Home Built “Big Bud” Tractor Is Replica Of World’s Largest

Home Built “Big Bud” Tractor Is Replica Of World’s Largest AG WORLD Back in the mid to late 70’s the classic Big Bud 747 was billed as “the world’s largest tractor” by The Guinness Book of World Records Charlie Melberg who with his sons Brad and Mark run a large farm operation near Hector Minn took on a nearly 2-year long task between farm work to build a working scaled down replica of a Big Bud for Charlie’s 10-year-old grandson     You might say that Melberg now owns the world’s smallest Big Bud     “I have five grandsons and I restored four 1960 Minneapolis Moline Jet Star tractors for them My middle grandson Madden saw my small desk model of a Big Bud and photos on the internet He came to me one day and said ‘I don’t want a Minneapolis Moline I want a Big Bud’ ”     When Madden first brought up the idea Charlie told him they had a big job ahead of them In building the machine he got to talk to one of the former owners and an engineer who was 90 years old who told him how they designed the tractor One of Melberg’s first steps was to contact David Nelson at Loftness Mfg in Hector to see if he could laser cut some parts for him Charlie’s son-in-law Tim Swenson of Glenwood Minn is a draftsman and engineer He drew up dimensions taken from Melberg and put them into a CAD program and sent them to Kirk Reckow at Loftness     Everything on the Big Bud was built to scale and replicated to match the original Big Bud that went into production in the 1970s The inside of the cab is roomy enough to hold an adult driver     Melberg says this is a “play tractor” for his grandson to drive around and will be kept in the family for years to come He has however used the tractor to drag his farmyard Various versions of the Big Bud were built by Northern Mfg Co in Havre Mont until the last one rolled off the line in 1992 Melberg chose to build a scaled down replica of the 525/50 that was built between 1979 and 1982 The 525 number refers to its original hp     A 1979 Big Bud 525/50 can be purchased now for $180 000 “These tractors were used for farming big areas ” says Melberg “A few went all over the U S and at one time a farmer by the name of Harlan Johnson from nearby Renville Minn owned 3     “We built this replica tractor to scale taking measurements off a real 525/50 Big Bud which resulted in a single seat tractor about 25 percent the size of the original It’s powered by a Yanmar 3-cyl 25 hp diesel engine which is used in Deere lawn and garden equipment Bobcat skid loaders and a lot of other machines I purchased farm tires for it from Loftness It has power steering and 2 old Case garden tractor rear ends The hydraulic-driven 4-WD unit has a hydrostatic transmission with infinite speeds forward and backward of about 10 mph We think my Big Bud weighs about one ton ” says Melberg     Every part was made taken apart and put together again Other parts like the rear end and engine were hunted down on Amazon and eBay Most of the painting was done by Adam Swanson at Macik’s Paintin’ Place in Hector and decals were furnished by Creative Details in Danube Minn Charlie his grandsons and hired help assembled the tractor at the farm shop     “We built the first model out of cardboard to make it look right and come up with the correct dimensions ” says Melberg “We spent many nights and weekends designing things the way they should be to make it look like the original Big Bud We took the cab off 3 times and rebuilt it again The drive system was taken apart many times to get it right and we had to fix oil leaks and adjust things to make it fit ”     The Big Bud 747 with its 16-cyl Detroit Diesel engine is 27 ft long 20 ft wide and 14 ft tall The wheels were specially made in Canada and are 8 ft in dia and 3 ft wide When the 1 000-gal fuel tank is full the tractor tips the scales at about 130 000 lbs     Thanks to Mike Schweiss at Schweiss Doors for permission to reprint this article from his website www bifold com Schweiss makes state-of-the-art bi-fold hydrauic doors for farm buildings

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