1973 Makoti, North Dakota Threshing & Antique Show Report

By Staff
Published on March 1, 1974
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Courtesy of Leroy Quandt, Ryder, north Dakota 58779
Courtesy of Leroy Quandt, Ryder, north Dakota 58779

Quandt, Ryder, North Dakota 58779

This report of the show held October 6 and 7 is written to give
some of the problems involved in putting on such a show and
parade.

The 22-44 Minneapolis tractor was ready and running on Saturday
but just as the parade began the fan belt broke, so it was unable
to go. There wasn’t time to get another belt or repairs to fix
the broken belt. The parade goes down main street of the town out
to the show grounds and begins at a fixed time.

The 30-60 Big 4 tractor operated by Clarence Butler, Mesa,
Arizona started down the parade route on Saturday, when suddenly it
began to miss on one cylinder. It limped out to the show grounds,
where the rest of the day was spent tearing the engine down. One of
the intake valves stems had broken. This was taken to the shop and
welded together again. Then the engine was put back together before
dark so the tractor was ready to go for the Sunday parade.

The 30-60 Hart Parr Old Reliable was giving trouble in starting
as the timing was off on the ignition and the hit and miss
mechanism. Some times the firing came after the gas fumes had
reached the smoke stack. The resulting explosion sounded as though
the tractor was going to blow all to pieces. Clarence Densur,
Austin, Manitoba, a man who lived and grew up with these Hart
Pan-tractors, came down for our show and took on the job of setting
the timing on the Old Reliable. It didn’t take him long to get
it started and running the way it should. He spent most of the
weekend finishing up on the fine tuning of the tractor so it really
ran nice by the end of the show.

Julius Orth came up from Beulah, North Dakota and asked to drive
a tractor. Willard Olson, Powers Lake, North Dakota had a 20-30
type W Rumely Oil Pull besides his model K 12-20 Oil Pull here in
our museum. The W Oil Pull was started and it was discovered the
Manzel lubricator was not functioning properly. All day Saturday
was spent by Julius taking the lubricator apart and trying to
repair it. Parts were needed but these were not available locally,
so Willard had to drive home, a round trip of nearly two hundred
miles for parts. By parade time Sunday the tractor was
operating.

The big 30 HP double simple cylinder Minneapolis steamer was
steamed up Saturday for the parade when it was discovered the pipes
in the preheater for the water pump and injector were cracked. The
rest of the day was spent taking the cracked pipes out and
replacing them with new ones. The engine was ready for the Sunday
parade. The 80 HP Case steam engine had a similiar problem with the
preheater leaking as the water pump had just been installed this
fall.

One steam engine tender was loaded with water and coal by the
museum in readiness for the show. It was positioned in such a way
that a log chain was required to pull it out onto the street. When
attempting to do this the pole turned too short and as a result the
one front wheel went under the tank where it wedged in, slid and in
turn broke the front wooden axle. So the tender was out of the show
for this year.

The mule team with the covered wagon as it pulled in line for
the parade had to pass in front of the steam engines setting on a
side street all fired up and ready to go. The mules lost their cool
just as they started to turn the corner down the parade route. In
trying to restrain them the driver pulled too hard on the reins and
one of them broke. The mules began galloping in a circle but some
bystanders were able to grab on to the bridles and stop them before
any damage was done.

Some other tractors that didn’t run in the parade were a
Wallis 15-25 with oil pump and governor problems, a 20-35 Emerson
big 4 with valve trouble, a model K 18-32 Case with water pump
failure, a 10-20 McCormick Deering with clutch going out.

There still were over 150 units in the parade. The weather was
ideal both days, the crowds were huge, the food was delicious and
most of the food concessions were sold out. The parades were
elegant, the show out on the grounds was great and the exhibits
were delightful. The 1973 show books were a sell-out, so the
association members were well satisfied with this years show.

At left is a 1920 Rumely Oil Pull, Model K, owned by Willard
Olson, Powers Lake, North Dakota. At right is a 1914 30 HP
Minneapolis,#6707 owned by Orin Hanson, Sanish, North Dakota.

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