My grandfather's homemade ride-on tractor
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- čas přidán 21. 08. 2024
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In 1975, my grandfather built his own lawn tractor from spare parts he had laying around. Of course, it helped that he was a master machinist with over 50 years as a tool-and-die maker. For literally NO MONEY, he made a comfortable and versatile machine for yard work and hauling loads of dirt and rock. For this episode, I'm joined by my father, Paul, who discusses my grandfather's long history in the machinist trade and the ingenious ways he used materials on hand to make a machine that lasted for decades.
For more projects and fun, follow me on instagram:@rexkrueger
This is probably the greatest video on your channel, Rex. I dont say that lightly because every video you produce has tons of information but this video has information, ingenuity, ancestry, and the joy of seeing men appreciating their forefathers.
I love this one, too. But it has some of the lowest numbers of anything I've ever produced.
@@RexKrueger This is one of my favorite videos on your channel. It's engaging and informative.
When I was 9 0r so, my Dad and I (mostly Dad) converted an old reel mower into what we would call today a go-cart. Dad chiseled the blades off the reel and helped me bolt a 2 x 12 plank to what was left. Powered by a Briggs, it moved slowly but could climb the hills around our home. Steering was a pivoting front axle and a rope. No brakes. It was my first "car" and, as Dad intended, it taught me a lot. Thanks for the memories...
I love this story! The family history. The maker heritage. The ties of one generation to the past. Very fun. Your dad and grandpa seem like great people.
Man, you really summed up everything i was trying to convey here. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hey Jason, you've been a big supporter of my channel and I've always appreciated your thoughts on my videos. I just wanted to let you know that I've just started a patreon page. My patrons will get access to videos a week early and I'll be doing a lot of exclusive content. Patreon is also going to become the primary way that I communicate with viewers and patrons will have a lot of influence over the content I create. Since you've been so active and positive on my channel, I thought you might like to become a patron. My page is: www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
Thanks!
Done. Not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up. My wife has been talking about budgeting :)
Don't worry about it! Just having that vote of confidence is huge for me. Thanks a lot!
In Thailand they still use to this day the two wheel tractors with very long handle bars and ride on the trailers that they pull.
Thanks for sharing your grandfather's garden tractor. That's really cool!
That's REALLY interesting.
In the philippines, too
@RexKrueger your Opa (I think that correct) sounds like quite the character! They sure don't make them like that anymore.
I remember when I was 8ish my father decided to make a lawn tractor (not mower) to help clear the yard...I grew up in Waverley, N.S. which is known for it's bedrock. Over 100 years ago it used to be a gold mining area...you cannot dig a foot in any direction without hitting a stupid rock! So my father in frustration sat down and designed a heavy duty puller you could sit on...he was a submariner but somewhere along the way he learned machinist skills...it wasn't pretty but it was strong. It helped pull boulders around. Some guy driving by saw it and offered $500/CDN on the spot...sold! That was alot of money in the early 1980's.
I can hear the memories in your voices...
Tractor to Hand Tool Rescue for a full restoration or the Scythe Mower, or both.
Ausgezeichnet! My grandfather was a mechanic, carpenter, furniture maker, farmer, etc. He drove BIG tractors when he was younger, but as a kid he farmed with a team of mules. He wanted a car, and asked his dad but his dad told him that he would have to get his own car. So, he bought-up parts from wrecked Model Ts and built his own Model T. I idolized my grandfather and his ability to make things out of what others would call junk. Part of that came from a very deeply set frugality generated by a hard life on the and going through the Great Depression. He and grandma lived on a four-acre parcel that needed mowing about five times a month in the summer. When I spent a few weeks with them in the summer, That was one of my main jobs. I was glad he had purchased a basic yard tractor. It had a padded spring seat, two forward and one reverse gears and pretty big wheels. It also had an electric start. It was fun mowing the pasture and roadside ditches with that thing. I did have to use a regular lawn mower in the area around the house though. It took many hours to mow that place, but it didn't seem like work.
My grandpa was a Tool and Die maker as well. My dad inherited all his shop tools, as a kid I loved digging through all the coffee cans of randomness and building my own randomness.
