Old Gus, as we found him in Lansing, IA

In 1999, During our first winter at the Ranch, I made a discovery. Something simply had to be done about the snow! The winters in Central Illinois aren't as bad as they are in some parts of the world, but we do see our share of snow fall. And, with almost 200' of driveway, its a chore to keep it all clear by hand. I told Shari that I thought we should get a tractor to clear all of that snow. She said that I could only buy a tractor if I sold my old El Camino (the hot rod that I fixed up way back in high school).

Well, It took me four years, but I finally gave in and sold the El Camino early in the summer of 2003. Durning that four year stretch, Shari and I tossed around a lot of ideas. In a perfect world, we would buy a compact utility tractor like a John Deere 4115 or a Kubota B7800. But, there's a special kind of insanity that causes people to spend that kind of money on a new tractor. I just couldn't justify it. In my mind, the only thing that would be better than a new utility tractor would be an old utility tractor. Being a "gear head" from way back, I've always loved antique machines. And, spending summers out on my Grandpa's farm gave me a great appriciation for antique tractors. So, I set out to find an antique tractor that would be small enough to fit our property, yet big enough to handle the snow and landscaping chores that we had to accomplish. I was looking for something with a 3-pt hitch and a hydraulics system that would handle lifting and running mechanical implements.

When I was about 12 years old, Grandpa taught me to drive his 1954 Farmall 400. Back then, Grandpa ran a pretty big farm, so to him, the 4-ton Farmall 400 was a "utility tractor". I'd give my left arm and my right arm up to the elbow to have an old 400 like Grandpas, but, Shari said that it was just too big to be practical on our little one and a half acre "patch of grass". I have to admit, a Farmall 400 would be a pretty hard on the grass. Besides, the old Farmalls didn't have a 3-pt hitch, just a really big drawbar.

Then, I remembered another tractor from Grandpa's farm. It was an old Ford 8N. It actually belonged to Grandpa's older brother, but I got to drive it once. I remember thinking, at the time, how it was the perfect size for a kid to drive. It was small, but it had all of the same features as Grandpa's larger more modern tractors. It seemed like just the thing for a small homestead like ours. So, I did a little research on the 8N and found that there were plenty of them still available, but they have a couple of limitations. The old Fords didn't have power steering. But, I'm young and strong, so that didn't bother me much. The second limitation was the hydraulics system. The old Fords had hydraulics, but they weren't "live". That means that you have to have the tractor's PTO (Power Take Off) engaged and the clutch engaged for the hydraulics to work. This wasn't much of an issue back when these tractors were being produced, but today, we've all gotten used to using the hydraulics whenever we please. Plus, the old Fords didn't come with external hydraulic ports. This means that you can't easily run external hydraulic cylinders for implements like log splitters and front end loaders. Oh well, back to the drawing board...

My uncle, an active farmer, suggested that I take a look at the early 1960's John Deere's. By the '60's, Deere had a three point hitch and a pretty reliable hydraulic system. I had borrowed my uncle's 4020 several times and enjoyed using it very much. But, like the Farmall 400, the John Deere 4020 was way too big for small utility work. So, I looked at the "little" John Deere 1010. The 1010 was a smaller version of the 4000 series Deeres with most of the same features, including full hydraulics and a 3-pt hitch. I even found one for a good price with a diesel engine. The problem was the weight. A 1010 still weighs in at around 2 tons, a little more than I wanted to drive around our yard.

By the time I got around to selling the El Camino, Shari and I had rethought the whole tractor idea. We had all but decided to sell our little lawn tractor and buy a large garden tractor that could double as a snow pusher. I liked the idea of a larger mower and Shari liked the fact that a shiney new tractor would come with a shiney new warranty. But, there were two flaws with that plan. The first problem was that the garden tractor had a hand operated snow blade that wasn't really made for such heavy work. The second problem was that mowing and pushing snow was about all the garden tractor could do. There were no hydraulics and no 3-pt hitch. So, I began to have second thoughts (and third and forth thoughts).

My mind kept drifting back to the little Ford on Grandpa's farm. Weighing in at just 2500 lbs, it would be the perfect size if it weren't for the limited hydraulic system. Frustrated, I started poking around the Internet looking for alternatives and I stumbled across a message board post that said something about live hydraulics on an 9N. It turns out that a retired Ford mechanic in Alabama had developed a conversion kit that adds live hydraulics (and potentially, external hydraulics) to Ford N's. That notion got me exited about the old Ford tractors again. As with everything else that I get excited about, I jumped in head first and began reading and learning everything I could. I looked at the 9N (built from 1939-1942) and the 2N (1942-1947), then quickly decided that I would much prefer the updated features of an 8N (1947-1952). In fact, I narrowed the search down to a 1950-52 model because of the improvements that were made in last few years of production. Of course, I wanted one with all of the available options. But, I wasn't affraid of a little work, so I didn't need one in perfect condition. I knew I had hit on a winner when I showed Shari a picture of an 8N and she said, "It's so cute... It looks like a tractor, only smaller!"

