so much a part of many of the little Finnish American family farms. It simply referred to a homemade tractor, since few of those raising annual crops of mostly rocks could afford a factory-made farm tractor such as Ford produced.
Ken Holster recalls the "Ruxel" two-speed differentials as desirable, as was a "creeper or crawler" gear in the transmission. Al Reko told me that his uncle added a second transmission to really gear down. Our neighbors' - the Ostolas - even had a "power take-off" source so they could run other equipment from the extra driveshaft, such as a saw-rig.
https://www.facebook.com/michiganskeweenawpeninsula/photos/a.10152810030160081/10157998410365081/?type=3
When I was a kid they called them "doodlebugs," and one still could see many up in rural New York in the 1970's. Typically an old car or pickup truck truncated, often with a second transmission and maybe with larger rear tires, a lot of them were used as home-made skidders and implement pullers where PTO wasn't needed, and often just as a kids' corn cruiser before the age of ATV's. A lot of Model A Fords ended this way.
ReplyDeleteYup, Doodlebugs! Farmer down the road from my Uncle's farm - in far upstate NY - had an old Reo truck that everyone in the area used during haying. I've seen that sucker pulling a hay rake, a baler, and 3 wagons full of bales!
ReplyDelete