Tractor Inventor Crawls to the Finish Line To Produce a High-Speed ‘Dream Machine’
In the spirit of legendary inventor R.G. LeTourneau, an ambitious gear head in Indiana has designed a muscular off-road tractor that has people talking about new possibilities for soft-ground earthmoving and ordnance removal in war-torn countries. The high-speed unit, still in prototype stage, sports a patented, rubber-tracked undercarriage that displaces only 8 lb per sq in. while towing a pull-type scraper.
A former Illinois hog farmer and earthmoving contractor, Tim R. Scheetz of Richmond, Ind., believes his new invention will help users boost scraping productivity and improve the safety of off-road hitching procedures. Scheetz began the journey five years ago when he mounted a "fifth-wheel" connection on a cab-over-engine-modified Cat Challenger farm tractor. He was compelled by a 1987 accident that occurred when his father, Robert Scheetz, used a skid-steer to line up a drawbar at the family farm. Working alone and at night, Robert Scheetz exited the loader to install a kingpin. The machine, still running, suddenly lurched forward, crushing and killing him.