Ben J. Kinsinger of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania wrote to us about
his engine repair service, which grew out of his hobby of
collecting and restoring engines.
Kinsinger’s first engine was acquired for $8.00 before he
left school in 1960. He fixed the broken gears and got it running
and went on to more engine adventures. His first tractor a 10-20
bought from a neighbor for $35.00was seized badly. After much hard
work, he got it running, used it for thousands of hours of farming,
and still uses it today for cutting firewood and grinding feed. An
F14 was gotten free, just to get it out of a farmer’s way, and
Kinsinger still uses it for plowing.
In the ’60’swhen Kinsinger says ‘you could buy about
any old tractor for about nothing’, he collected many engines.
Some he repaired and others were kept for parts. This is how his
business began. He repaired his own engines and then began
gradually doing repairs for other people. He was working for a
carpenter and did not expand his repair business too much, but
after getting married in 1970, soon quit carpentry and went into
engine repair in earnest.
Today, Kinsinger has around 75 engines and about 22 tractors
about half of them rebuilt and some for sale. Among others, he has
all the model M engines except the 10 HP, which he would like to
have to complete the set. He has many types of LA and LB, three New
Hollands which his grandfather and great uncles bought new, and
many more.
The Kinsinger Engine Service is now ‘about a full-time job
dismantling tractors and engines for parts, locating and making
parts.’ What they can’t get, they make or have made. A
complete catalog is available for 75$ from Kinsinger’s Engine
Service, R.D. 1, Meyersdale, PA 15552.
