Family Farmall – New to Rust to Restoration

This tractor was purchased brand new in 1948 by my wife’s great Grandfather Claire Coates of Gunnison Utah. Its original purpose was to be a belt drive for the largest stationary thrasher in Utah at that time. It ran the thrasher until sometime in the 60’s when they got there first combine. By this time the Farmall proved to not serve much purpose on our farm as the technology had changed so much and larger more versatile tractors were being used. It was put in a shed until the late 80’s when it was brought out and setup with a Farmhand loader as the IH 450 the loader was on had just dropped a piston. My M served as our loader tractor faithfully until 2008.  In the fall of that year the wide front end fell victim to the gravel we were moving and snapped in half. The tractor was destined for the scrapper until I decided to restore it as part of my graduation project from Utah State University. So in January 2010 we loaded the 48′ M and a large amount of parts from a 51′ M that was still around and hauled them to Logan Utah. My wife, a few friends, and myself began the project of restoring the tractor by May 1st. It took many long hours and a lot of frustration but we were able to see it through.

It has been neat learning about Farmall tractors and the differences. We have really gotten a kick out of the purists who hate the two-tone paint. No one knows why but that is how it was picked up from the dealer brand new.

One additional funny story. Our tractor had lost the teeth on the flywheel in the late 90’s. My wife’s 78 year old Grandpa (who was there at the dealer to see the red and white paint in person) worked the farm alone until 2005. The way he would start the Farmall was to hook it to the 2440 John Deere, put the M in low gear with the choke out, and pull start it. He would then stop the John Deere and run back to the Farmall as fast as he could to let it out of gear before it crashed into the back of the Deere. He was quite a master at this and I regret not getting it on film. He did this at least once a day for over 10 years.

I attached a before picture from about six months prior to the beginning of the restoration as I am very proud of the finished result. We used many parts from Steiner and still do to keep it running tip top for antique tractor pulls and its weekly harrowing job on our 4 acres.

The picture I submitted is from the middle of one of our hay fields where this tractor spent its first 60 years.

Guy Whalen
Veyo, Utah