There are projects and builds that we have seem and had our breath taken away by but when you think about Don Hunter’s incredible construction of a turn of the century Holt crawler tractor from scratch it will truly blow your mind. This whole thing started with only an original Holt crankshaft. After that everything was made or constructed or scrounged by Don. According to some stuff we have read, Hunter has 20,000+ hours invested in this tractor and he has had it out and about for a few years now, appearing at farm shows, fairs, and the like. The iron giant is over 20-feet long, 10-feet wide, and 14-feet tall. Holt crawler tractors changed the face of the farming and tractor world in many respects. After years of prolonged fighting with the Best company, the two merged and became known as Caterpillar. That move was mildly successful we’d say. Caterpillar continues to be one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world of heavy equipment and this tractor is an indelible part of their history.
Among the million or so interesting things about the machine are the facts that it steers with a front wheel, not by differing the track speeds, the huge flywheels, cog wheels, and massive chains that provide locomotion can turn a man into sausage in seconds, and the whole thing is like a giant exposed swiss watch. One can only imagine what life was like for farmers who had been working horses and mules to death for days to complete the work they could do in hours on a machine like this. Obviously they were fantastically expensive for the times and went to massive farms but they started the world of mechanized farming as we know it today.
Sadly, Don Hunter passed away in 2013 but he left behind a legacy of historic preservation and mechanical prowess we’ll revel in for years. No average guy starts and completes a project like this. Hunter was an exceptional man and is missed by the tractor restoration community that he loved so much.