Me too. Someday, I'm going to inherit his lathe from my dad. Then, it will be 3 generations of Kruegers on the same machine.
I just found this video. I love it. One of my grandfather's was a wood worker that built furniture and then moved to wood toys. I loved going to New York to visit him. The other was an apholsteror and I never knew him. I love hearing history and how they didn't want to spend the money so they made things. People today don't have the ambition. Just spend money. I'm glad I found this!
I smiled from start to finish watching this. (Except maybe around 13:20 discussing the jack shaft for engaging/disengaging the motor drive - sounded like that airplane was gonna divebomb you guys!) So great to see two generations of craftsmen discuss the 1st generation that got it started. The world needs more of this sort of family wholesomeness. I love this channel. Thanks for sharing.
Great story. Reminded me of my grandpa, born about 1880, in Birmingham, England, apprenticed to blacksmith, later became a master machinist, and moved to the US as an adult.
My dad was a tool and die maker at Ford for ages. He taught me a lot. Now I'm an industrial maintenance guy and in industry you see this kind of ingenuity regularly to this day. It's an awesome field for all the young people reading this and we need more to be in it. But anyway. The company buys a piece equipment then eventually want it to do 10 things it wasn't made to, so you see interesting ways of getting to the goal. I myself have made some pretty awesome things no one will ever know about because it just works. Love the channel Rex! Keep up the good work 👍
Awesome story bro. Thanks for sharing! Reminds me of my Grandfather who was a city employee and he would "rescue" their old pull start lawnmowers from the trash heap and instead of a screwdriver they had a spring steel grounding piece that sat over the spark plug to kill it, and for the ones that broke off, his resistance to electricity was impressive, he could grab the spark plug by hand to kill it! Thanks for the memories.
Sounds a lot like my opa!
My grandfather was born in 1899, and built a table saw out of a lawn mower engine. Pennsylvania farm boy. Thanks for sharing
A wonderful piece of machinery. And a wonderful story about your grandfather. This story brought back memories about my grandfather who was a carpenter but also built some interesting things in his retirement. Thank you for sharing this story. It truly brought back memories of my dad and granddad. 🙂🙂
Know now where you OCD. And foresight comes from. My wife's grand dad was an inspector for the Army Corp of Engineers, involved in the construction of barracks on Paris Island. She tells the story of him "helping" her dad install a door in their home when she was a child. It took them 2 days but that door never squeeked and always performed perfectly. I have found that people who survived the depression are the best at making things out of what we today think of as junk or trash. Think your dad and i are close to same age and i think it's great your getting him to tell the stories about his dad and his memories about growing up.
That's not junk or trash... give it a moment and a new use will come to you. Or that's how I tend to think. Much to the complete disgust of the "lady" at my rental agency. My neighbours, however, love seeing what I'm turning the latest piece of junk into. Besides, building things helps escape the input overload created by autism
Great story and video! My ex-father-in-law was also a master machinist. When I married his daughter, we wanted to put up a large tent/fly to provide shelter if it rained on the outdoor reception. Rather than buy something, he used his home-shop machine lathe and other tools to make the dies he needed to form the connectors etc. in the punch press (!) he also had in his home shop. He pressed them all out, added a tarp and, although it didn't rain, it was a marvelous shelter from the sun. The lathe was a full-size machine lathe that he had his garage wired for three-phase to accommodate. When he got too old to use it, he told his wife to "just sell it". She did ... for $50.00. Someone got an incredible bargain. Now I wish it had been me!
Wow, that's a story straight out of my family. My grandfather's lathe is in my Dad's basement. We've already agreed that I inherit it when the time comes.
I love watching these types of stories.... Those little stories that seemed to be so unimportant when they happened, but now looking back at the past, they're a piece of unique history that would have been lost forever if not shared...
A fascinating account! I have one of those old two wheel garden tractors that I still would like to restore. My dad went through a couple of them - this is the second, and when I was a kid I used one of them with its powered reel mower to keep our acre of lawn mowed, and switched to the cutter bar to create trails through the rest of our 67 acres. The one I have now is a much later model David Bradley, with several attachments. Seeing this has given me just one more thing to do! Thanks for the blast from the past!
