Charles Hoag’s DIY tractor project in the Philipinnes has evolved from a primitive Farmette-like idea into something much more spectacular. Here’s an excerpt from an email:
“The attached photos of Multicab Candidates are of a 4×4 Suzuki down the road, very similar to the one that we have here at the farm, although perhaps a little older, since this one has manual locking front hubs. It’s sitting outside of a truck repair shop, and I ventured in the other day to ask about it, since I’m gravitating toward this type of unit to salvage parts from for my tractor. Nearly every other vehicle here is one of these things, either 4×2 or 4×4 and I’d never have to worry about finding parts right around here, or someone who knows exactly how to work on it. Some have a box or a passenger cover with seats on the rear. Anyway, this one has a bad knock in the engine and was brought to this shop 3 years ago, to await someone’s budget for the repairs I guess. It turns out that it actually belongs to the local government unit comparable in the US to the County! So, it may be an endless circuit of pursuit trying to find out if I can acquire it cheaply, or, as luck might have it, Edna would know someone who will know someone who for perhaps a few hundred pesos discreetly slipped to them will figure out a way for me to get it for a song, as long as I never want to license it again a drive it around on the roads! Tomorrow we’re going to visit our second local political figure in pursuit of this very scheme! This type of vehicle is a major jump for me, since from the beginning I’ve wanted to slack off with the easiest-to-assemble unit possible, hence the immediate liking of the “Farmette” with it’s single steer wheel in the front. Not only have I adopted having a 2-wheeled front end, but I’m going to go with the way-radical idea of putting on the 4×4 front drive from one of the Suzuki’s. You see, they have exposed front axles (sort of like front wheel drive axles look like) coming out of the independently mounted differential up there, struts and lower arms, along with radius rods thrown in for good interest. I’m going to ditch the struts and add some sort of extra, solid cross member to tie it all together, which will then have a central pivot to the frame. The photo “Tractor_Frnt_End” shows a really simple attachment. So I’ll have a 4×4 tractor just made from one of the most ubiquitous vehicles around here. The other slight glitch in my idea with this one is that in order to also have PTO (Power Take Off, i.e. power taken off of the drive train system for rotating other implements) I have to add this in between the engine and tranny, in effect dis-engaging them from each other and having a belt go off to another shaft, but still be able to handle all of the torque going into the transmission. AND, I want it to be able to do something like have the engine on with the tractor stopped, but driving the sprayer pump attached to the PTO. It gets a little complicated, but that’s what is making it interesting, too.”
Right on Dad.
