VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 27/28 Chevy Tractor

I went and looked at a tractor today that was made with a 27 radiator shell and a 28 engine with what must have been a truck rear end as it looked like the rear end on my 27 Coach only larger. I was told it was built by Chevrolet for use at an assembly plant. Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

I have a '28 Chevrolet tractor built by the local blacksmith. Has a DB rear end and standard car transmission.

I would love to see some photo's! I enjoy seeing machines made from recycled/converted cars. One in particular that I recently saw in two separate Australian magazines was a commercially available (USA origin) conversion of a T model ford into a crawler tractor called a Bearcat. A running example is now located in Tasmania, Australia. It uses a wooden track frame attached to the complete T model chassis. It was apparently still working until the 1950's
Tim.

There were many "tractors" made in the 30s and 40s from cars and trucks. Many small farmers could not afford to buy a real tractor (or truck) so they modified what they had or could get cheaply. They were known by several names among them were: duddle bug, trucktor, tracktor, ???

Often they would use a 2-5 ton truck rear end that was narrowed. Truck tires in a dual configuration often with chains were used for floatation and traction. I have even seen pieces of rubber bolted through casing with carriage bolts so the heads did not pierce the tubes. If a high ratio rear end could not be found then an extra transmission was added in series to give the slow speed with higher (more horsepower and torque) engine speeds.

It is a shame that more were not preserved as many used some ingenuity and skill in their construction.

When Dad was younger he converted his first truck to a "Doodle Bug". Being frugal he kept it after he moved off the farm. Eventually he used it as the basis for the "1930" Roadster Delivery, his first road worthy Gem. (Which by the way gave birth to developing the paint match sheets so many members of the VCCA have used to repaint their cars.) The running boards, parts of the hood, and the Pick-up bed were recycled were from the original truck. I will try to find pictures of it as a Doodle Bug and as the "restored" truck and post them.
Dan.

this thing has an interesting rear end set up as the rear end is mounted above the centerline of the rear wheels and is connected to the rear wheels on each side by a housing that I assume has either a chain drive or gear drive in it.
The housing is small on the end it connects to the rear end and big at the end that connects to the tires. the drive shaft is no more that a couple feet long
and the front axle is bent to give it more ground clearance. The guy who has this thing is a collector of trucks and tractors and claims that in the era before the forklift that factory's would use these to move parts around to where they needed to be on the assembly line. He said he has seen other brands of these at tractor shows but never a Chev. I've seen home built stuff before but never anything a quite like this.

This would make a wonderful subject for a pictorial book. (Do any exist already?)
Tim.