Jeff and Sandy Laleman from Rock Falls, IL, brought their 1943 NT “Clone” to the MMCI Summer Show in Montevideo, MN. The tractor is a replica of the experimental NT that was demonstrated at the Minneapolis-Moline Experimental Farm their family operated in the 1940s. They have pictures of the tractor working at the farm in September of 1943 and were told the tractor was probably destroyed.
Recently Loren Book, Nevada, IA, gave them photos of the tractor when it was at the Hopkins Minnesota Assembly Plant. Using the “up close” photos, they were able to put together a clone of the missing tractor. The more powerful NT was to replace the ZT, but the Z remained in production until 1955.
The engine is a model of which was used in the military NT X “Jeep,” thus the name NT. The sheet metal resembles the model U. This was done to keep cost down. The tractor came up with the MM Patented throttle clutch that was never used on any other production model.
Jeff says, “We did our best to build a replica as close as we could. And we are still hopeful the original NT is out there. We could not have done such a project without the help of the following people: Loren Book, Bill Ellis, Rob Ohda, John DeReu, Ron DePauw, Wilbert Kerchner, and Rick Laleman.”
See a video of the NT Clone on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/mmcollectorsclub
