One Tractor to Rule Them All: The Story of the Huge Big Bud 16V, the Largest Farm Tractor Ever Made

As a picture is worth a thousand words, let’s go with a few to explain how big huge is the Big Bud 16V-747, the largest farm tractor ever made. Let’s see. Each of its tires – at least the original ones – has a diameter of 2.4 meters and has been created on purpose for its enormous structure, of 8.3m longmore than a bus for 30 passengers.

As for height, it is around 4.2m, giving farmers behind the wheel a broad perspective of the land they harvest. It is estimated that it weighs between 40 and 50 tonsgiven that would exceed 60 ballasted with cargo

If we were to remove it from the fields or museums, where the Big Bud has had to remain for much of its long history precisely because it is so difficult to find suitable wheels for it, we would have a difficult time getting around on the road. In addition to being tall, this enormous mass is wide, very wide: around 6.1 meters, a lot more than conventional trucks or buses.

Big, mythical… and ancient

So big is it that even the Guinness World Records has been set in the Big Bud. A good handful of years ago, after it left the factory with a 16-cylinder engine, its judges awarded it the title of the most powerful agricultural tractor ever made. After various settingstoday reaches the 1100 horses.

The most curious of all, however, is that the Big Bud is not exactly an innovation of the agricultural industry, a sector that has shown a strong technological impulse in recent years, with the commitment to automating farm fields. , the use of AI and satellites or the development of software.

No. The history of the 16V-747 goes back a long time. more than four decadesin the late 1970s, when Northern Manufacturing made it for a family of cotton farmers from Bakersfield, California. Cost $300,000.

Its original owners, the Rossi brothers, used it for more than a decade. of their crops passed to several farms, including Willowbrook Farms, and in the late 90s it returned to Montana, just 100 kilometers from where it was set up. The Williams brothers from Big Sandy decided to buy it and take it to their farm, in the Chouteau Countyto take advantage of their lands.

Throughout its long history, Big Bud, which takes its tagline “747” from the gigantic Boeing 747 airplane, the largest in the world for several decades, has not only worked in the fields. The reason: a size that has earned it popularity and admirers, but has also been a handicap when using it.

For almost a decade he actually remained in the heartland museumin Iowa, precisely because their hulking tires they could not be repaired and their owners did not have the option of buying original ones either.

A few years ago, however, he managed to overcome that obstacle thanks to some huge LSW1400 tires Goodyear’s, something smaller than the real ones from the United Tire Company of Canada, but which allowed him to once again hitch a plow and work the Montana farmland. Proof that the Big Bud is far from being a relic of the past is that even today, 46 years after leaving the factory, generate expectation and continues to arouse interest considerable in the sector.

at the beginning of the year companies Big Equipment and Rome Agricultural & Construction Equipment have indeed announced a partnership to begin manufacturing tractors under the Big Bud umbrella. Its objective, explains the first company: “To provide a tractor with components that can be repaired by farmers, general mechanics or dealers without restrictions.”

Perhaps other big manufacturers have created new titans of the fields, like John Deere and his impressive, 9RX 640but the Big Bud 16V-747 still presents itself in the sector as the largest agricultural tractor in the world… So convinced of its power and capacity that it dares to compare itself with an entire Boeing 747.

Because in times of autonomous tractors and lasers, the classics they do not die. Good example is the Big Bud or the impressive 150 HP Case Steam.

His is already, however, another story.

Images: Myron Reynard (Flickr)

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