[AT] Tractor play

[Michael Miller]

Kyle
    I am glad I am not the only one who had a good tractor day.  I spent 
saturday and sunday getting the SMTA ready for the tractor pull and doing 
maintanance on the other 2 tractors.  Still need to get the oliver ready to 
pull, plus possibly start stripping some things off the MTA cuz I'm 400 lbs 
over where I should be...


Mike


>From: "Kyle Sands" <willys_46 at mail.com>
>Reply-To: Antique tractor email discussion group 
><at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
>Subject: [AT] Tractor play
>Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 07:32:21 -0600
>
>Hi guys, just wanted to let everyone know how much fun I had last Friday 
>playing with tractors.  Some of you may remember vaguely the story of my 
>grandfather's 1939 John Deere AW and how it had been sitting up in the 
>remote northern MN wilderness for years, dormant, in disrepair until I 
>decided it would be fun to resurrect it.  We did so, then ice broke the 
>block and head and we were forced to make a true "shade tree" repair with 
>replacement parts.  Then we lost a tire (age) and it took a couple years to 
>locate a good used 36" tire and get that mounted on the tractor - it was an 
>interesting run getting the tractor driveable - the story is documented 
>here: http://oldtractors.homestead.com/home.html
>
>After all the fun we had in the wilderness, the JD was finally hauled out 
>and transported to Gramps tree farm in central MN.  There it has been 
>sitting basically unused for the last couple of years.  I have had very 
>little time to get up there and do any kind of work on it until this last 
>week.  The one problem that has cropped up is that the other rear tire has 
>deteriorated to the point where the sidewall is starting to crack.  I 
>noticed this last year and was fortunate enough to locate a good used 36" 
>tire at the Lesueur, MN swap meet this spring.  The rims are mismatched 
>with two different widths.  The first used tire we found a few years ago 
>was not quite wide enough to seat up against the rim all the way around.  
>This "new" used tire was wider and my intention was to take the "old" used 
>tire off, mount this wider tire on the wider rim, and then take the 
>narrower tire and put it on the other side.  Well, I succeeded in getting 
>part of the job done.  I was able to demount
>  the "old" used tire and put the "new" one on.  However, I couldn't break 
>the bead on the original tire to finish the tire swap.  I really worked at 
>it for awhile and almost decided to take a saw and cut the tire off.  But 
>with my time running down before I had to leave, I decided to leave it on 
>and just air it up so I could drive the tractor around.
>
>That's where the real fun began - the tractor hasn't been running for at 
>least a year.  I checked oil, poured in fresh gas, and filled up the 
>radiator.  With full choke, I turned the flywheel over twice and she 
>caught.  Choke off (or so I thought), two more cranks and the A was putting 
>away!  What a great sound!  Gramps "farm" is 120 acres of pine and popple 
>woodland with a nice system of trails.  I drove out to his sawmill, drove 
>down to the lake, drove up and down the trails for an hour or so just 
>having a great time.  That is the most I have driven this tractor, and it 
>never missed a beat (I later discovered I had left the choke half on, which 
>explained the exta puff of exhaust I was seeing).  It was pure joy just to 
>"cruise" with this old iron - who else gets this kind of enjoyment just 
>driving around aimlessly?
>
>Just wanted to share that story with you.  Regards,
>
>Kyle Sands <>< Huntley, MN
>--
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