Rex, your videos are outstanding! very Informative, well presented, engrossing and a great inspiration for technically challenged, financially deficient woodworking novices like me. This video is by far the best so far. brought back a lot of memories of me rummaging through my granddad's workshop, getting my first ever perfect cut with a chisel....on my left index finger (a mark I still have) and of the many fond memories of the vacations with my grandparents.
This is fun.
They still use hand tractors, two wheel tractors in parts of the world.
For a modern take Google BCS.
The old do it yourself magazines would occasionally have plans for small tractors.
Also people made them from old model T's, or A's. They were called Doodle bugs.
Some people still build tractors...
You have to admire them and their predecessors...
Opa apparently is from the era where my great-grandmother used to tell her granddaughter (my mother) "do not buy what you need; buy things without which you die". An era that valued resources over labour. Isn't that a great, wonderful treasure of a heritage? :)
It really is! I think he'd be proud if he knew what I was doing.
Wow. My grandfather was a machinist and lived in Byram from the mid 30s to the 70s. There couldn't have been that many German machinists living in Greenwich back then. And I can totally imagine him with something like that.
building your own tractors was a common thing in east Germany back in the day, a lot of them had only three wheels (two in the front and one in the back) and would turn with the single hind wheel, there'd be a bicycle chain connecting the steering wheel with the rear wheel to do this.
also that mower you showed is actually still very popular in Germany (although the design has been modernised a bit, you can actually turn the handlebars sideways when pulling a cart so you can walk next to it instead of between the cart and the mower) you can replace the mower bit with a shield or even a snow blower during winter as well.
many people who own livestock use them because they actually CUT the grass instead of just slapping it really hard, this is important because many animals just won't eat grass you mow with a spinning "blade" type of mower. also public services use it for mowing in places where they don't mow too often because they can deal with really tall grass and even brush to some extent.
My friend built a motorized bike with a belt pulley system to engage the motor back in the 70s. Was fun until the belt stretched and the arm to engage the pulley got stuck on the forks ;) Full speed down the street - no stopping and no steering. Had to choke it out with a ID card to get it to stop. Great fun! You should restore your Grandfather's tractor :)
Fantastic!! I am a chemical engineer but I am learning how to be a machinist as well. Your Grandfather was an incredible man. I am building a machine shop that will be powered by steam and use the belt system that was originally used. With the supply chain problems and working with obsolete machines and tractors . I wanted to be able ti make my own parts.
Wonderful video. What a great home build - a real prize.
Thanks for sharing, Rex, and Paul. My dad, and his brothers, made stuff like that too. More skill than money causes people to be creative. All the best to you and your father.
That means a lot. This video didn't get a lot of views, but people seems to really dig the story. Thanks!
building your own tractors was a common thing in east Germany back in the day, a lot of them had only three wheels (two in the front and one in the back) and would turn with the single hind wheel, there'd be a bicycle chain connecting the steering wheel with the rear wheel to do this.
also that mower you showed is actually still very popular in Germany (although the design has been modernised a bit, you can actually turn the handlebars sideways when pulling a cart so you can walk next to it instead of between the cart and the mower) you can replace the mower bit with a shield or even a snow blower during winter as well.
many people who own livestock use them because they actually CUT the grass instead of just slapping it really hard, this is important because many animals just won't eat grass you mow with a spinning "blade" type of mower. also public services use it for mowing in places where they don't mow too often because they can deal with really tall grass and even brush to some extent.
your dad Rocks, so does his dad!
The cord that you have to wrap around the starter was exactly like our garden tractor. It's been 45 years since I've seen that ! I forgot about how that worked until now. It was on my grandfathers garden tractor in the early mid 70s. RIP Pappy. Martin Cole 1918-2008. Helmut Kolh's 5th cousin.
Now i know, you come from a family who figured it out long time before us watching you on youtube. Thanks Rex fo sharing, Your dad is very sweet and also sounds like someone who knows engineering. God bless him and your family.. respect and Regards from pakistan
Amazing video, just the sort of thing my grandad would have done. More like this please Rex
What a treat! Thanks for sharing the story and the technology! You should take it and do a restoration!
