Home-Built 4WD “Blue Goose”

“You’re not as tired when you come in from a day in the field with this tractor,” says Kansas farmer Dean Holbert, of Concordia, who built his “Blue Goose” 4WD tractor from scratch with the help of his two sons, Greg and Gary. About the only new steel used in the tractor was bought from a local dealer to build the cab. Otherwise, Dean worked mostly with salvaged scrap iron to complete the new machine last winter. Before starting, he sought advice from 4WD tractor owners, gathering ideas on what they liked and what they didn’t like about their tractors. His Blue Goose is powered by a 250 hp. Cummins diesel engine lifted from a ’64 White truck. It uses planetary axels, and the transmission and drop box from an industrial loader. He added power steering and tilt wheel, and put in a swivel seat for easy entrance and exit. A 230 gal. fuel tank has access from both sides of the tractor. A 6 speed forward shuttle transmission makes it possible to shift into reverse by moving one lever. The tractor has 18.4 x 34 dual tires, and enough axel strength for triples. The cab was sprayed with foam insulation inside to make it quiet, and to insulate it for air conditioning. Not figuring labor, we have about $5,000 in the tractor,” Holbert told FARM SHOW. “We figured that if we couldn’t get the prices for our crops that we wanted, we’d hold our crops off the market and build our own tractor.”

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