"Tractor That Cooks" Attracts Crowd At Shows

"Tractor That Cooks" Attracts Crowd At Shows FARM HOME Food 24-3-23 "Anybody can tear something apart and put it back together, but every now and then I get in a mood to build something no one else has. This project just got a little carried away," says Kevin Chapman, Carthage, Ind., who built a one-of-a-kind "tractor that cooks". It looks like an antique steam engine but it's really a big barbeque grill that's also equipped with an ice cream maker, a can crusher, a big caboose whistle, and an air horn. Chapman began with a 30-in. dia. steel pipe, which serves as the main barbeque chamber. He put an antique steam engine door in the front end of the pipe and sealed up the other end. He mounted the back end of the pipe on the stripped-down rear end of a Farmall F-20 and the front end on an axle off an old corn elevator. The axle pivots back and forth controlled by cables that run to a steering shaft. A platform over the F-20 axle holds a 1 1/2 hp Farmall stationary gas engine. The engine belt-drives a gearbox which is hooked to the pto shaft on the tractor by a chain. When the transmission is engaged, it propels the barbeque grill forward at a "smoking" 1 1/2 mph. Un-engaged, it powers the rotisserie in the grill via the input shaft from the tractor drive system. A second belt from the pulley on the motor powers a gearbox that runs a 5-gal. ice cream maker. A third belt powers a can crusher which resembles a single stroke piston found on most steam engines. A compressor pulled off an old refrigerator also runs off the gas engine. It supplies an air tank which powers the air horns and caboose whistle. What appears at first to be a flyball governor, like those found on old steam engines, is in reality the ball from an old Stanley hand drill. Other odds and ends were added to complete the "steam engine" look. Friends helped out with the project. A machinist friend fashioned the smoke stack, complete with dampers to control the fire. Another friend helped paint the tractor. Completed in April of 1999, the "Little Tractor That Cooked" was kept busy nearly every weekend last summer and fall. "We can grill 100 hamburgers an hour and 4 dozen ears of corn at a time on the 30 by 50-in. grill," says Chapman. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kevin Chapman, 6891 N. 700W, Carthage, Ind. 46115 (ph 765 565-6881).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.