UPDATE: Tim wrote me to say he’d found some of these sitting unused outside his place of employment. Unfortunately, there was too little left of them or they were too far gone to restore. The ones they had were powered by Wisconsin air-cooled V4 engines. They also had stainless steel tanks for liquid usage. He was able to take photos of a complete one before they disassembled it. The company that made that sprayer still exists. http://buffaloturbine.com/ The sprayers look very similar too.
Original Post 01/08/13: This is a rare Buffalo Turbine Sprayer / Duster that was for sale back in 2013. Brochures for this product are shown below.
Wow, all of Google and these are the only pictures of the old Buffalo Turbine. Three year old post but I’m going to comment anyway.
Hi Tim,
Please do. Do you have any better pics? I didn’t have much luck finding anything when I posted this.
– Dave
Sure. My work used them back in the day, long before my employment. But they were sitting unused out side for many years. I’m in the middle of a major clean up at work. I’ve been stripping some of the useful parts of the machines, the rest will be scrapped. Unfortunately there is too little left or too far gone to restore. The ones we have are powered by those Wisconsin air cooled V4 engines. They also had stainless steel tanks for liquid usage. There is one left complete that I’ll take some good pictures of before disassembly. The company that made that sprayer still exists. http://buffaloturbine.com/ The sprayers look very similar too.
Thanks Tim. I appreciate the information and any photos you can provide. Feel free to email them to my email d@ewillys.com. There might even be an eWillys reader who collects rare PTO equipment and might be interested in the parts.
– Dave
That V4 would make an interesting looking and different looking engine for a rat rod or T-bucket. I wonder what kind of power it produced?
Those engines were used in lots of industrial equipment back in the day. Would make a good Mighty Mite replacement too, but may be a bit low on the power.
Reminds me of the first jeep I had. Someone put a snow blower on the front of it and to power the snow blower they put one of the Wisconsin engines in the passenger seat location with the power shaft out the right side to run the belt or chain to the snowblower. They also had built a wooden cab on the jeep. I can’t imagine sitting beside that Wisconsin engine in a cab. The poor cheep was shook to pieces, every time I as a little off road, the frame would break and off to the welder I would go.
It looks like one version did get up to 60 hp. All I remember as a kid was how cantankerous those engines were. Learned a lot of swear words from Dad at a young age.
http://classic-engines.com/engines-2/wisconsin/
Great story Steve 🙂
I still have that sprayer sitting out back. It needs some help I’m sure. If anyone is interested let me know. It was on the the back of a chopped down willys wagon with some R. R. Markings on it when I got it up north at an auction.
A friend of mine still has one like this and uses it from time to time in his business. His father Frank was the original owner when bought in the 1950’s It’s mounted on a trailer. At one time, he had a 1957 CJ5 to pull the sprayer.