1938 Minneapolis Moline UDLX Comfortractor - video and photos

The 1938 Minneapolis Moline UDLX Comfortractor, an attempt to create a dual purpose tractor-car vehicle. The Comfortractor included a fully-enclosed cab (a first for a farm tractor), and creature comforts like a heater, radio, second seat, and full gauges. It had an advertised top speed of over 40 mph (but no suspension).

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net/comfortractor3.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net/comfortractor1.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net/comfortractor2.jpg

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net/comfortractor4.jpg

Unfortunately, the Comfortractor's $2,000 cost (about twice as much as a regular tractor) limited its appeal, and only around 150 were made. Today, because of its unique look and rarity, a fully restored Comfortractor can fetch almost $200,000 at auction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia2QOFyhsKA

Previously:

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...4194#post79504
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...4233#post79570
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...2255#post76030
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...2353#post76200
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...6993#post84808
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...3037#post97899
https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...3489#post99230

I saw one of these at a local tractor show with my dad years ago. Very cool.

When you can't afford a Minneapolis Moline:

https://diqn32j8nouaz.cloudfront.net...se_tractor.jpg

Wow - that's . . . stunning!

Beautifully done dual crossover!! Stunning is right! Anyone for cow tipping? Just saying...reminds me of Mater and Cars.

Sure doesn't look anything like the big old Moline my Grandpa had except for the back fenders.

I`m hoping I can see a door at the rear of this, otherwise it looks impossible to get into unless you`re a contorsionist.

Ours didn't have a cab but yes you enter from the rear there was no 3 point lift on it just a draw bar very little room for your feet at the peddles and you hade to kind of climb over the transmission. tons of power but if I remember correctly, ours was a duel fuel it started on gasoline then once it was warmed you could switch it to kerosene

Why do you keep posting things by others you find on the internet. I thought this was supposed to be a forum for people to display their own homemade tools.

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Originally Posted by J_P

Why do you keep posting things by others you find on the internet. I thought this was supposed to be a forum for people to display their own homemade tools.

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I think its because these are home/shop built creations that inspire others here. I personally helped build a 49' Willy's show car in a garage a very long time ago, won many events and trophies, even a magazine article, spending days before an event polishing and dialing things in, packing up and getting on the road. The time and effort is rewarded with innovative (custom military wrapped waxed jute, color coded wiring harness {a full month of nights a weekends}), dedication and craftsmanship and the Ooh's and Awhh's of people in those circles, and here. All the while continuing to do electro-mechanical engineering and other things around the shop. Guess it's because it's in the blood of those that appreciate all those qualities...whether we build them or not.

Sorry Jon, no one else seemed to chime in here so I thought I would.

PJ

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J_P

Why do you keep posting things by others you find on the internet. I thought this was supposed to be a forum for people to display their own homemade tools.

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You might look at it this way.
Lets say you have an idea and I have an idea. together that is 1 idea each or 2 total ideas.
I share mine with you and you share yours with me now I have 2 and you have 2 right? Then one way to look at it would be there are now 4 total ideas but since 1 of yours and 1 of mine are 1 in the same we really only have the 2 ideas nothing had been gained except I have 2 and you have 2 that we might be able to combine then both of us will have 3 ideas since the way you combine your 2 ideas may differ than the way I combine my 2 ideas if we share the new ideas with each other we will now each have 4 these new ideas may create further spin off ideas form the original nucleus as long as sharing of each other's newest ideas occur the growth eventually become exponential.
Now just for a moment imagine that there is a 3rd party who through due diligence of research shares ideas from people we have never heard of even if those happen to be commercially produced we are now given the opportunity of looking at those and quite possibly combining certain aspects into our ideas. What happens now is instead of the 2 of us only being able to create the growth of our idea base from our own background of knowledge, we have an unlimited treasure trove of possibilities available to us. Some of which may or may not fit into the realm of our scope of what we are trying to accomplish with our idea base but we have learned that since others are now involved our own ideas can be spread across the universe of knowledge like dandelion seeds in the wind.
Does that help explain why every new posting can in someway become a benefit to others, even if we personally do not see the apparent surface value of them?

