Lifted Farm Tractor on Tracks

Moving slowly through the sweet-corn fields of California in 1954 was a weird tractor on stilts. The tractor was used to dust and detassel the high corn. The builder started with a 21-horsepower crawler tractor. He raised the tractor chassis, including the motor and transmission, so there would be 78 inches of clearance beneath it. Side frames – the stilts – support the tractor in this position. Additional sprockets and links of track were installed on each side. The result was a tractor that rolls through the high corn, dusting and detasseling it even during wet weather when rubber-tired tractors bog down in the mud… read more >