Tractors Collected: Farmall I have Grandpa's 1929 Farmall. It's pretty much all there but plan on a total restoration anyway. When us kids would go visit Grandpa and Grandma in Glendale, AZ (50's & 60's) Grandpa had long since retired and this tractor was a source of entertainment for us. Grandpa would crank it up, and we'd pull a disc round and round over the back field for hours. We had a ball and they got us out of their hair for awhile. When I fire it up these days, the bark of the engine and the smell of the hot grease brings back fabulous memories of more innocent times. Also have 1937 Ford Std Tudor (humpback) and 1924 Chevrolet Touring waiting for the wrench. Saw Kate's story about getting the old tractors home and thought I'd put in my two cents. I have Grandpa's 1929 Farmall Regular. He lived in Glendale Arizona and I live near San Diego California. When Grandma passed away, I inherited the Farmall and their 1962 Rambler Ambassador. Neither had been run for years. I figured the Farmall would start but wasn't so sure about the Rambler so after a lot of calling around found a fellow in Riverside with a rig that would haul both. We made a deal to meet in Glendale one Saturday evening. I rented a small UHaul trailer to hook up to my El Camino to bring back some odds and ends and Saturday morning off we went. We pulled into Glendale about 4pm, loaded the two onto the truck (thank The Lord for powerful electric wenches!) and headed back to California. Got home at 2am. We were all tired so I told him to put the Rambler in the driveway and the Farmall in the lane and I'd get it into the yard myself in the morning. Next day my neighbor is circling around this strange and very rusty machine and askes me, 'What are you planning to do with it?' I told him I was going to fire it up and drive it into the yard. His reply: 'What year?' I told him it was a '29. He said, 'Naw, I mean what year do you think you'll get this thing to run?' Pride overtook common sense and I said, 'You just watch me.' Mind you, this tractor hadn't been started in about 15 years at that point. The gas tank was rusted out so I jerry-rigged a one-gallon gas can with some duct tape and copper tubing, put water in the radiator and picked up the crank. On the 4th pull it barked and on the 5th pull she roared to life! Well, frankly, you could've knocked us both over with a feather at that point. I climbed up on the seat and regally guided her into the yard. That tractor has never failed to start. Grandpa used to like to tell about when he brought it home in 1933. He tied it with a rope to the back of their 1930 Ford flatbed. Grandma drove the truck while towing Grandpa on the tractor. (It wasn't running for some reason). I guess 30 MPH doesn't seem so fast from the cab of a truck but Grandpa said that back there on the tractor was the wildest ride he'd ever been on. He tried to get Grandma's attention to slow down all the way home but she never noticed. Tom Chaney , entered 2000-02-17
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