Big Wheel '94-'98 Project
March/April 1999
Paul T. Johnson
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'74 Economy Power King before rebuild and attachment of cab.
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65 Sullivan Street, New York City, N.Y. 10012 or 53 Market
Street, P.O. Boxe 48 Ellenville, New York 12428
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I had a shock of recognition as quick as love at first sight in
'94 when it caught the corner of my eye sitting for sale not 10
feet from the edge of a 55-mph New York State highway. I was not
looking for such a machine at all, but when I saw it--deep lug
agricultural (8.0-24 inch inside-diameter) wheels on a tractor not
much bigger than any 'garden' tractor and notably smaller
than a Farmall cub--the bulb in my brain said instantaneously and
simultaneously:
I never saw a tractor with those proportions before
What a brilliant set of specifications combined in one
machine.
Of course! Why do we not see more of these
around?1
I want it. It's just what I need to remove snow from 1,000
feet of sidewalks.
I envisioned it as having the traction, power, and versatility
of a full-fledged no-nonsense farm tractor, yet it was at the same
time a down-sized scale sized to fit the width of standard
sidewalks (narrower wheels than Farmall Cub yet of an approaching
power).
Having quite a few hundred feet of sidewalks and paths in our
ten unit apartment/cottages rentals units complex in a village that
issues $25 tickets for not clearing sidewalks within 24 hours of a
snowstorm, there is ample justification to invest in substantial
and reliable machine help. The worst sidewalk is 185 feet alongside
a state-plowed highway, with no median between it and the curb of
the road, so the state plow always pushes the snow right back up on
the sidewalk after we pay $20 to $50 to have it shoveled by hand.
On a recent medium-snow winter we paid $700 in many attempts to
keep it clear and avoid tickets. During the heavier snowfall
winters the expenses are closer to $1,000 because we have multiple
shoveling for each single snowfall. Needless to say I've
dreamed of a machine that could possibly solve this expensive
dilemma.
Short of a bulldozer, I knew as soon as I saw this '74
'Economy/Power King' with agricultural wheels that if any
machine had ever been designed to solve my snow-on-sidewalks
problem this was it. It was narrow enough (44 inches) to fit the
width of our sidewalk (63 inches), yet had the 38.5 inch and
outside diameter, deep-lug agricultural tires. No other machine
that I had ever seen had the combination of no-nonsense tires
mounted narrow enough and with a height-off-the-ground profile to
handle a snow removal from a standard rural village sidewalk in a
seriously competent way. An extremely low engine-to-rear-wheel gear
ratio of 581 to 1 by means of the dual tandem gear boxes should
offer unstoppable traction. High underbody clearance of 19 inches
(without snow blowers hitch) should allow me to not get hung up on
a double-high (10 inches) curb if I happen to slip off the edge of
the sidewalk onto the road once in a while.
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