Awesome trek through time. My father and grandfather did these exact types of things to save a buck. We had a black walnut hull remover made from an old lawn tractor engine, transmission and rear end. One tire was partially deflated and had tire chains on it to pinch the raw nut between it and a wooden ramp we rolled them down. After the peeled nuts, and hulls slid down the ramp to an awaiting tarp to be sorted then the tarp was dragged into the sun for the nuts to dry for a week or two then "squirreled" away for storage in our old cool basement. We also had an old Farmall tractor that had a 283 Chevy engine and manual transmission coupled to the tractor transmission to drag firewood and, well, whatever we needed to pull or drag. Great story Rex, loved it.
I can’t believe I missed this one. What a great video!! I wish I spent time to make a video like this and interview my Dad or Grandpa! I’m sure you’re planning to but I would make sure to save this video in a couple different places and keep it forever. Your kids are going to love and cherish this video someday!
Love it! 🥰👊🏼👏🏼
This brings back so many memories. My Grandpa was a tool & die man in Ohio at the Westinghouse plant. He had many of the machines you mentioned in his garage. Including a huge metal lathe...at least I remember it being huge, but then I was only about 8 years old. Everything from my past seems much smaller now. I seem to remember a garden tractor that he used to till his garden. Probably very similar to your Grandfather's. I remember having to shut off our lawn mower the same way, with a screw driver. I also remember accidentally touching the steel shaft and the jolt I got. Never did that again. LOL! Fun video Rex, I envy your trips into the past.
Yeah! It's funny how I didn't really appreciate this stuff when I was a kid. It was just normal. But now that I live somewhere else and I make things for a living, I see how my family history is solid gold. There's so much knowledge and so many tools just sitting around. I'm lucky that I've realized what I have while my folks are still around to share the past with me.
Hey Gil: You've been a huge supporter of my channel since the very beginning and I thought you might be interested in my new patreon page. Since I don't really make money from CZcams, I'm going to be increasingly shifting my focus towards making a community on Patreon. My patrons will get access to videos a week early, they'll get exclusive content, and I'm going to be very interested in feedback and suggestions when it comes directly from patrons. Anyway, I'm only asking 4 or 5 of my viewers directly if they'd like to support the channel, but your name was at the top of my list. You can see me page here:
www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
Thanks!
My friend and I built a go kart based on one of those two wheel garden tractors back in 1967. Construction lumber frame. Wooden steering wheel on a pipe with a coffee can on the pipe, and cable wrapped around the can running to two pulleys and then to the front axle. No brakes of course. I remember we messed with the gearing and got it up to 15-20 MPH.
I still have my grandfather's old walk behind tractor. He always called it a wheel horse though it was not of that brand name. The attachments are long since gone (he sold most of them before I got it) and I have never tried to start it.
They are still available to buy new just not as popular as riding versions nowadays.
I think they still think they are sometimes used in really uneven terrain and small plots. A friend had s old one and it could do alot but was heavy work on the shoulders. A Swedish company actually make a similar device with tracks and a crane for small scale logging called Järnhästen "the iron horse"
Going back and seeing your older content and I find this gem!
Thank you for sharing your family and your history! Your father seems like a fun loving guy. Wonderful sense of humor, so welling too help. He (and your mama) seems to have raised a wonderful well balanced person. You two must have a wonderful relationship.
You're very kind!
thank you Rex
Rex, if your dad is still with us, and it's safe for everyone, I would LOVE to see more vids featuring your dad. I don't care how mundane the subject. LOVE IT.
After watching many of your videos on the simplicity of DIY Woodworking ideas, then watching this of your Grandfather's Ingenuity, shows that you are indeed standing on the shoulders of giants. Awesome history lesson. I've used one of those walking tractors many miles as a youth.
Those sickle bars of death are still in use today. Cutting grass for seed or hay, nothing can beat them. The machines are larger, with climate controlled cabs, but the cutter mechanism is identical. Properly tuned you can shave a hay field like you were using a razor.
Fantastic video, I enjoy all your videos but this one has to be the best. The tractor is brilliant but your Dad steals the show. Thanks for sharing.
