They Built Their Own Big Bud

They Built Their Own Big Bud TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 27-2-27 Mark Andrews, Milestone, Sask., had always wanted a Big Bud tractor. But very few of the famous Big Buds were ever built in Bud Nelson's small factory near Havre, Montana, in the late 1960's and early 1970's. They're expensive and hard to find. Andrews had thought about building a Big Bud knockoff for years when a friend from Medicine Hat, Alberta told him about an old 4-WD Wagner tractor frame he'd seen collecting rust on a Montana wheat farm. Because Nelson originally used Wagner frames to make his Big Buds, Andrews figured it was exactly what he needed. "The tractor was in bad shape. The engine had been shelled out, the windows were all broken out of the cab, and everything looked terrible. But the frame and the differentials were still in good shape, and those were all we needed to get started," Andrews says, who had help on the project from his son-in-law, Aaron Short. Once he'd winched the old frame onto his truck and hauled it home, Andrews and Short stripped everything off the frame. Then they contracted with a sandblaster to take off the rust. They salvaged a Cummins 335 hp 6-cylinder diesel and 13-speed transmission out of a 1975 Peterbilt over-the-road truck and mounted that on the frame. It fit perfectly. While he'd intended to use the differentials from the old Wagner tractor, during the process of putting the tractor together Andrews found some heavier Clarke differentials and decided to use those instead. "We put triple wheels on front and back, after making the wheels ourselves," he continues. "We started with rim blanks and had the centers cut for us by a Regina machine shop using CNC equipment. We welded the centers into the rims and mounted them on the tractor. "I knew a guy who had a damaged Big Bud cab. It had hit an underpass and he'd replaced it with a new one," Andrews explains. "We heated it with the torch and hammered the dents out, and then fit it onto the tractor." Once the cab was bolted in place, Andrews sealed it all around and added new windows, air conditioning, soundproofing and upholstery. The next step was putting together a hood and cowlings. Andrews and Short built their own. "The original Big Buds had sharp angles over the hood. Ours is just a bit more rounded." Before painting his homemade Big Bud, Andrews had the sandblaster come out again and clean it all up. Then he had all the original decals duplicated for his new tractor. With the original paint scheme and the decals applied, the tractor looks fresh off the factory floor. "I guess you could say we did it for sport. It took us most of the winter to get it done, working on it a little at a time. It's not an every-day tractor, but we put a couple hundred hours on it last year," Andrews says, adding, "It really wasn't that difficult a project. Mostly, it was just a matter of bolting parts onto the frame." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mark Andrews, Box 324, Milestone, Sask., Canada S0G 3L0 (ph 306 436-2234; E-mail: mrwfarm@sk.sympatico.ca).

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