R.D. 3, Box 452, Glen Rock, Pennsylvania 17327
I have collected Maytag things since the early sixties. Some of
the things I have collected, over the years, are: Maytag engines,
Maytag washers, a meat grinder, a butter churn, spark plugs,
wrenches, advertising items, a Maytag seed catalog, etc.
I want to tell you how I started my Maytag tractor dream. We
built the first Maytag tractor using a HP twin cylinder engine with
two transmissions, built from five different riding mowers, for my
granddaughter Trudy. Then I had an idea to build a tractor with two
single cylinder Maytags coupled together. To do this, I bought a
1953 Simplicity walk-behind tractor, refurbished it with angle iron
that I cut out with a hacksaw, while my son Doug welded them
together. It did sound very good, but I ended up scrapping the
tractor. Then my son and I got together and came up with the idea
of a hydrostatic Cub Cadet tractor, and it was back to the drawing
board again. This time we put three single cylinder Maytag engines
on. Two of them we put on the bottom and one we put on top. We
coupled all three together, then we timed the engines in thirds.
This ran well, but it wasn’t enough power, which I’ll tell
you all about later.
Now it was time to do what I had set out to do. This was to put
six Maytag engines together on one tractor. My friend Ken Warehime
helpedhe turned down six crankshafts and put keyways in them to
mount timing pulleys. He had taken out all the old main bearings
and replaced them with oil impregnated bronze bearings, plus some
other machine work. Thanks Ken and Matt.
Now it was time to get all six engines to run at the same speed.
Since they are all hit and miss, this took some time to do. Timing
was something else which took some time. We timed all six engines
in one-sixths. It sounded good, but it just didn’t have enough
power, so we timed three engines 180 degrees opposite the other
three engines. All the engines go down to a line shaft with timing
belts and then back to the shaft for the hydrostatic pump. We now
have all the Maytags running at 1100 rpm. With the pulleys, we have
the hydrostatic pump running at 1700 rpm.
After three and a half years of getting most of the bugs out, we
tore it down again. With the help of my friend Keith Nafe, we
painted the whole tractor and put it back together again. Together
the six Maytag engines have a total of 4 HP, but it takes 1 HP to
run the hydrostatic pump. This leaves us with only 3 HP. Just for
fun we hooked to a pulling sled, it pulled 23 feet. It weighs 1085
lbs. with me on it. It makes a good conversation piece at all the
steam and gas engine shows we attend. We call this tractor the
Maytag Puller.
