Albert City Threshermen - It was a great show

[dan_41jdh]

Got back home this afternoon from a very enjoyable three days at the show that featured John Deere this year. I counted 219 Deere tractors (not including Deere garden tractors and implements) present today, and tractors were moving in and out all weekend. Of course, there were many, many other tractors of all sorts of colors and sizes besides Deere. There seemed to be a very large crowd of spectators, especially on Saturday, which always helps make a show successful.

I was surprised that there was only one other "H" besides mine at such a large show. That one belonged to our very own "Old Popper". Rather unusual - one will typically see upwards of a dozen "H's" at a show of this size.

It was a pleasure to visit with a number of old friends and I met some new ones as well.

One of the first through the feature parade on Friday was Jack Beck's very nice GPO pulling an experimental plow. Yes, it was a little sloppy on Friday but the sun came out occasionally and with the help from a nice gentle breeze, the ground firmed up nicely on Saturday.

Kenny Kruse's original GPWT. The Kruse family brought three nice original unstyled tractors to the show.

Talk about rare - Wes Malcolm brought his 1933 "A" which was originally S/N 410003 and was actually one of the "AA" tractors.

And parked right next to Wes's tractor was Jake Rens's early model "A" (S/N 410574).

Jake brought a number of tractors including this early AOS.

Rich Kottke brought "Little D" all the way from Wisconsin. This 2/3 scale "D" started life as an "H" and is flawless. It starts every time with half a turn of the flywheel and runs perfectly. What a gem - it was certainly a hit with the spectators.

Here's the 730D to which a turbocharger was added. The installation looked nice. I think he said it dyno'd at about 85 HP.

There were at least three 5020 tractors there. Here are a couple of them.

Mark Anderson brought his original "A" with a mounted lister-planter. (Thanks again, Mark, for stashing my mud boots!)

Three 4020's - consecutive serial numbers

Tallest JD at the show, I think!

A very nicely restored 10-20 Mogul.

Huh???

Hmmm... Those porcupine eggs look suspiciously like burrdock seeds to me....

 

[msteinblock]

Thanks for the great photos! Did you happen to get any more photos of that lister from the back side?

Thanks

Matthew

 

[bjb in TX from Ne]

I would like to see some more pictures of that Lister too if you have them.

 

[dan_41jdh]

Here's the only shot I took showing the lister...

 

[barry county]

WOW!!!! What an awesome bunch of tractors. Just from
looking at the photo's, I wouldn't have been able to
contain myself to see all these in person. Wish I
could travel out to some of these great shows
someday. Just don't see these types here in Northern
MI. Thanks for the great pictures..

 

[msteinblock]

Thank you! I have two listers for an H, was curious what the differences were as from the front the looked close. The H uses sprockets on the axles, this one looks to drive from the drive wheel. Thanks again for the photos!

 

[fixerupper]

Dan, your pics makes me wish I would have stayed home for the show instead of sneaking off to a wedding. This was the first show in 38 years that I've missed. The Mogul came out of my shop the Sunday before the show. It's a 1916 and an original Albert City tractor. It's first three years were spent tilling the ground where the ethanol plant now sits. I'm guessing it was the first tractor on that farm. It's not mine, by the way. Jim

 

[dan_41jdh]

Jim, the work on that Mogul was exceptional. Here
are a few more shots of that tractor.

 

[fixerupper]

Thank you. The brass plates were brightened up by cleaning them up bright and shiny, then spraying black paint on them followed by carefully sanding and scraping the paint off the raised letters. Easier said than done. Took me three tries on these plates and they still aren't perfect. I can see in the pic of the second plate I did not seal the threads on the brass screws. They thread into the water tank in threaded holes that go all the way through to the water.

The drawbar assembly was completely gone so I made the new assembly by looking at pictures. I'm not sure if the drawbar is the right thickness and width or not. The drawbar looks a little too thin in retrospect but this rig only has ten drawbar horsepower so it might be OK. The seat assembly was missing. It consists of a long leaf spring coming up with a cast steel seat on top. There are two short helper leafs under it. I drew up measurements for new springs that I think are right and the measurements were sent off to a spring company but they didn't come back in time for the show. I got a call last Friday that the springs are made so I will pick them up in Sioux City tomorrow on my way home. It had no fenders but the owner found fenders for it. The mag cover and spark advance lever were gone but thanks to some factory blueprints sent to me by a kind gentleman on another website and pictures sent to me by another gentleman on the same website I was able to manufacture a new cover that resembles,the factory cover. The spark advance lever in top of the left fender was pure guesswork after looking at a couple of fuzzy pics. There was a lot more but these items were the biggest challenge. I wanted to get this project done for last years IH show but it didn't happen. Thanks again. Jim