420 Talmadge Rd., Clayton, Ohio 45315
First of all I will probably be tarred and feathered and ridden
out of the machinery shows on a rail, but here goes.
I am a collector of old tractors and machinery and no one likes
to restore and run them better than I do.
I keep reading articles from collectors about the companies now
in production building tractors that are planned to wear out in a
couple of years and ‘they don’t make ’em like they used
to’ stories. With that I’ll have to take issue.
Tractors being built today are so far superior in convenience,
amount of work performed and mechanical excellence that I don’t
believe a fair comparison can be made. We expect plowing speeds of
five to eight miles an hour around the clock plus all other work in
proportion.
I also read in the magazines and hear conversations around the
shows about the grand old companies that failed because their
product was too good and lasted too well, or were bought up by
someone else to get them off the market, or a lot of other exotic
excuses that skirt the true facts.
From all I can read and observe the facts are: those companies
could not, would not, or did not have the engineering to keep up
with the times. Even great names like Rumely and Huber couldn’t
sell a hodgepodge of ill-fitting parts purchased from outside
suppliers like their last products were. It takes foresight,
engineering and the ability to keep up and even stay ahead of the
times. Even one of the top manufacturers of today worked a grand
old design that we all dearly love till I doubt if many of us
realize how sick they actually were in the late fifties.
It’s the greatest hobby on earth to restore and preserve
these great old machines but let’s not put down the finely
engineered and precision tractors that are being sold today.
To compare the output of an Aultman-Taylor with a Steiger
Bearcat or a new Kenworth with a Reo Speed Wagon or a Thunderbird
with an Essex seems out of the question.
In the language of our younger generation:
‘BABY, THERE AIN’T NO WAY!’
