Deere Garden Tractor Gets "Kid-Friendly" Overhaul

Deere Garden Tractor Gets "Kid-Friendly" Overhaul TRACTORS Miscellaneous 29-3-22 Michael and Gail Westbrook, Elk River, Minn., recently sent FARM SHOW photos of an old Deere 70 garden tractor they restored and repowered with a 9 hp Briggs & Stratton engine. It has a hydrostatic transmission, a chrome exhaust with flapper, dual lugged wheels on back, and ribbed wheels on front. The mower deck was removed and they also repainted the tractor. A hand lever is used to put the hydrostatic transmission in forward, reverse, or neutral. Gail's dad fabricated new hubs to accept the dual wheels, which they bought at a farm supply store. The Briggs & Stratton engine was bigger than the tractor's original engine so they remounted the gas tank behind the driver's seat. "We came up with the idea because Jefferson, our 6-year-old son, wanted his own tractor after he saw how we restored our 1938 John Deere B General Purpose tractor," says Gail. "We had vinyl decals made with æJefferson's Deere' on both sides of the tractor. He wanted dual wheels like the ones we have on our 1-ton pickup." Gail often exhibits the Deere B at shows and drives it in parades, and she lets her 2-year-old daughter, Emily, ride with her thanks to an add-on wooden seat that's complete with the seat belt off a kid's high chair. The seat mounts on top of a metal arm that's set at the same angle as the arm that supports the tractor seat. It even has its own footrest. "When we drive it in parades, it isn't unusual for Emily to fall asleep and lay her head over on my knee," says Gail. "Jefferson rode on the same seat when he was two-years-old, too." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Michael and Gail Westbrook, 6464 213th Ave. N.W., Elk River, Minn. 55330 (ph 763 753-3902).

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