Jump to content

Unofficial Home of Old Simplicity & Allis-Chalmers Garden Tractors

Another new member


paull

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone! I gotta tell ya, this site is just what I've been looking for! Now a little about me:
I live in Minnesota and own a 1973 Simplicity Power Max. Bought it from the original owner (a local school district) about 12 years ago for $1800. It had a 60" mower deck and the three point hitch, rear PTO. The engine was using oil, and there were a number of leaks here and there, but in time the motor was rebuilt, all of the wiring was replaced, and all of the leaks were taken care of. This all occurred at a time when I lived in the country, had a large lawn and a long driveway to plow in the winter. Now I live in town, but I just couldn't bear to part with the doggone thing!

Since I purchased it, I've added several implements (all homebuilt)and made some modifications to the tractor. When I purchased it, it had turf tires on it, one of which had a long slice in the sidewall, but it held air. The first thing I built for it was a 6' dozer blade with hydraulic lift and turn. Gotta move the snow somehow, and a blower for the three point was a bit out of my budget at the time. The next item was a 7' grader blade, built from a pair of used cutting edges from a Cat No. 12 grader. Made for a nice heavy blade that works very well. Next item was a yard trailer with hydraulic dump. It will handle about 1 cubic yard, and it sure is nice to just move the lever and up the box goes. About this time I stumbled on a side mount sickle mower for a Farmall Cub, little used, and it was FREE! The problem was that there isn't much room under the Simplicity for the sickle mower. Project sidelined for a while. Next item was a 10' lawn sprayer; it mounts on the three point, runs off of the rear PTO, and with the right amount of 2-4D does a wonderful job keeping the dandelions at bay.

It didn't take long and the wife wanted a garden. Built a one bottom plow (I only built the frame), the bottom was a single 14" John Deere plow bottom that I picked up at an auction for $10. Rolling coulter for the plow is a planter disk for a JD 7000 series corn planter. That thing has plowed LOTS of gardens since. Plowing gardens with turf tires presented two problems: the first was traction, the second was getting hung up in the double dead furrow in the middle if you started from the outside. Not quite enough ground clearance to the drop boxes. Stumbled on a pair of 10-24 ag tires, little used, with tubes on a combine that was being scrapped by a friend. Got the tires for free, but the rims I had to buy new, at $100 a piece. Fabricated a nose frame and spacer to raise the front end the required six inches to get the tractor level again. Also had to make a subframe to drop the mounts for the draft arms on the three point hitch DOWN 6". This is not where I had the ground clearance problem, so it has worked well. Managed to use the sprayer pump to pump fluid into both rear tires, which really helped the traction problem. Due to the steering linkage configuration, I found it necessary to adapt an orbit steering system to the tractor, which is really nice since this machine never had power steering available.

This also solved another problem: now I had the necessary clearance for the sickle mower, so I fabricated mounts for it, and have cut a lot of acres for other folks (extra cash) since. One friend had a set of JI Case wheel weights (70 lbs each) that he gave me for weed cutting, they are on the tractor also.

In 1990, we had the infamous Halloween blizzard here, the dozer blade just couldn't cut it with 38" of wet heavy snow. I got the job done, but it took some doing. This scenario prompted me to design and build a 58" two stage snow blower for the three point hitch. It will take a 34" deep cut, has electric rotator on the spout (old wheel chair motor) and hydraulic flipper at the top. This beauty throws snow 40-50 feet, and makes quick work of the worst that mother nature has managed to come up with since. Usually make some decent side cash each winter with it, too!

I apologize for this being so long, but I thought it might be easier to just tell the whole story right off the bat and get it over with. I know that some of you will find much of this worth reading.

The last items I built for the tractor are a 5' cultivator and a quick hitch for the three point. The quick hitch saves a lot of hassle putting the blower on and taking it off, especially since it weighs right around 350 pounds, kind of hard to wrestle around by hand!

I presently have plans on the table for a front end loader. I would just purchase one somewhere, but due to the increased height of the tractor, that won't work. The loader is designed with a self-leveling bucket, and should be quite a project.

This love of tractors and equipment had to start somewhere, and of course this was on the farm where I grew up with a full stable of Allis Chalmers equipment, including: An RC (rare!), WD, WD-45, D-17, D-19 diesel, 170 diesel, and a 190 XT. When I was in high school we still had and operated an SP-100 combine, which a few of you may be familiar with, but alas, it is long gone.

Looking forward to exchanging hints and ideas with most of you! I would post pictures, but do not yet have a scanner, but should have soon.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Terry
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Errp. OK--Terry wins the new member award. Whew! Hey
Terry, I wish you lived next door, man. If you need help
scanning, I'll be glad to do it, if you want to mail me
the pictures. I'm neck deep into computers too. I forgot
to mention that last post. I'll mail them back if you
want them back.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great to have you with us Terry. Doesn't sound like there is anything left for you to make except the enjoyment of putting all that great engineering to work - or should I say fun? Sounds like you may have more attachments than grass at this point!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...