Tractor Stories – 1948 Leader D

In May of 2005 my wife Mary saw a Leader advertised in South Eastern Michigan. A friend of ours from Ionia Michigan owned a Leader and I knew I had to have one!
     I was waiting to have eye surgery so Mary drove me down to look at and buy the tractor. The old Leader was really in bad shape, the hood looked as if it had been run over by a bulldozer!
   When our granddaughter saw it she made a sign to put on the tractor “Grandpa bought this before he got his eyes fixed!” We took the tractor and sign to the show at Steiners and several more shows that Summer. People got a big laugh over it. Granddaughter Carey helped me take the Leader apart and start a repair and restoration. We found lights and other parts at Steiners that looked like the originals.
     We have taken it to several shows and parades since then.
     I’m eighty one years old now and we don’t plan on doing many more tractors, we’re finishing a Farmall H now and we have a Farmall C next in line.

Bill & Mary Lehman
Eagle, Michigan

Read more stories or submit your own at Steiner Tractor Stories.