Dad describes some of his tractor gems. Scroll down this page to find the video, along with photos of some cool stuff.
My father-in-law, Larry Leckband, has a passion for
old tractors and farm equipment,
classic cars and trucks,
unique items,
negotiating himself into a good deal,
and collecting stuff.
Though he blew past age eighty some years ago, don’t think achieving what most call “old age” has gotten to The World’s Oldest Juvenile Delinquent, as my wife Julie and her siblings like to call their dad. Old age? Pffft. The man still rises seven days a week before the local roosters have crowing on their minds, is busy with ten times more things in a day than I get to in a month, and doesn’t come home to roost for the evening until dinnertime … and his schedule determines when he eats, not when supper comes out of the oven.
I’d seen some of Dad’s collection, but never knew it surpassed one hundred in number. I only saw various tractors at the house and across the road scattered around the perimeter of Julie’s sister’s place. Turns out, most things were at the old family farm, stored in Ocheyedan, and disbursed about wherever Dad could get his foot, er, tire in the door.
This Case 350 arrived in the world the same year as I – 1957.
This 1947 dandy demonstrates that John Deere has been painting their products in green—make that John Deere Green—for a loooong time.
A Minneapolis-Moline ZTU 2WD: pretty good looking for 1948!
“Pssst, Julie. We’d be the envy of our neighborhood tooling around in this 1967 International 1100B Deluxe Pickup.”
This 1940 International Farmall demonstrates the eternal truth: tractors are supposed to be red, like the barns in which they are stored.
Besides the cool name—this is a 1939 Centaur—I am particularly fond of this beauty. To find out why, read the caption to the close-up, below.
The Centaur is one of the tractors I helped clean. What a job! As you can imagine, the work done by tractors and farm implements gets them really grungy. Compound every year’s work by decades and you can imagine grease and grime that’s turned to tar. I got off easy as I only visited once during the many weeks of power-washing and scrubbing. Dad’s kids and grandkids didn’t get off so easy. The summer of 2020 will go down as The Great Tractor Cleanup.
Two years shy of one hundred years old, this 1922 John Deere beet lifter might be the elder statesman of the auction.
Are you in the market for an ambulance? Great! Larry Leckband has one for you!
At the end of the work day, hit the water in this 1958 Larson boat with trailer.
In this video, Dad narrates the history of several tractors.
