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| My wife got me the Big Bud 16V-747 video for Christmas. Pretty good video and awesome tractor. I was wondering if anyone on this board owns a Big Bud. The initial review of the video was a little tough with the holiday background noise, but I was also wondering if Ron Harmon still builds Big Bud tractors at his business Big Equipment or is Big Bud defunct now?
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Huntley Montana | He just rebuilds them now. The major Mfgs are building tractors almost up to the same HP. Everyone needs to own a Bud once, some 2x. Used a lot of military surplus parts in mfg. Good parts, but when you need repairs thier $pendy. In thier day they were 1 LL of a tractor. I think the tractor you saw got to be used in Ca, then Fl, & now back in Montana
Edited by Badger 12/25/2007 20:37
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Sunburst Montana | 
Here is mine. A 1978 HN 320. I've been told by the previous owner its been turned up to 350 hp. One word that describes these tractors is HEAVY. Twice as much iron in this one then in a Versatile. I always wanted a Big Bud so I bought this one just to play around with and as a collectable. With just over 500 made they can be rare especially if you start breaking them down by model and series. I honestly believe in the future they well be sought out more and more by big time collectors especially with all the publicity the Williams brothers are generating about Big Bud with their 747 and the new HN 320 toy they will have next year.
Edited by Steiger Man 12/25/2007 21:04
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| Nice tractor, what does H-N stand for? I'll guess the H is for Havre, isn't that where they were made? No clue on the N. |
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| The HN stood for Hensler and Nelson, the builders of the first Big Bud.
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| Found this in SW Nebraska through my travels of work. Looks like it has been out of commission for a shortwhile.
 (Pictures 055(2).jpg)
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 Pictures 055(2).jpg (54KB - 320 downloads)
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Lac qui Parle County Minnesota | I've got some relatives who use two Big Buds in their tiling business. One of them needs some transmission work and a I believe I was told it would be over $10,000. Even so, they are great tractors for pulling those tiling plows. |
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| I hope someone takes care of that one.
A good shot of blasting and slap on some nice paint / stripes and get her in action again.
What a waste sitting there slowly turning to dust. |
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Wheatley, Arkansas | Any idea who owns that rig?
Les |
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Brazilton KS | I doubt it's been down for too awful long because it sure looks like it has BFG tires on it from since Michelin revived the name.
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Cambridge, southwestern Nebraska | Not sure who the owner is but I'm pretty sure it is sitting just southeast of Imperial, NE. I saw it advertised somewhere a few months back but can't find it now. I know I seen it from the highway when I went by there last summer. |
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Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | Been told the center knuckle/hinge joint is a rather unique design. Lots of heavy plate and it all slopes toward the middle. Keeps the bearings well irrigated with rainwater that happens to fall and I guess it carries some dust/gravel with it as it goes about irrigating the bearings. Believe they kinda built the tractor around that joint and the neighbor found the easiest and maybe only way to get it apart and haul it to Havre for a rebuild was to attack it with a smokey wrench, cut the supporting plates so it fell out, and then re-welded it together once it was fixed. That along with new high dollar axles every 1,000 hours or so seems to have cured him of the Bud habit. His dad was even a dealer for them here so I was kind of surprised when he sent her down the road. He told me it was one of the best moves he ever made. |
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Seneca Kansas 66538 | How has she treated you Steiger Man? |
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Iowa | Jon S - 12/25/2007 19:49
....I was also wondering if Ron Harmon still builds Big Bud tractors at his business Big Equipment or is Big Bud defunct now?
I believe that the facility where the Big Bud tractors were built is now a CaseIH dealership:
http://www.torgerson.biz/ |
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| This rig is actually east of Madrid, NE. Which is northeast of imperial, NE. I saw it from a ways out and pulled into the building site. Didn't think anyone was around until a sprayer came over the hill, hope they didn't mind!! The highway is Nebraska 23, I can't remember how far east of Madrid it was, but I think it was still in the central time zone and it was west of US 83. |
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Sunburst Montana | It has some electrical issues right now but I have put about ~80 hrs on it since I got it. Pulls pretty good. Ran it against my neighbors CIH 9180 I think it was. We were breaking up CRP ground and we both had the same plows (JD 610s) with spikes except his was 35ft and mine was 39ft. He plowed a little faster then me maybe around 1/2 to 1 mph more but then I again I had the bigger plow. I went in 3rd and could have gone in 4th but I thought that was a little to hard on the tractor. |
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| The farmers that own that KT525 are the Malmkar Family out of Grant, Ne. Collin is the dad and Shannon is one of the sons and I can't remember the other sons name. They bought them orginally to pull 12 row Schlagel Till N Plants to plant corn with. Ran the shanks anywhere from 15 to 19 deep plus pulled a 1100 gal liquid tank. They had purchased a couple of Curtis Rite tractors that did not run as advertised so they got these to replace them. I have some pix around somewhere of that conflaberation they drug thru the fields. The also converted one to run a grain cart if memory serves me correctly. The took a 3208 cat that was running an irrigation motor and dropped it between the rear fenders and put a drop box on it for the PTO. Don't know how well it worked. I rented them a couple of CAT 95E's when these big girls laid down on them. At one time they had two of these. Last I knew they had went away from running the till n plants and went back to tillage. They are in the phone book up there. |
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SW Saskatchewan | There was a lot of Big Bud buildings on the lot. My memory is a little on the uncertain side but I believe the Torgerson bldg is the old dealership/truck stop that was the original Bud site.
If I am correct, the later "factory" is now the combine rebuild centre and the Flexicoil assembly centre for airseeders and cultivators etc.
The "office" of the complex is now another business.
Where Ron Harmon operated BIG Equipment was once the Havre plant for Frigstad.
I believe Ron has now moved to another site south on hiway 87. |
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| I have been using a 1975 big bud hn 320 for about eight years. It has been very reliable and dependable. I have only had to replace the clutch in it and this is a fairly easy procedure as big buds were very easy to service. I have just purchased a newer one, a hn 360 which ron harmon is rebuilding for me. It should be done in early spring. I hope it runs just as good as my old one. |
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South Central | I found more pics of this tractor. They did'nt abandon it, the pics are from http://www.stockauctionco.com/, not listed yet but looks to be for sale on their auction.
 (big bud.JPG)
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big bud.JPG (60KB - 538 downloads)
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Big Bud's