I'm really glad you liked it. This is one of my favorite videos to re-watch and I'm kind if surprised that it's gotten so little attention. At the same time, if just a few people watch it and get something out of it, them I'm happy. Thanks for watching and commenting!
That is incredible piece of history
This takes me back to my childhood in the 1950s. Good memories. Thank you Rex. Great to meet your Dad.
That is amazing, thanks for sharing it with us! Be sure to keep it going and in the family.
Thanks! My parents' farm is full of cool stuff. I'll do more videos in the future.
I've been watching you woodworking for humans and other vids awhile now and I really enjoy them but listening to you and your father talk about your grandfather is definitely one of the best things I've seen. It's always nice to hear the stories of an older generation to remind us how far we have come as a people how much life is easier bc the men and women of the past work hard to give us better futures.
I think the counterweights are from a theater fly setup. The curtains and lights on stage are all using a pulley and counterwieght system.
Would be cool to see this thing running and driving again
One of the best videos I've watched here on CZcams in the last 3 months. Quite a treat!
This was really fantastic. I loved it!
Thank you and greetings from Portugal.
I like this one a lot, too. I wish it got more views. Thanks for watching!
Wow ... the things that our ancestors knew and we have forgotten. This calls to my mind stories I've heard about my great-great-grandfather who apparently built houses in Utah with gingerbread trim, and then helped lay bricks for a tabernacle. I don't know much about him except for his skill as a carpenter, but it makes me wish that my family had found a way to carry on his skills.
German precision engneering. Your dad and Grandpa are cool.
I'm glad you think so. I never really knew my grandpa, but my dad is a lot of fun and know a ton of stuff.
"wouldn't accept anything less" when talking about how tight the steering system was lol
You’re right, it was a great story! And I can just see you on it. Your Dad even tried to ramp up the speed when he was a kid! Sooo cool. Thanks for the Story Dad!!
I enjoyed that one. That was heart warming, thanks for sharing.
My late father was a machinist and quite a capable carpenter, who could make or mend pretty much anything. People had to, money was usually tight and things had to last. I watched him and asked questions, so I was raised with a “have-a-go” attitude. Sadly, my own son is part of our disposable society and couldn’t even fix a dripping tap.
Great video ... thanks ... and you should get that running again!
My Dad and I are already planning the sequel for the summer when I go visit again. We'll get it going on camera!
A truly amazing video, loads of fine attention to extreme detail and intensely interesting, but most of all highly respectful to the man who put this machine together, we have lost good people like this. Congratulations, I was very taken by this video. Happy Christmas fro South Armagh in Ireland.
What an excellent family story. Thanks to you and your father for sharing this. And its incredible to see that its still in the family, heirlooms dont seem to have a place in todays society. Im a Connecticut native as well, born and raised in Westbrook. I actually worked on an ambulance in Greenwich before moving to Mississippi in 2011.
Thanks so much for sharing this, this video is absolutely amazing :) your dad is lovely, and opa sounds like he was a great man, too! I'm sure he'd be proud of the craftsman you've become.
It's my great regret that he died before he could see me follow him into craft work. I was just 6 when he passed.
awesome story
Thank you for this. I love stories like this! They made this country.
You should restore and update that!
P.S. I still use a sickle bar mower on my pasture
This was a great video. Very cool story.
That was simply awesome. You obviously have a fantastic relationship with your dad, and your Grandad seems like he was an awesome man. Your presentation is so natural and relaxed and genuine. So rare to see these days.
Thanks!
thank you for introducing me to your dad and grand dad. it warmed my heart and took me home
I live in Hamburg/Germany and i am a huge fan of your chanel. Greetings from Hamburg :-)
I'm from New England as well and this is just peak Yankee.
That is so cool Rex, Thank you for sharing. I hope you got to know your grand father and got to spend time with him. I was raised by my grand parents, and they taught me stuff today's kids will never know. Hope your dad is doing well... My grandfather was a machinist too...
Rex it was great to meet your dad and enjoy your memories of your Opa.
Very cool toy to have as a kid. And it sure lasts a lot longer than a Chinese quad :)
Agreed! I had so much fun with it, but I didn't even appreciate what a genius my grandfather was until decades after I stopped using it.
