Where to Get a Project Tractor

Posted by Jerry Ward on September 11, 2002 at 10:18:03 from (165.215.30.247):

Hope you guys don't mind a newspaper article.

MIDDLEMAN SEES GOLD WHERE SOME SEE JUNK
[All Edition]
Madison Capital Times
Madison, Wis.
May 21, 1998

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Authors: John Oncken

Document Column Name: CROSS COUNTY

Pagination: 1B

Full Text:

It has always seemed a curious sight -- the old, rusty farm tractors parked
in a field along London Road about a mile east of Deerfield in Dane County.
I wondered about these relics of the past everytime my bicycling companions
and I traveled that road (maybe two or three times a year).

We traveled that route again last Sunday and again I commented to my friends,
"I wonder what those old tractors are doing parked there?"

"They're all for sale," was the simple answer given by Dennis Smithback
the owner of the machines, in response to my question a couple of days
later when I drove down to find out about those farm tractors.

"I get them from all over the country and Canada and sell them to folks
who want to restore tractors," Smithback continued. "I try to give them
a good price deal. I'm kind of a middleman."

Good, a simple answer to my not-very-profound question. But, of course,
there's a lot more to the story. You don't just decide to buy and sell
old tractors.

"We always had John Deeres -- a two-cylinder 620 and a 720 -- on the home
farm near Utica where I grew up and I liked tractors and did some restoring,"
Smithback said. " Actually, I have only been in the oldtractor business
big time for the last few years."

"So what do you really do?" was my question.

"I own Smithback Excavating, a sewer and water contracting business, and
do some farming -- corn. And I've planted over 8,000 trees on my 30 acres,"
he said.

"Actually I was a salesman for 11 1/2 years -- the nation's leading Eureka
store-to-store vacuum salesman, in fact," Smithback proudly proclaimed.
"Then I bought a tavern in Deerfield and finally bought a tractor, backhoe
and trailer andstarted my excavating business.

"Then I started buying tractors for restoration, 20, 30, 100 and at one
time 170. I sold 55 at auction last fall and have about a hundred tractors
right now," Smithback continued. "Tractors from Louisiana, California,
the Dakotas and Canada and everywhere.

"I have people looking for tractors for me. They buy what they think I
want and I buy the tractor from them, add on freight and a few dollars
profit and hopefully sell to someone looking for that kind of tractor.
A lot of people are restoring tractors these days."

Why so, was my question?

"Anyone can work on these old farm tractors -- the new ones are too complicated
and computerized," the "tractor man" explained. "Of course some makes are
more popular than others. John Deeres, International Harvester and Olivers
are popular and some models, like the `orchard' and `high crop,' are in
big demand."

Smithback led me down the driveway to look at a big, faded yellow Minneapolis
Moline.

"This isa G-1000 Wheatland model. It has a wide front end and is big. These
sold well in the West where fields were bigger. I have a G-750 Wheatland
up by the shed. We didn't see these around Wisconsin."

Case tractors, although they were made in Racine, have not achieved the
popularity of many makes. "There are a few Case models that are popular,"
he said. "I have a Case RC with a sunburst grill in the shed. It's unique.

"I have two Silver Kings out in the shed -- both are sold to a California
buyer. These were made in Ohio in the '30s and didn't stay around very
long."

Where does he find these old tractors?

"My people find them abandoned next to line fences, windbreaks and in woodlots
on farms," Smithback said. "In Canada and out West there weren't many trees,
so farmers planted windbreaks around the buildings. When the tractor got
old, they were often parked out of sight and left there."

Most of the tractors that restorers and people like Dennis Smithback work
with are old, with fadedpaint and thick rust, and I always marvel how they
can be made to look like they just came off an assembly line.

"Look at that thick metal," Smithback exclaimed as he pounded his hand
on the fender of the old Case. "It's still solid -- that's the way they
were built. The rust is easy to remove and if need be, you can make the
parts."

How can you love a piece of rusty "junk" that may have been made 60 years
ago, lived out a long life and was abandoned along a line fence in some
long gone farm in North Dakota?

It's easy. Just ask Dennis Smithback, Keith Hinchley, Del Endrus, Mike
Ringhand and the others of the breed I've written about over the years.
It's a spirit of the past, pride in the process and satisfaction in the
doing. Besides, as one restorer once suggested, "an old John Deere doesn't
talk back."

As always, someone's junk is another's gold. You can look at those old
tractors in the Smithback field on London Road east of Deerfield either
way. Each of those old hulks has a long history -- but won't talk until
some patient restorer tracks the story and puts on the new paint and takes
it public.

JOHN ONCKEN Dennis Smithback and his grandsons, Kyle and Kevin Davis, visit
the collection of old tractors in Smithback's field near Deerfield. Smithback
buys tractors from around the U.S. and Canada and sells them to restorers.
Dennis Smithback says John Deeres, International Harvesters and Olivers
are the most popular old tractors among those who collect and restore them.

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