LA John Deere

-->

“I traded for this with Tommy Shockley, a retired school teacher-lives over there on Wright Road. I tried to buy it from him for years. I couldn’t buy it from him. I finally traded from him. I traded him an International Scout, 4-cylinder, a belt-pulley attachment for a WC Allis Chalmers—also fits a WD—just this, that, and the other thing. I just kept putting stuff on the stack until finally he agreed to the trade. The back wheels were rusted completely off the rims. When I brought it home, I looked out at an old A Farmall I had and I thought, “Boy, them wheels sure do look the same.” And they are they same, the tires. So I got by with just swapping the wheels and tires off the old A Farmall. Doris and I went the Litchfield, Kentucky and got the engine. This is a combine engine, an LUT or LUC engine, which is identical to it. I had to change flywheels and so forth because it was a hand crank. But that wasn’t any big problem either. I got the hood from some Mr. Deb Kimmelschlause or something like that in California; the hood, gas tank, and air cleaner from him. Marty and I built the grill. There was virtually no grill left in it.

This little tractor is kind of unique. The tractor was built from spare parts originally. The steering sector is the steering sector for a model A Ford. The gears in the transmission are out of a Model A car. This was built in 1942.”

Gary Holtman
Columbus, Mississippi