Take a pile of old parts, put them all together, and you might
come up with something like the machine above if you’re as good
at putting ideas into machinery as Ralph Fuller. The above rig just
completed by Fuller might be termed a freak in every respect. While
Fuller is gaining a wide reputation for modeling old time farm
machines, this outfit is modeled after nothing.
‘It’s just a lot of old parts put together into
something that will run,’ Fuller explained. ‘I looked over
those parts one day, and was able to visualize a machine made from
-them.. And this is the result.’
Friends suggested he call his creation the ‘Fuller Oil
Pull’, because it ‘sounds just like the old oil pulls of an
earlier era.’ The sound effect is managed by piping the exhaust
sounds into a large wooden chamber.
The machine is powered by a one-cylinder, three-horsepower
Fairbanks Morse farm engine. It clips right along at four miles an
hour, and is actually capable of handling a number of small power
jobs.
The rear wheels are off of a moving machine, and the front
wheels are grain binder transport trucks. Part of the steering
device and front end is off of an old wheat binder. The frame is a
bridge plank and the seat is a nail keg. Other odds and ends make
up the remainder of the chain drive machine.
Fuller found the old wheels in a junk pile, and had the steering
device on hand. He found the drive wheel in a junk yard and
purchased it for 25c. He also had the traction engine on hand. He
scoured the Husted Auto Salvage, and came up with more parts that
would work on the odd machine.
Fuller is now painting his freakish looking contraption, and
plans to use it in street parades this summer. He has also been
busy at his well established hobby of building miniature steam
engines. This collection has become so extensive that Fuller
receives many letters and personal visits from steam enthusiasts
over a several state area.
