The Jeep with a loader...well it seems to me you just took a road worthy vehicle and made it a tractor. Back when I was on my WW2 craze I did a lot of shopping in the sand hills of western Nebraska. The sand there is weird, green grass growing, but kick it with your foot and the sod flies out and its sand. After the blizzard of 49 when the army rescued many folks and cattle from snow drifts that buried the barn, the ranchers were impressed enough to go after army surplus stuff, and the timing was perfect...stuff was cheap. One ranch I bought some halftrack parts off said they would go to Omaha and buy 3 for about 300 ea. and drive one and tow the other two! About 300 miles!
They also had no respect for the stuff and butchered it up to what they wanted. Lots and lots of the Dodges were stripped of the body and made into "hay bucks". Thats a home made loader on the back, so you drove in reverse with rear steer. The good news is they were hundreds of miles from a scrap yard, so in many cases the residue is still laying in their junk pile. Once I was told about a ranch that had 6 halftracks, and when I went to ask they told me they buried the old junk!
I know, long rant, I hope it was entertaining to some at least, but now to the point...
I got this machine from a farm clean up near me, they were going to scrap it.
Its a model T frame T frame rails for the loader parts. A pre war Willys motor ( see, still on topic after all this!). The willys ****** is coupled to some other ******, chevy I think, then a rocky mountain auxiliary over-under-and direct inline coupled to a TT truck
rear end. A model T rear end cut in half provides a winch with an aftermarket T brake band to lock a drum to engage the "winch". The cables to lift the boom ran on model T torque tube spools, spinning on a model T drive shaft. Out front it had a 2x12 rough sawn plank with 2 grapple hooks you could flop down for log skidder, or push snow with the plank. I describe it as "pre welder" as pretty much every thing was bolted on.
When I saved it I was just tickled with joy, but imagine the grin on the builders face when it drove out of the shed!!!
Sadly, even though there were lots of A and T folks at my auction, it appears I am the only one to appreciate its history, and it sold to one of the scrap buyers. Very sad when I saw them pick it up and smash it into a load. A couple pics I think I still have.. Check out Wyoming pbs winter of 49 on youtube
