Anyone Thought About Doing A Dual Engine Tractor?

Just wondering if anyone has ever considered building or built a dual engine tractor. Basically, getting 2 tractors the same, getting rid of the front axles of both units and putting the 2 tractors together and using hydraulic rams for steering.

I would have thought you'd have enough power for almost any job and it wouldn't have drive shafts or universal joints to snap or brake.
I like the idea of 4 wheel drive, perpendicular suspension and articulated steering on a lawn tractor, would be interesting to drive.

Just thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what you guy think.

I thought about extening the frame and mounting two engines in one tractor before but i never had two identical engines .I like the idea you have posted better tho allows for 4 wheel drive and would just be awesome .

Using our little lawn mowers and building it like the picture would be a lot of wasted space. You could run 2 engines and 2 transaxles with a hinge in the middle for steering, but all that extra frame and belting would not be needed. The hardest part I see would be contols, like shifting linkages, clutches, etc.

throttle and brake can be handle by push/pull cable from an old boat, or something similar.

trans shifting would be the biggest issue, both tractors would need to be identical drive line wise.

For variable belt F-N-r setups, the variable speed lever could be managed by a push/pull cable setup. The FNR shifting could be accomplished similarily.

If its a multi speed gearbox, a system of shafts and universals is required. Look at a shift linkage setup on a cabover highway tractor for ideas

I know a friend who used to have one of those tractors, he actually used it fairly often for small chores around the farm, one night he parked it in a shop they were moving, the building was given to him from his neighbor so he pulled it across the yard and parked it, he parked his tractor in it because there was a storm warning and didnt have enough fuel to park it in the original shed and the next morning the entire shop fell down because he didnt have time to get a footing done the day before. He ended up just getting rid of it since he got the tractor on a deal because both tractors werent running and he had made it into one of those.
I had thought of the lawn tractor setup but I thought it would look funny and didnt know how I would make the steering work well, on that they have hydraulic cylinders for steering normally isnt it?

When I was in vo-teck for machine shop class we had shop project that the year before started it was a dual engine tractor. It had two 8hp briggs on it, dont know how much the frame was extended but it wasn't alot. We only worked on it a handful of times then the teacher stopped coming in so we ended up with subs for rest of the year. The next year the new teacher junked it.


Then somewhere on the net I saw a lawnmower converted into a pullin tractor, the frame was extended atleast 2 feet and had three snowmobile motors on it. Don't remember what size they were but it looked sweet. Ill have to hunt up a pic of it sometime.

I have pics somewhere of a guy that used two cub cadets similar to the pic of the blue one posted - wasnt much larger then the original tractor- hinged in the middle - probably used some sort of wheel brakes ( similar to a bulldozer) to steer it.

Hot rods/dragsters back in the day ran multiple motors, but usually just a single trans. The 'Hurst Hairy Olds' was one that ran two motors and two transmissions - had something like 2000 HP:




Id say for something in a tractor , pick a large GT- mount a noma 4 wheel steer trans up front hooked to a motor, and a standard trans with a motor in back - hook them up similar to a RER tractor where the motor is real close to the trans or even over it.

Id say a whole custom chassis would be needed, to lay it out right , then sheetmetal fitted over it.

For another dual engine mod, use two motors and one 'trans' - use a couple right angle gear boxes hooked to the wheels ( one left- one right) similar to a z turn - run separate belts to each RAGB - best bet would be to run go kart clutches or some type of MTD variable drive setup instead of a actual trans .

why couldnt you widen the front of the frame, mount two identical engines side by side, mount another identical pulley on the rear above the existing one, run a belt from each motor to a pulley and then rig up a double pulley clutch system to disengage both motors at the same time, wire the ignition to fire both at the same time, fuel lines and finally a throttle cable splitter setup....wouldnt that work in theroy or would it still be like having one motor since everything would be identical??

yeah that would work, but you would have a lot of belt slippage because the balts only touching 1/4 of the pulley instead of 1/2 of it. it would also give you double the HP

Anything is possible with some tweeking - i was tinkering with a dual carb setup on a opposed twin i have - biggest issue was hooking the governer up.

The issue with 2 motors up front for power actually defeats the purpose - besides weighing a whole lot more ( steering issues) and hooking them up - youre better off just getting a larger motor. The front and back motors would make more sense.

Id say the easiest way to hook up two motors is to use horizontal shaft motors and use some sort of gear box .

Is this what you are thinking of? http://www.skyvalleyantiquetractor.com/images/11gasup11.jpg or is this? http://www.skyvalleyantiquetractor.com/images/11show17.jpg

the second link is cool, the first one looks completely stock, if you could say that seein 2 engines on it. i would rather have the second one as a mudder, if a engine blows you have 3 more!

Here's a quick and dirty Microsoft Paint image that might be cool



You'll notice the front tractor has been shortened

that looks like a good way to make it. that also looks like something i would do

Chopperhed wrote:

Here's a quick and dirty Microsoft Paint image that might be cool



You'll notice the front tractor has been shortened

That's what I was thinking of. That looks awesome, I may have to build one of those at some point .

Witha hydrostatice drive you could probably get the two rears to run at the same speed if you did the linkage right.

TheEquineFencer wrote:

Witha hydrostatice drive you could probably get the two rears to run at the same speed if you did the linkage right.

Could always run a geared rear and a hydro front. Then it could be selective 4wd.

I know its an old tread but just to comment I recently seen a huge vintage jonh deer built like that on youtube I just cant find it back for now

Just read through this thread. This comes to mind. I don't see why it would have to be hydrostatic though. Seems like it would be just as easy to hook two conventional setups together. If you wanted to hinge the middle, you'd need a pretty beefy hinge.