The hobby of collecting and restoring antique farm tractors is a quiet but busy adventure filled with hard work disguised as fun, just like most things agricultural.
Charles Meier has had so much fun collecting tractors he now has 17 of them at his farm off Highway 7 near the Bartholomew and Jennings county line.
Meier sees all tractors as an important part of American history, but he has collected tractor models with sentimental value to him. His first antique tractor was just like the early John Deere his neighbor had when Meier was growing up in Columbus.
“They are all from the days when I started farming, when I would look around and say ‘I want one of them,’ ” Meier said. “Now I have them all.”Â
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But collecting antique tractors is not just about capturing sentimental memories or preserving history. It is also about the thrill of finding old, beat-up tractors and restoring them to their original glory.
In this pursuit, collectors have learned that a network of businesses have grown up around the hobby.
Usually the first things that must be replaced in an unrestored antique tractor are the tires so a tractor can be moved.
“We get calls all the time from people wanting new tires for their antique tractors,” said Frank Anderson, owner of Frank Anderson Tires in Columbus.
“If you are going to show a restored tractor, you want everything to be authentic. Tires are made very differently today. So to be authentic, tires have to be especially made for antique tractors,” Anderson said.
While the Columbus tire company can install the tractors, they can’t supply them.
“We send people to Miller Tire in Ohio,” Anderson said.
Located in Wauseon, Ohio, between Angola, Indiana, and Toledo, Ohio, M.E. Miller Tire has become the largest supplier of antique tires in the United States.
“We have so many calls for antique tires that we have expanded our business just to accommodate the business of antique tractor collectors,” company spokesman Ed Miller said.
The company has an agreement with Firestone that allows for authentic replication of original tires that were once used on antique tractors, he said.
“We go to great effort to keep the price as affordable as possible so as not to discourage collectors,” said Miller who explained an average set of tires for an antique tractor — two for the front and two for the back — will cost about $1,100.
After hours of work to repair the machinery and structure of a tractor, the entire exterior must be painted.
“If you take and old tractor into a shop to be painted, it’s going to cost anywhere from $2,500 to $3,500, and that is often more than you paid for the whole tractor. But, if you are going to show the thing, the paint job is one of the things the judges at shows look at,” Meier said.
“Well, you have to have something to do in the winter time,” said Don Voelz, who owns several antique tractors of his own.
While collecting antique tractors can be a lot of work and expense, once the work is done there’s not much else involved, Voelz said.
“It’s not like a horse. You don’t have to feed it all the time and it’s a lot easier than playing golf. Seems like everyone collects something. It might as well be tractors,” he said.
For most collectors, winter is when they work on tractors. It is also the time to look for new tractors to add to a collection or trade restored tractors for other models.
Antique tractor auctions held at sites across the nation begin at the end of the harvest season and run until the planting season begins.
Collectors will often hitch a trailer to their truck and travel to an auction to buy or sell a tractor, as well as spending a few days visiting with other collectors. The events usually include family recreation, music and food.
Year-round, magazines and other publications feature information about antique tractor collection.
The largest tractor restoration publication is Antique Power, described as “The magazine of tractor history as well as heart-warming personal stories of family, tractors and remembrances of days gone by.”
Summertime provides many opportunities to display the products of long months of work to restore antique tractors and farm implements at county fairs.
At the Bartholomew County 4-H Fair, which concluded Saturday, Voelz walked through a display of antique tractors and looked carefully at each one.
Antique tractor judges look at all kinds of things, such as the paint jobs and how accurate the restoration of the tractor is, he said.
“But in the end, it’s just about what they like the best,” Voelz said.
While recognizing there’s a considerable amount of investment and work in purchasing and restoring antique tractors, there’s a payoff even if a individual tractor doesn’t win a particular competition.
“It keeps it all alive,” Voelz said with a smile.
