Build Yourself A "Truck-Tor"

Build Yourself A Truck-Tor If you re looking for an inflation-fighting project to tackle in your farm or shop this winter Steve Boendor s home built truck-tor featured in our January-February issue last year might be a possibility The front half is a pickup truck and the back half a tractor It s equipped with a pto and serves as a second tractor for performing dozens of jobs around Steve s Okaloosa Iowa farm Steve bought a 1957 Chevrolet 1-ton pickup for $500 and was given a junked Graham Bradley Sears tractor by his father-in-law He spent $100 for a pair of used rear tires for a total project cost of $600 First step in building the truck-tor was to cut the truck frame just in front of the rear wheels Then I took everything from the transmission and back off the tractor and mounted it behind the truck I cut pieces in the truck frame for the tractor axels to fit I made the drive shaft and hooked the truck and tractor transmissions together which gives it 17 gears forward It will go from a slow crawl so you can pull a working tilling machine on up to road speed Key to the vehicle s all purpose versatility around the farm is its reversible pto It has 4 speeds in a clockwise direction and one in reverse Biggest problem is in finding an old tractor with the right kind of rear end It has to be one with beveled gears If you use conventional square edge gears they heat up I believe some old Massey Harris tractors are the best candidates and certain model Oliver tractors I know of several farmers who use gears from salvaged IH tractors They weren t beveled and heated up when the home built truck-tors were operated at road speed

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