Tres belle piece de patrimoine familial qui a du allumé l etincelle de ta vision créative.beatiful mind
I love it! I wish microtractors were a thing today. I joke with my neighbor about building a go-kart for my 6yo that can slowly become such a beast when he outgrows it as a yard toy.
Do it! Make a video!
Thank ya' for sharing the fond one in a million story. Clearly blessed to have had folks as such.To have had the. opportunity to have grown up ridding the tractor in which I could only imagine what you did as a child...I know I wood [sic] ha! Having a mission to steal the Panzer to save some American's from bloodshed in the dead of the Bulge...Oh no! He's shot! He climbs out the Panzer mortally wounded, stands on the turret, his knees buckle, and with the famous little boy twist of the torso (to keep from landing flat on your face, [ IDK perhaps with snow, I could pull it off] he plucks to the earth... Rex, I can see where ya' got your epic work ethic from. So blessed, keep the faith.
So cute and wholesome
So cool :) I think this would be a great restoration project for any possible small Rexes that might want to drive it about ;)
That's a good idea!
orcasea59 might add a brake, though...;)
Man, I loved this video. Reminds me of my grandfather. Thanks Rex.
OH MAN I LOVE IT .
Lovely farm
We're very lucky. It was a great place to grow up.
Brilliant man
What a hoot! Love that clutch.
My opa was a genius!
Very cool, thanks for sharing.
What a great video and piece of family history, thank you for sharing this with us all Rex. Your Dad seems like a great guy and I'm sure your Grandfather was too.
Garden Aid walk behind drive train. Ratchet hubs look Simplicity. I just rebuilt that same model of Briggs engine, but under the Sears name. Not a vary common engine.
I've watched alot of your videos but I really enjoyed this one
Man, I’ve been following for a while, I’m sad it took me this long to get around to this video. One of my favorites.
Next episode, recondition it and start it! Clean the carby, replace the diaphragm and spark plug. She'll be right!!
I'd love to! My Dad's a wizard with this stuff. He can have it running again in an afternoon.
Rex Krueger so make a movie of him doing it. That’d be awesome!
1 dollar in 1914 would have been a bit more than 25 dollars in 2020. He made the equivalent of 100 dollars a week. That's pretty good money for getting paid to learn while living at home. Wish we had more apprentice based jobs in the modern economy.
Your grandfather had excellent taste in tools.
Toolmakers created civilization as we know it. Remind engineers of this fact.
Nice video.
Stay safe, Joe Z
"come a little more into the frame for me"
*Turns camera so his dad is on the side of the frame again*
Greetings from Germany
I have a David Bradley two tractor and I can see how it could be done. Course I am 34 and still use and run mine every yr in Mississippi. Course I learned how to work on this old thing in west heaven ct lol
I lived in West Haven for 4 years!! Small world.
Just found your channel and Subscribed. Really nice tractor
According to the bureau of labor statistics inflation calculator, $2 in March of 1914 had the equivalent buying power of about $50 in March of 2018! Meaning that, if he was working 56 hours a week, and he was paid $4 a week, he would have been making about $0.07 an hour, which is about $1.76 an hour today!
Wow, that's really not much money! And for a skilled trade, too. My dad says he always thought my grandfather should have been able to make more money for being pretty damn good at a useful trade.
12:13 That is hilarious :D Cannot stop laughing when it comes into my mind throughout the day.
This is pretty inspiring, actually - we're at my MIL's during the pandemic, and I need to hay an 8 acre field. I've got a little kubota (contemporary to your Opa's lawn tractor) and I need to manage a sickle bar mower...
also, growing up on the shoreline not far from this, we had a British Seagull outboard motor for a dinghy which operated roughly the same way as your little briggs and stratton
So cool
There’s a CZcamsr named mustie1 that could probably have both those machines up and running like new for you!
Mr. Krueger,
You should restore that piece of history to running order as a tribute to your Opa ( sp? ).
We might!
Rex Krueger
Mr. Krueger,
I love watching your videos, but I'll be honest. I'll probably never build anything.
Are you sure that is your dad? He has hair on his head.
It is too funny. It seams that we were both in Connecticut around the same time. And now we are both in Ohio.
Great video.