HPI Helps 2 Local Students Build a Prototype for Farmers

Andrew Blomenberg and Morgun Werling are 2 recent graduates of a local school, Bellmont High School. The 2 worked together in Bellmont’s Engineering Design and Development (EDD) course to bring a simple concept to a real, functioning prototype. Hoosier Pattern provided the steel needed to create the prototype to the duo for their project. 
 

Above: Andrew and Morgun pose with HPI owner, Keith Gerber, and their Extendable Drawbar

The prototype is an attachment for farm tractors designed to make it easier to attach wagons and other implements to the tractor. Normally, a farmer would need to precisely position a wagon and tractor so that they can be connected; this often takes several tries and can be quite frustrating. Their design makes the drawbar, or hitch, of the tractor extendable so that the farmer can get his or her tractor close to the correct position and then move the mechanism instead of the entire tractor into the correct position. This dramatically reduces the time necessary to hook up a wagon or other implement. The Extendable Drawbar prototype is currently in use at Werling Farms.

During the EDD course, Blomenberg and Werling found that there was a high demand among farmers nationally for a product like this. The pair may take the next step and produce an actual product based on this prototype. 

Check out this video to see the Extendable Drawbar in action: