I purchased a 1956 TO-35 Ferguson from a family in Pie Town, New Mexico in April of this year. I live in Orange, California and visit our family ranch in Pie Town, New Mexico usually once a month. After our 11 hours and 660 miles of driving, just before our property, we noticed a little red tractor with a “For Sale” sign next to it. We slowed as we drove by and thought we might call the phone number listed on the sign in a day or two. Seven days later, the day we were to return to California, we drove by the tractor and checked it out. We called the phone number listed on the For Sale sign, but no answer. We decided to drive to the farmhouse which we thought might be selling the tractor. As we drove through the opened gate, with signs posted saying “You Are Now Within Rifle Range”, we felt a bit uneasy. We finally found a gentleman and inquired about the tractor. He said it was his tractor and he was the individual selling it. During our conversation I kept seeing movement out of the corner of my eye. After he was finished telling us all about the tractor he must have sensed we were good people because he yelled out “It’s O.K”. And at that moment his 13 year old daughter appeared from the side of an outbuilding and lowered her AK-47! Yep, this was the movement I had been noticing.
So, we purchased the tractor for $500.00 as we did not think haggling with him would be a very good idea. He indicated the distributor and cam were both damaged and would both need to be replaced. For $500.00 we received the tractor, an auger attachment without the auger, a seeder, and a sprayer. We loaded it on our trailer and headed back home to California.
We discovered the distributor gear would not turn at all. We could see and feel the cam gear and it seemed to be in decent shape. We installed a new distributor, added a battery, dumped in some gas and…..she fired up immediately. Sheet metal is in great shape. Someone painted it the wrong color, but that will all be taken care of. I am currently in restoration mode. My daughter named our tractor, Fergy. I have already purchased several items from Steiner and will be ordering more soon. Probably not too many people who have had a gun trained on them while buying a tractor.
Michael Stucker
Orange, California
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