Perhaps another model would be: That if we all screamed for ice-cream and because there are so many flavor choice it's difficult to finger out how to oblige and then someone chimed in and said German chocolate cake...all of a sudden our choices becomes a whole new idea of getting Cake and Ice Cream and being able to have both, then someone says what if we put butterscotch topping on the ice cream too...it's just sooo rewarding to have choices and new ideas. And in our HMT blood, imho.

Pjs I just spent 9 straight hours in a rabbit hole downloading file by file as I went the site had a download all button but would only allow partner member to use it but they also provided a single file download button. My problem was that my net speed and finger speed is such that I could run over their site speed then it would give me time outs Maybe thinking I was a bot or something LOL But now I have a folder which contains almost the entire year of 1885 journal of the American Machinist over a 600 Mb of files.
Ice cream German Chocolate cake butterscotch and sprinkles to spend many days assimilating all of those files
Here is the rabbit hole
just begin advancing using the buttons
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...view=1up;seq=2

want another deep rabbit hole try this
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...view=1up;seq=1
click to page 30 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?...iew=1up;seq=30

Nice finds Frank. Loved the index in the first one on pg.8 "Letters from Practical Men" and the first entry is "Advice to Young men" Feb. 14 p 4.

The second/third link "Mechanical Movements from 1907 Ohio State must have been the forerunner to the Marks' Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers started in 1916...Cool Stuff! Didn't get the reference to pg. 30 and rope transmission of power, though?

Prior to pg 30 it is pretty much just yak yak.

I'm conscious of J_P question, how material of outsiders makes it into HMT.net, butI'll side with PJ's.
Everyone was an outsider at one point, and inspiration is hard to say which one brought them in. It's clear our interests are not finite. There are what, 350 interlinked sites with HMT.net? And look at the geographic spread of members, it's narrowing social gaps at same rate interests widen. As I'm always pointing out, this ain't merely a 'hobby'. Every civilizations been built this way.
Jon does a superb job, ne plus ultra, stoking imaginative coals.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J_P

Why do you keep posting things by others you find on the internet. I thought this was supposed to be a forum for people to display their own homemade tools.

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Not sure if you are asking a question pertaining to subforums vs. forums, which I know can be confusing. In that case, the answer would be that the Homemade Tools subforum is reserved for posting of homemade tools by site users. This subforum, Tool Talk, is for discussing tool related stuff.

If, more broadly, you are asking why I'm posting this stuff on a forum clearly intended for homemade tools, the answer would be that most DIY forums (technically communities of practice) have a place for posting stuff directly targeted to their main area of focus, and a place for posting culture/conversation/discussion. Many forums use this latter area to discuss news, politics, sports, etc.

When we are not posting homemade tools, instead of talking about news/politics/sports, we talk about tool stuff: invention, building, industry, vehicles, STEM, etc. To direct this discussion, I post related items of interest I find anywhere on the net, sometimes inviting the original builders to the discussion.

It's important to note that there were zero homemade tool forums when this site was founded; the original 1,000 or so homemade tools that were listed on this website were found across hundreds of forums catering to a variety of DIY disciplines: machining, welding, 4x4, woodworking, hotrodding, airplane building, gunsmithing, motorcycling, boat building, luthiery, etc. And these forums now know us - over 400 different DIY forums link to HomemadeTools.net.

So if I find something interesting that matches those hobbies, or just something I think that tool people would enjoy, I know I can post it to spark a potential tool idea or discussion. And, with our members, the quality of that discussion is unusually high.

Finally, if you are asking why such posts have increased recently, the answer is that nearly every metric we use to measure forum interest (pageviews, posts, tool submissions, Thanks counts, registrations, etc.) increases with an increase in Tool Talk posts, so we are trying 5-6 new Tool Talk posts per day to see if people like it.

Personally, I enjoy them. Lots of inspiration. I am also glad Jon has the time that I don`t to track down these things.