The Guiness Machine

[glennmac]

Using any reasonable units of "bigness"--e.g., height, weight, horsepower, torque, displacement, pulling power, tire size, or purchase price--what is the biggest commercially available tractor in the world? What is the biggest specialty tractor?

Glenn

 

[Roy]

Sounds like a fun research issue. First a question, what constitutes a specialty tractor? Reason I ask, is that I remember, from over a decade ago, some real monster earth moving equipment was custom built for a large strip mining operation.

 

[Roy]

To start things off (as a baseline), looked through the Nebraska Tractor Test Results (http://www.ianr.unl.edu/ianr/bse/ttl/ppt/Test1_files/v3_document.htm) for 1998 and 1999. Highest HP that I saw was for a Cat Challenger 95E, Spring of 1998. Drawbar: 329 HP @ 2100 RPM. PTO: 306 HP @ 2100 RPM.

 

[glennmac]

OK, we have a candidate for most drawbar HP and most PTO HP. (What does one drive with 306 PTO horses?) Do we know whether a Cat Challenger 95E is a commercially available tractor? I guess what I meant by a specialty tractor is one that's specially souped-up for tractor pulls or specially made for titanic projects like digging the Panama Canal. Researching actual facts on this topic is admirable, but gut feel and speculation about "bigness" is also acceptable.

Glenn

 

[Roy]

WOW... I missed the Spring 2000 test completely. Agco Allis 8785 PTO: 966 HP @ 2200! How big do these things get?

Glenn... That's what is good about the Nebraska test. All units are commercially available. All units (greater than 40 HP?) must be tested before thay are sold in Nebraska. All are measured in the same way (no comparing apples and oranges).

 

[JerryG]

Roy,
Agco Allis 8785 PTO: 966 HP @ 2200! must be a typo some where. AGCO page gives this.
• 8785-Rated at 110 PTO horsepower, the 8785 comes standard with a six-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine. It features a four-speed powershift transmission with optional creeper. Three-point lift capacity is 9,000 pounds. The hydraulic system is 27.7 gpm.

AGCO lists the AGCO STAR as the highest horse tractor they sell. It is rated at 425 HP.

Check the Big Buds out. They are not in production now. But, it's been said that someone has bought the rights and the plant and may start building them again.

www.bigbud.com/BBhist.htm

On another form the other day there was talk about a 850 HP tractor in South Africa being built now. I don't know the name of it.
JerryG

 

[Roy]

Jerry;

That explains it. When I looked at the photo, it just didn't appear like the other monster Ag units. They must of dropped a decimal point (assume it should read 96.6). So I guess the largest I found so far (spec wise) is the JD 9400 (same HP as the AGCO STAR you found): 425 gross engine HP, "A category 4/4N hitch is optional on the 9300, 9300T, 9400, and 9400T Tractors, increasing lift capacity to14,445 pounds". Huh, could you please put my house back down where you found it? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif.

Those Big Buds were big! (HP raised to 740 in 1991). Never heard of those puppies before.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I suppose my friend Gardner Stone's pulling tractor would grab the honors for most horsepower, 12000 from four Lycoming turbines. On the subject of Big Bud tractors, three or four years ago Popular Mechanics had a short article on what was at that time the biggest tractor in the world. It was a one of a kind made by Big Bud for a produce grower in California. It had a 1450 HP. locomotive engine. I don't remember any other details but the picture of it showed a very serious machine.

 

[Bird]

I looked at that history of the Big Bud; found that interesting. And now I'm sitting here looking at a year 2000 calendar with a picture on the front that says 1977 Big Bud 747 "Biggest U.S. Tractor Built During the 20th Century". It belongs to the Williams Brothers (Robert/Randy) of Big Sandy, Montana and is a 16-cyl. Detroit Diesel retrofitted with the biggest injectors made and produces 900 hp, over 20-ft. wide, 28-ft. long, 14-ft. to the top of the cab, twin-disc, clutch-free power-shift transmission, weighs 130,000 lbs. with fuel in its 1,000 gal. tank, and ballast in the 8-ft. tall duals, pulls an 80-ft. chisel plow and does 60-70 acres an hour at 6.5-7.5 mph. It says it was made in Harve, MT, by Northern Mfg. Co. and used in California and Florida before the Williams Brothers bought it and restored it. It looks like a new one. They say it only takes two weeks to work 8,000-9,000 acres for small grains under optimal conditions.

Bird

 

[scruffy]

H-m-m-ph, sounds like its almost as good as a Kubota!