohon Rd., Harrodsburg, Kent. 40330.


  Click here to download page story appeared in.



  Click here to read entire issue




To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.
Order the Issue Containing This Story
1997 - Volume #21, Issue #1