Projects Pulls Tractor Together

by Fabiola Huerta
Titan Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Pieces of a 1916 'Bean TrackPULL Tractor' are sitting in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. This student project may look like a lost cause but the goal is to restore the tractor to its full working condition.

"It was a big ball of rust," said Lisa Jones, assistant dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. "It's hard to imagine what it looked like."

The Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista, Calif. owns the tractor, and there are only about nine known to exist.

Machinist Dave Parsons brought the project to Cal State Fullerton.

"I was on the board of trustees and I was always interested in that tractor, and one day it occurred to me that it might make a good project for the students here," Parsons said. "I asked them if we could borrow it for a project and they graciously said yes. As a matter of fact, they brought it up here."

The tractor arrived on campus on March 25 and students worked all summer to take it apart. On July 10 the engine was removed and on Aug. 6 the tractor was broken down into pieces.

"We finally finished at the end of the summer," Parsons said. "The nice thing about it is that it is broken down into large components. So I'm hoping that the job doesn't look as daunting. When you saw it before, you just saw this huge thing, but now you can look at little pieces and say, 'well, I can do that'."

In running condition, the tractor would move along at a speed of two miles per hour. It weighs 3200 pounds and stands at about 44 inches.

"When the museum got it, it was in someone's back yard," Parsons said. "The museum only had it for two or three years."

The museum would eventually look into restoring the rare tractor.

"That is how the museum works, they try to get people to adopt tractors and take them on as projects," he said.

Rod Groenewold, director of the Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum, said, "Cal State Fullerton has taken on the biggest challenge. Taking it into a college shop setting is great for all of us."

Forty-acres of land surrounds the museum and spectators can watch demonstrations of the old equipment.

Groenewold said the museum plants a crop every year and uses the equipment in the museum to harvest the crop.

"When it is completely finished, first of all it will run," Parsons said.

"It will be an operational tractor. We will keep it here on campus to show it off and have fun and then it goes back to the museum to put on display. The museum already has the next tractor picked out for us."

Although most of the progress was made during the summer, work continues during the year to keep to the proposed timetable.

"The goal is two years, but it is an open-ended thing," Parsons said.

"As we approach winter, the work stops off because students are busy and it's getting cold. Now that is taken apart and in pieces, I think we can bring it indoors a lot easier."

Parsons said he intends for the tractor to be strictly a student project.

"I got the project because this department of engineering needs more cohesiveness," he said. "So I thought I would bring a project that was strictly for fun. At the same time, it's such a large mechanical entity that there is a lot to be learned from it. It's not like taking apart a watch, it's pieces of a tractor, and it's really easy and big."

Even thought the tractor is in the engineering machine shop, Parsons did not want the project to only be for engineering students.

"Everybody is welcomed to come and play," he said. "It just turns out that it is easier to address engineering students because it is in their backyard. There are positions for everybody. Even if someone doesn't want to pick up a wrench, I need people that will document progress, make drawings, people that will paint things."

Both students and the museum look to gain from this experience.

"I thought it was a win-win situation for everybody," Jones said. "They will have the benefit of having the tractor returned in a better condition, and students will have the benefit of having the experience."