My Daddy bought one of the last 450's an LP gas with narrow front, in early 1958. Some of my earliest memories include riding in the lap of a hired hand, on cold winter mornings, when they were plowing with three-bottom moldboard plows. When my Daddy retired, he made arrangements for each of his four surviving children to get something of value, but I was slow to make my choices, and there was very little left to pick from, no tractors, in fact. Except the 450! It had been left outside for several years, at the house of a long-time farmhand, and no longer ran due to a crankcase full of rainwater and a broken piston and cylinder on the LP gas engine. But that was my opportunity. Shortly before this land was parcelled out to a cousin, I was able to retrieve the now-fifty year old tractor and try to restore it. I have had the engine completely rebuilt, installed mostly new hydraulics, and a second-hand pto unit. It still looks pretty rough, but it runs great now and I use it for mostly bush-hogging and moving things around our place that are too heavy to be pulled with my pickup. It is my favorite of my three old tractor s, and I am so glad that nobody else wanted it! Hugh McKinney, entered 2013-04-25 My Email Address: Not Displayed |