With money in hand from the sale of the El Camino and a bit that I had saved up from doing some computer consulting on the side, I went in search of "my" tractor. I looked at several classifieds pages on the Internet and in the local trader papers. I even looked a couple of tractors along the roadside in our area. One evening Dad and I went to take a look at a '48 8N that was for sale about 30 minutes away. It wasn't in the production age range that I was looking for, but it was in good shape and had a lot of nice features. I took it for a test drive and the memories came flooding back. Now I knew that I had to have an 8N. I passed on that particular tractor, but kept looking.

A few days later, I found a 1951 listed on the Yesterday's Tractors Photo Clasifieds web site. It had most of the features that I was looking for including a Sherman combination transmission, original front bumper, headlights, toolbox, and solid mount top-link bracket. It was in pretty rough shape, but it ran well and the price was right. The problem was, it had been listed for over a week and when I emailed Gary, the seller, I didn't get a response. Not being one to give up easily, I tried to call Gary that night. There was no answer. Early the next morning I tried again and everything began to make sense. The voice on the other end of line answered "Gary's Automotive, Gary speaking". No one answered the night before, because this was his business number and he had left for the night. And, he hadn't returned my email because he was at an auto auction until late that night and hadn't had a chance to check his email. It was a good thing that I called because I later found out that another buyer had emailed Gary a few minutes before I had, but since I called before he had a chance to check his email, he held for tractor for me. I asked him to give me a week so I could take a day off of work and come take a look. He agreed.

A week later, Dad and I hitched up a borrowed car trailer to my pickup and headed for the little town of Lansing, IA. Lansing was supposed to be about a six hour drive. However, about an hour and a half into the trip, I was issued a written warning for speeding through northern Illinois by a very nice state trooper. Needless to say, that slowed us down a little. With a couple of pit stops (and our adventure with the law), our six hour trip turned into an eight hour trip. Once we made it to Gary's Automotive in Lansing, Dad and I were like a couple of kids in an antique tractor candy store. The name, Gary's Automotive, was a little misleading. Gary, as it turns out, is more interested in restoring and selling old tractors than he is in selling automobiles. He had a couple of old Fords, a couple of old Farmalls, a couple of old John Deere's, and about a hundred old Massey-Fergusons! Plus, he had a back lot full of tractor parts and old farm equipment. Dad and I made a quick pass through the tractors on the front lot and then, I got to work looking over the 8N. I made a mental note of all of the parts that needed obvious repair and/or replacing. The lift arms were bent and worn, the front tires were old and cracked and the tin was starting to show its age. But, when I turned the key and tapped the starter button, the old flat-head 4 sputtered to life. It was missing a little causing an occational puff of exhaust smoke, but it sounded good. I took it for a test drive and tried out all of the gears. The Sherman transmission shift handle was broken, but it worked well enough to try out high and low range too. While I was going over the tractor, Dad was snooping around Gary's back lot. After a few minutes, Dad and I met up to talk things over. He was a little worried about the smoking engine and worn lift parts. He said, "When I saw that first puff of smoke, I thought for sure you'd call the deal off". I reminded him that the tractor had been hard at work for over 50 years and assured him that I wasn't affraid of a little smoke. He said that he had found a couple of things that I should take a look at out in the back lot. What he found was an old 6' 3-pt scraper blade, perfect for pushing snow and an old Dearborn 2 bottom plow. After looking the implements over, I starting bartering with Gary. He had done me a favor by holding the tractor for me and he had already come down $200 from the price that he advertised on the Internet. So, I didn't want to dicker too much. I approached it another way instead. I pointed out a couple of things that needed repair and told Gary that I would give him the asking price if he would throw in the scraper blade and sell me the plow for an extra $150. He must have been happy with that deal, because his counter offer was to sell me the plow for $100 instead. He said that he knew what he wanted to get out of it and there was no sense in taking advantage of someone who was crazy enough to drive all the way from central Illinois for an old tractor. I guess I should have pushed a little harder, but we both came out of the deal happy. Dad and I loaded the blade in the back of my truck. Then, I hitched up the plow and loaded the tractor on the Trailer. Dad poked around outside while I went into the office and settled up. Gary and I wasted over half an hour swapping stories about old tractors. Finally, we got back on the road and headed for home. The trip home was long and uneventful, no state troopers. Dad and I got home tired and worn out, but happy. It was one of those Father and Son days that you never forget.